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Dueling Six Demons: A Dangerous Clique Novel
The CIA’s Dangerous the spies that the bad guys worry about, and the other good guys whisper about.
As Katrina Leonidivna and Alec Flanagan acclimate to the stress of new parenthood—only marginally easier than thwarting international terrorism—the rest of the Dangerous Clique team stares down middle age, yearning for a saner balance between home life and hunting down threats to the innocent.
For the first time, the Clique has even endeavored to pluck some talented new recruits from the CIA’s training ground to join their rambunctious, officially unacknowledged ranks. But deep down, the team worries that no one is as capable of bringing the world’s notorious bad guys to justice as they are.
Back on the job, Katrina and Alec return to an Agency whose morale has hit rock bottom after a disastrous hack, possibly by a powerful new breed of supercomputer, shaking the intelligence world to its core. The United States isn’t the only victim of the explosive breach, which threatens to obliterate the very notion of online secrecy and send the world back to a pre-Internet age existence in which nothing digital can be trusted, and the Internet itself faces extinction.
As if all that wasn’t enough, the Clique is gathering clues—to the Rationalists on the team’s and their bureaucratic higher-ups’ dismay—about a strange, supernatural, and possibly even demonic link between their former adversaries that seems to defy any logical explanation and may be lurking far closer to home than they realize.
Stretching from the battlefields of Ukraine, to the bizarre streets of Transnistria, to the beaches of the Maldives, to the skyscrapers of Taiwan, DUELING SIX DEMONS is the Dangerous Clique at the top of their action-packed, witty, take-no-prisoners form.
Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent of National Review and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. In recent years, he’s reported from notorious trouble spots like wartime Ukraine, Taiwan, Transnistria, and Des Moines, Iowa.
As Katrina Leonidivna and Alec Flanagan acclimate to the stress of new parenthood—only marginally easier than thwarting international terrorism—the rest of the Dangerous Clique team stares down middle age, yearning for a saner balance between home life and hunting down threats to the innocent.
For the first time, the Clique has even endeavored to pluck some talented new recruits from the CIA’s training ground to join their rambunctious, officially unacknowledged ranks. But deep down, the team worries that no one is as capable of bringing the world’s notorious bad guys to justice as they are.
Back on the job, Katrina and Alec return to an Agency whose morale has hit rock bottom after a disastrous hack, possibly by a powerful new breed of supercomputer, shaking the intelligence world to its core. The United States isn’t the only victim of the explosive breach, which threatens to obliterate the very notion of online secrecy and send the world back to a pre-Internet age existence in which nothing digital can be trusted, and the Internet itself faces extinction.
As if all that wasn’t enough, the Clique is gathering clues—to the Rationalists on the team’s and their bureaucratic higher-ups’ dismay—about a strange, supernatural, and possibly even demonic link between their former adversaries that seems to defy any logical explanation and may be lurking far closer to home than they realize.
Stretching from the battlefields of Ukraine, to the bizarre streets of Transnistria, to the beaches of the Maldives, to the skyscrapers of Taiwan, DUELING SIX DEMONS is the Dangerous Clique at the top of their action-packed, witty, take-no-prisoners form.
Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent of National Review and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. In recent years, he’s reported from notorious trouble spots like wartime Ukraine, Taiwan, Transnistria, and Des Moines, Iowa.
- GenresFiction
242 pages, Paperback
Published May 31, 2024
17 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Jim Geraghty
7 books24 followersJim Geraghty is a conservative blogger and regular contributor to National Review Online and National Review, and a former reporter for States News Service.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 30, 2024
I've read the entire Dangerous Clique series. I pre-ordered this latest entry as soon as it was announced (likely I was Buyer #10 or 11 lol). I had read the previous entries as they were published, so I wanted to come into this one with a fresh perspective (and a Twitter poll I ran was overwhelmingly in favor of re-reading the series first). I waited a few days to allow this story to percolate in my mind, and now I can turn this review loose upon the masses.
Mr. Geraghty has taken the time to put together a lived-in, well-crafted world, one where, like ours, nothing is off the table in terms of possibilities. Things do not simply happen for the sake of plot contrivance, nor do they grind along quietly with spasms of fight scenes - everything, across this storyline from start to finish, comes together naturally and with great care. Between Two Scorpions, Hunting Four Horsemen, the short story Saving The Devil, and Gathering Five Storms have all carefully woven together this tapestry of the lives of the Dangerous Clique and their exploits.
I will keep this spoiler-free, but suffice to say, things have been building and come to a crescendo at the very end. Various plot threads and events that occurred across all of his previous books (including The Weed Agency!) find some level of attention if not resolution. It is not merely a well-written series of novels, although that would be a feat in and of itself; it is a grounded, realistic romp across the globe, filled with nuggets and bits of real-world information about things the characters encounter. Tom Clancy used this mixture of accuracy and dramatic license to create the Ryanverse, and Mr. Geraghty uses this same mixture throughout his books to magnificent effect.
In my prior reviews, of each of the prior stories, I've mentioned the pop culture references. Here too, they are present but, as before, not overwhelming. Some people might criticize including them at all, but they're necessary for any story, to help ground it in our real world, to act as a sort of pressure valve, and to throw an extra helping of coal on the fires of our imaginations. It's always in service to the story, fleshing it out and filling in spaces that we wouldn't even have considered otherwise.
This overall story could go on for another ten novels or it could wrap up with the next story, and either way it would be without feeling tired and overdone, and that's what I love so much about it. It's like Berman-era Star Trek: it can be taken bits at a time or it can be taken start to finish, and either way it would work. That, I believe, is the mark of good fictional universes - the stories stand on their own AND work well together.
Anyway, I've rambled on too long; take some time, and go buy this book (and the rest of the series!), and enjoy it for yourself!
Mr. Geraghty has taken the time to put together a lived-in, well-crafted world, one where, like ours, nothing is off the table in terms of possibilities. Things do not simply happen for the sake of plot contrivance, nor do they grind along quietly with spasms of fight scenes - everything, across this storyline from start to finish, comes together naturally and with great care. Between Two Scorpions, Hunting Four Horsemen, the short story Saving The Devil, and Gathering Five Storms have all carefully woven together this tapestry of the lives of the Dangerous Clique and their exploits.
I will keep this spoiler-free, but suffice to say, things have been building and come to a crescendo at the very end. Various plot threads and events that occurred across all of his previous books (including The Weed Agency!) find some level of attention if not resolution. It is not merely a well-written series of novels, although that would be a feat in and of itself; it is a grounded, realistic romp across the globe, filled with nuggets and bits of real-world information about things the characters encounter. Tom Clancy used this mixture of accuracy and dramatic license to create the Ryanverse, and Mr. Geraghty uses this same mixture throughout his books to magnificent effect.
In my prior reviews, of each of the prior stories, I've mentioned the pop culture references. Here too, they are present but, as before, not overwhelming. Some people might criticize including them at all, but they're necessary for any story, to help ground it in our real world, to act as a sort of pressure valve, and to throw an extra helping of coal on the fires of our imaginations. It's always in service to the story, fleshing it out and filling in spaces that we wouldn't even have considered otherwise.
This overall story could go on for another ten novels or it could wrap up with the next story, and either way it would be without feeling tired and overdone, and that's what I love so much about it. It's like Berman-era Star Trek: it can be taken bits at a time or it can be taken start to finish, and either way it would work. That, I believe, is the mark of good fictional universes - the stories stand on their own AND work well together.
Anyway, I've rambled on too long; take some time, and go buy this book (and the rest of the series!), and enjoy it for yourself!
September 4, 2024
I am an unabashed Jim Geraghty fan, been reading his stuff for literally decades. (First reference here at Pun Salad was when the blog was only a few weeks old back in 2005; unfortunately the link no longer works.) When he branched into writing fiction. I was on board. My reports on his previous books: The Weed Agency; Between Two Scorpions; Hunting Four Horsemen; and Gathering Five Storms.
I'm sorry to report that this one falls solidly in the "wish I liked it better" category. That's me, I may just have been grumpy, you can read all kinds of rave reviews at Amazon.
It starts out in roughly present-day Ukraine, where Alec and Katrina, members of the CIA's loose-cannon "Dangerous Clique" are off to interview a heavily-tattooed terrorist, held in custody. After nearly getting blown up by a Russian bomb, they arrive at the prison… only to find the terrorist has been brutally slain.
Then nothing much happens except talk, talk, talk for way too long. And I'm not sure they ever figured out who killed that guy. I could have missed it.
Eventually, the main plot point is revealed: a working, practical quantum computer has been developed and is initially used to break through the cryptographic safeguards on CIA computers blow the cover identities of its spies all around the globe. Including our heroes, putting them in even more danger than usual.
The problems I've had with Geraghty's previous books continue here: clunky dialogue, too much reliance on wisecracks and pop-culture references, yet another ludicrous plot. The CIA mole (who's been completely obvious to readers for a long time) is finally revealed to our protagonists, and they are surprised for some reason. And it seems to have become a trademark: a final action-packed showdown in a skyscraper, this one in Taipei.
But this time the plot has weird seemingly-supernatural overtones. Really? Well, it's left as a loose end, so I guess we'll see more in the next installment.
Which, yes, I plan on buying.
July 4, 2024
I have read the entire Dangerous Clique series (so far). I've enjoyed every book. "Dueling Six Demons" is no exception. The novel takes the reader from northern Virigina and Washington, D.C. to Moldova, then Argentina, then to Taiwan, and back to Washington. In the midst of the action, the amusing banter, and the exotic locales, Geraghty explores weighty issues. One of them is the source of the genuine evil we see in the world, evil that has always been with us. Another is how we should view our own country. Geraghty acknowledges that our leaders are, and have been, flawed, but maintains that whatever we might think of Donald Trump or Joe Biden, or anyone else, our country is fundamentally good, a place where our people and their families may live and prosper. It's a nice thing to contemplate on Independence Day.
Five Stars.
Five Stars.
June 23, 2024
Another fun adventure in the series. Ok, killing international terrorists might not seem like fun but there’s enough humor to lighten it up more than your typical spy novel. The book can probably stand alone but you’ll enjoy it more if you have read the previous books in the series. Geraghty manages to make the story current and make the reader a little scared of the possibilities that might throw the world into chaos.
July 21, 2024
Another quick, fun read. Now back to waiting for the next one!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews