Cover image of "Bloodmoney," a novel about a top-secret American spy network

Since 1987, David Ignatius has written a total of a dozen outstanding spy novels. At the Washington Post, where he writes about foreign affairs, he has gained an immense store of knowledge about US activity abroad, both aboveground and below. It shows in every one of his novels. Here, I’m writing about one of the books he wrote about midway in his writing career to date, Bloodmoney is fiction, of course, but I have no doubt that it reflects reality today, even if the premise may be on the fanciful side. That premise is that, with the CIA in decline after decades of embarrassing revelations, some of them pointing to illegal activity, the White House creates an off-the-books spy network. A network of field officers working outside the CIA and under the deepest cover carry out operations devised to address America’s strategic aims abroad. It’s a thriller, all right, and propulsive from beginning to end.

An operation so secret no one can penetrate it . . . until someone does

Operating out of a fictional international music rights business in Los Angeles called The Hit Parade LLC, Jeffrey Gertz manages hundreds of field officers under nonofficial cover placed in businesses around the world. Gertz funds this hugely expensive operation literally off-the-books trough murky business activities. One of the pleasures of the novel is learning just what that funding is and how it came about. But the action that makes this novel so electric begins early as one of Gertz’s charges is murdered in Pakistan.

Bloodmoney by David Ignatius (2011) 384 pages ★★★★★

Photo of central Islamabad, where much of the action in this novel about a top-secret American spy network takes place
This is the picturesque side of Islamabad, Pakistan’s populous capital city. Much of the action in this novel takes place elsewhere on its busy streets. Image: Asad Zaidi – Bloomberg

Somehow, someone with evil intent has learned who Hit Parade operative tHoward Egan really is and where and exactly when he will be. This was supposed to be impossible. And Gertz assigns a young former CIA counterintelligence officer to investigate. Her name is Sophie Marx, and she comes as close to being the protagonist of Bloodmoney as anyone. We follow her careful steps to learn the truth, all the while other principal actors in the drama come into the story—in Pakistan, London, and Washington DC. And the pace picks up when other officers in the network begin to die around the world.

It’s impossible for me to know whether the off-the-books network Ignatius builds his story around is in any way grounded on fact. But there is no doubt in my mind that his portrayal of relations within the CIA and the deployment of deep-cover field officers is, indeed, factual. Bloodmoney, like so many of his other superb spy novels, is both an exciting story and an informative venture into the world of contemporary espionage as practiced by the CIA.

About the author

Photo of David Ignatius, author of this novel about an off-the-books American spy network
David Ignatius. Image: author’s website

Bloodmoney is the eighth of the twelve spy novels David Ignatius has written since 1986. In his day job, he writes a twice-weekly column for the Washington Post. He is widely regarded as one of the most eminent journalists in the nation’s capital. He was born in 1950 and educated at Harvard and the University of Cambridge. Ignatius is married and the father of three daughters.

I regard David Ignatius as one of the most outstanding spy novelists writing today. He’s fully the equal of others who have sold more books and gained greater prestige. I’ve reviewed seven of his other novels, all but one of which (the latest)I enjoyed a great deal:

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