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The Snares
A Punjabi American lawyer at a mysterious new federal intelligence agency fights to keep his career, marriage, and morality intact in this gripping post-9/11 drama from a thrilling new voice.
“Are you happy where you are? Toiling in the trenches of the Justice Department?”
In the waning months of George W. Bush’s presidency, Neel Chima, a former Naval officer and federal prosecutor, is recruited to join a new federal intelligence agency—one with greater-than-usual powers and fewer-than-usual restrictions. Neel soon finds himself intimately involved in the surveillance of domestic terrorism suspects and the selection of foreigners for drone assassination—men who often look just like his Sikh family members. As both his ambitions and moral qualms mount, he is drawn further and further away from his wife and two young daughters. When he makes a critical mistake at work, he is left vulnerable to shadowy figures in the intelligence world who seek to use him in their own, still more radical counterterrorism missions. If he agrees, the world of power will open up even wider to him. If he doesn’t . . .
Is Neel an insider or an outsider? The hunter or the hunted? An idealist or a mercenary? What truths, and whose lives, is he willing to sacrifice? The novel plunges readers into the human turmoil behind the faceless operations—the torture, secret assassinations, and drone strikes—of the American security state, creating an eye-opening meditation on morality, violence, and the price of a human soul.
“Are you happy where you are? Toiling in the trenches of the Justice Department?”
In the waning months of George W. Bush’s presidency, Neel Chima, a former Naval officer and federal prosecutor, is recruited to join a new federal intelligence agency—one with greater-than-usual powers and fewer-than-usual restrictions. Neel soon finds himself intimately involved in the surveillance of domestic terrorism suspects and the selection of foreigners for drone assassination—men who often look just like his Sikh family members. As both his ambitions and moral qualms mount, he is drawn further and further away from his wife and two young daughters. When he makes a critical mistake at work, he is left vulnerable to shadowy figures in the intelligence world who seek to use him in their own, still more radical counterterrorism missions. If he agrees, the world of power will open up even wider to him. If he doesn’t . . .
Is Neel an insider or an outsider? The hunter or the hunted? An idealist or a mercenary? What truths, and whose lives, is he willing to sacrifice? The novel plunges readers into the human turmoil behind the faceless operations—the torture, secret assassinations, and drone strikes—of the American security state, creating an eye-opening meditation on morality, violence, and the price of a human soul.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
July 21, 2025
it is hard to reckon with the fact that the country i live in has committed such horrible acts against so many innocent people, and this book didn't make it any easier.
we follow a truly bad person, a neglectful father/son/husband, a cheater, a greedy jerk who commits whatever act he thinks will get him ahead and feels regret only when mistakes cost his ambition (without care for lives). he never changes — not really growing any worse, but certainly not getting better. things just happen to him and he's himself.
in other words it's exactly who you think would be behind civilian-harming drone strikes.
so i'm not very sure of the point of it all.
bottom line: bad guy does bad stuff.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
we follow a truly bad person, a neglectful father/son/husband, a cheater, a greedy jerk who commits whatever act he thinks will get him ahead and feels regret only when mistakes cost his ambition (without care for lives). he never changes — not really growing any worse, but certainly not getting better. things just happen to him and he's himself.
in other words it's exactly who you think would be behind civilian-harming drone strikes.
so i'm not very sure of the point of it all.
bottom line: bad guy does bad stuff.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
January 22, 2025
This book was very good. A terrifying account of how a "good" man can do terrible things and also how a "good" country can betray its values in the name of security. Grewal-Kök crafts a tense narrative that pulls you deep into the murky world of post-9/11 intelligence work, where morality is not just compromised but weaponized. Dark Waters.....
September 5, 2025
This was a captivating debut. We follow Neel Chima, a lawyer who is recruited into a new intelligence agency. Neel is flawed and overly ambitious and this quickly becomes his downfall. The story explores corruption, power and how far people will go to satisfy their own goals.
Neel starts out with a life that seems on the face of it to be good and satisfying. But it is not enough, he wants more. As a Sikh man in post 9/11 American, he perhaps feels he needs to confirm his patriotism that bit more than his fellow Americans. But when the targets of the new initiatives are innocent people at what point will he draw the line?
Neel is not a particularly likeable character, he drinks, he cheats, he is not emotionally or physically available for his family. However, I did feel for him and the trap he falls into. The author really gave a sense of his spiral and his blurring of morality.
I thought the book was well written and nicely paced. Neel's character was well developed and I thought the author explored the political climate at the time of post 9/11 and what was deemed to be acceptable in a thought-provoking way. History repeats and yet we never seem to learn the lesson.
With thanks to the author, publisher and Novel Tours for providing a copy of the book to review.
Neel starts out with a life that seems on the face of it to be good and satisfying. But it is not enough, he wants more. As a Sikh man in post 9/11 American, he perhaps feels he needs to confirm his patriotism that bit more than his fellow Americans. But when the targets of the new initiatives are innocent people at what point will he draw the line?
Neel is not a particularly likeable character, he drinks, he cheats, he is not emotionally or physically available for his family. However, I did feel for him and the trap he falls into. The author really gave a sense of his spiral and his blurring of morality.
I thought the book was well written and nicely paced. Neel's character was well developed and I thought the author explored the political climate at the time of post 9/11 and what was deemed to be acceptable in a thought-provoking way. History repeats and yet we never seem to learn the lesson.
With thanks to the author, publisher and Novel Tours for providing a copy of the book to review.
May 12, 2025
deeply researched and well-written, the snares is a densely-packed spy thriller following a punjabi-american intelligence officer and lawyer struggling with ambition, identity, and power during the height of the war on terror.
grewal-kök was excellent at building up the tragedy of the main character’s inner turmoil, mistakes, and eventual fall from grace. in both small details and larger plot structure, this book aptly lays bare certain moral dilemmas, ideologies, depravities, and absurdities of late 2000s american counterterrorism. specific chapters left me deeply shaken.
the first of what I expect will be more excellent books by this debut author.
grewal-kök was excellent at building up the tragedy of the main character’s inner turmoil, mistakes, and eventual fall from grace. in both small details and larger plot structure, this book aptly lays bare certain moral dilemmas, ideologies, depravities, and absurdities of late 2000s american counterterrorism. specific chapters left me deeply shaken.
the first of what I expect will be more excellent books by this debut author.
December 12, 2025
Timely af
April 13, 2025
Very readable, moved quickly. Main character was deeply unlikable, despite being an interesting choice for a spy/intelligence story. Just made a series of terrible choices until the book ended. Not sure what to make of it.
Read
March 15, 2025I read enough to realise that there is absolutely nothing “Canadian” about this novel - and there could easily have been! (Sad commentary that!)
That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the writing in that which I did read.
I have way too much on my TBR pile at this point in time to be spending time on anything that doesn’t celebrate or represent Canada or the Canadian world view… after all, I am the self proclaimed “Queen” of the “I Read Canadian” club.
And let’s face it - look at the times we are in… this can be part of my personal boycott against the nonsense that currently emanates from south of the 49th.
Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for granting me access to an early digital review copy.
DNF
That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the writing in that which I did read.
I have way too much on my TBR pile at this point in time to be spending time on anything that doesn’t celebrate or represent Canada or the Canadian world view… after all, I am the self proclaimed “Queen” of the “I Read Canadian” club.
And let’s face it - look at the times we are in… this can be part of my personal boycott against the nonsense that currently emanates from south of the 49th.
Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for granting me access to an early digital review copy.
DNF
March 29, 2025
I was recently granted the opportunity to read the first book by the author (Rav Grewal-Kok). I was allowed to read an ARC version of the novel by the Author, his publishing company (Penguin Random House), and the fine folks at Net Galley in return for an honest review.
The main character, Neel Chima, is a deputy assistant attorney general under George W. Bush, Neel Chima is living the good life when he gets a phone call from a mysterious CIA official offering him the job. Neel has a loving wife, two adorable kids, and a house paid for by his rich father-in-law. But the lure of an important post at the Freedom Center, which runs parallel to the CIA in targeting suspected terrorists, is too much to resist.
While America is still reeling from the events of September 11th, Neel Chima is recruited into a new, ruthless federal intelligence agency – eager to seek revenge for their recent tragedy.
Chima is particularly attracted to accepting this opportunity as he feels this might be a chance to recover from some of the perceived discrimination that he faced as a first-generation American citizen when he served in the US Navy as a crew member on a Grumman EA-6B Prowler - which was/is a twin-engine, four-seat, mid-wing electronic-warfare aircraft. Operated by both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy between 1971 and 2019.
His role in this organization is as a Deputy Director, where he has the final say on intelligence that is combined with that of the other seventeen intelligence to better target the increased drone operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan against the Taliban.
After innocents in a Pakistani tribal region are mistakenly killed in a drone attack based on his cold analysis, his superiors convince him it’s all part of the job—that “the beauty of war by data is that it takes the moral question out of the discourse.”
Since January 2001, multiple drone strikes have been conducted Afghanistan by the United States government in Afghanistan. These strikes began during the administration of the United States President George W. Bush.
Between 2004 and 2018, the United States government expanded these operations by attacking thousands of targets in northwest Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) operated by the United States Air Force under the operational control of the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Most of these attacks were on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (now part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province) along the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan. These strikes began during the administration of United States President George W. Bush, and increased substantially under his successor Barack Obama.
As part of his duties as Deputy Director of The Freedom Centre, he is sent on a trip to Thailand to meet with the leaders of the intelligence organizations of some allied nations. It is during this trip to Thailand, that an incident happens leading to the mishandling of some government documents (as an aside, most government documents are deemed to be more secure than civilian documents) . But following an FBI investigation into his drunken mishandling of top security papers during a trip to Thailand, he’s secretly pressured into targeting an outspoken young Muslim in Brooklyn and his life begins to implode. He is left vulnerable to shadowy figures in the intelligence world who seek to use him in their own, still more radical counterterrorism missions. If he agrees, the world of power will open up even wider to him. If he doesn’t . . .
On my self-determined five-star scale, I would give this novel a solid three and three-quarter stars (which rounds up to four stars on Goodreads) as I found that this novel plunges readers into the human turmoil behind the faceless operations—the torture, secret assassinations, and drone strikes—of the American security state, creating an eye-opening meditation on morality, violence, and the price of a human soul and represents a chilling introduction to intelligence agency thrillers.
As with all my literary ramblings, this is just my five cents worth.
The main character, Neel Chima, is a deputy assistant attorney general under George W. Bush, Neel Chima is living the good life when he gets a phone call from a mysterious CIA official offering him the job. Neel has a loving wife, two adorable kids, and a house paid for by his rich father-in-law. But the lure of an important post at the Freedom Center, which runs parallel to the CIA in targeting suspected terrorists, is too much to resist.
While America is still reeling from the events of September 11th, Neel Chima is recruited into a new, ruthless federal intelligence agency – eager to seek revenge for their recent tragedy.
Chima is particularly attracted to accepting this opportunity as he feels this might be a chance to recover from some of the perceived discrimination that he faced as a first-generation American citizen when he served in the US Navy as a crew member on a Grumman EA-6B Prowler - which was/is a twin-engine, four-seat, mid-wing electronic-warfare aircraft. Operated by both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy between 1971 and 2019.
His role in this organization is as a Deputy Director, where he has the final say on intelligence that is combined with that of the other seventeen intelligence to better target the increased drone operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan against the Taliban.
After innocents in a Pakistani tribal region are mistakenly killed in a drone attack based on his cold analysis, his superiors convince him it’s all part of the job—that “the beauty of war by data is that it takes the moral question out of the discourse.”
Since January 2001, multiple drone strikes have been conducted Afghanistan by the United States government in Afghanistan. These strikes began during the administration of the United States President George W. Bush.
Between 2004 and 2018, the United States government expanded these operations by attacking thousands of targets in northwest Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) operated by the United States Air Force under the operational control of the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Most of these attacks were on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (now part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province) along the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan. These strikes began during the administration of United States President George W. Bush, and increased substantially under his successor Barack Obama.
As part of his duties as Deputy Director of The Freedom Centre, he is sent on a trip to Thailand to meet with the leaders of the intelligence organizations of some allied nations. It is during this trip to Thailand, that an incident happens leading to the mishandling of some government documents (as an aside, most government documents are deemed to be more secure than civilian documents) . But following an FBI investigation into his drunken mishandling of top security papers during a trip to Thailand, he’s secretly pressured into targeting an outspoken young Muslim in Brooklyn and his life begins to implode. He is left vulnerable to shadowy figures in the intelligence world who seek to use him in their own, still more radical counterterrorism missions. If he agrees, the world of power will open up even wider to him. If he doesn’t . . .
On my self-determined five-star scale, I would give this novel a solid three and three-quarter stars (which rounds up to four stars on Goodreads) as I found that this novel plunges readers into the human turmoil behind the faceless operations—the torture, secret assassinations, and drone strikes—of the American security state, creating an eye-opening meditation on morality, violence, and the price of a human soul and represents a chilling introduction to intelligence agency thrillers.
As with all my literary ramblings, this is just my five cents worth.
March 29, 2025
He is asked to trade in his ordinary career for a chance at greatness
Neel Cheema, a Punjabi-American lawyer and son of immigrant parents, has spent his life pursuing the American dream. He started his career as a naval officer and later (after 9/11) went to work as a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice. He is married to Rebecca, herself a tenured professor at Georgetown Law School and quite liberal despite her wealthy family's lineage and Republican leanings. and together they have two young daughters. Neel has achieved much in his life but is starting to feel a little burned out at the DoJ. When he gets a call from a storied figure, a man high up in the CIA known within government circles simply as the priest, he is surprised to hear that not only does this man know Neel's name, he views him as an up and comer who, given his military experience and Punjabi roots, could be of great value in the war against terrorism. He invites Neel to visit him at Langley to discuss a job offer with a newly formed intelligence agency, the Freedom Center. Compared to the work he is currently doing, this new opportunity is tempting....not only would he be doing work that truly made a difference, it could act as a springboard to a lucrative post-government career. Rebecca has her reservations about the offer....the intelligence world in the last years of President George W. Bush was wielding far-reaching powers with scaled down oversight, which made many observers nervous...but Neel accepts the job. As he embarks on his new position he is part of a program that targets individuals both in and outside of the US for observation and in some cases for actions up to and including assassination. Ambition bangs up against his moral core, and soon the work he is doing causes internal conflict a rift within his marriage and a noticeable impact on his children. When he makes an error in his recommendations to his superiors it is used as a weapon against him, pressuring him to pursue actions more extreme than he feels are warranted. Some of the people for whom he works as well as the sphere in which he is working are dragging him further into some very dark spaces, and he will have to choose between going along with what he is being asked to do or running afoul of people who can, and will, destroy his life.
The Snares is a tension-filled political thriller that looks at the world of intelligence from a new perspective, that of a man of color who despite being born an American has never felt that he "belongs". His insecurities are used to manipulate him, and his ambition may destroy the life he has worked so hard to achieve. The story takes a sharp look at a period in history that was marked by morally ambiguous activities, and the reader must sort through themes of complicit behavior, the dark side of the intelligence world and the toll that working in that sphere has on those who do the job. When idealism comes up against the uncomfortable realities of the world, what decisions get made? Which lines are acceptable to cross, and which must be held at all costs? The characters are well drawn, and the pacing tight and full of tension. Readers of authors like John Le Carré, Lauren Wilkinson and Olen Steinhauer should pick up a copy of this debut literary thriller which paints a world that is not dashing and glamorous but grey and murky. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Company for allowing me access to this sobering story in exchange for my honest review
Neel Cheema, a Punjabi-American lawyer and son of immigrant parents, has spent his life pursuing the American dream. He started his career as a naval officer and later (after 9/11) went to work as a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice. He is married to Rebecca, herself a tenured professor at Georgetown Law School and quite liberal despite her wealthy family's lineage and Republican leanings. and together they have two young daughters. Neel has achieved much in his life but is starting to feel a little burned out at the DoJ. When he gets a call from a storied figure, a man high up in the CIA known within government circles simply as the priest, he is surprised to hear that not only does this man know Neel's name, he views him as an up and comer who, given his military experience and Punjabi roots, could be of great value in the war against terrorism. He invites Neel to visit him at Langley to discuss a job offer with a newly formed intelligence agency, the Freedom Center. Compared to the work he is currently doing, this new opportunity is tempting....not only would he be doing work that truly made a difference, it could act as a springboard to a lucrative post-government career. Rebecca has her reservations about the offer....the intelligence world in the last years of President George W. Bush was wielding far-reaching powers with scaled down oversight, which made many observers nervous...but Neel accepts the job. As he embarks on his new position he is part of a program that targets individuals both in and outside of the US for observation and in some cases for actions up to and including assassination. Ambition bangs up against his moral core, and soon the work he is doing causes internal conflict a rift within his marriage and a noticeable impact on his children. When he makes an error in his recommendations to his superiors it is used as a weapon against him, pressuring him to pursue actions more extreme than he feels are warranted. Some of the people for whom he works as well as the sphere in which he is working are dragging him further into some very dark spaces, and he will have to choose between going along with what he is being asked to do or running afoul of people who can, and will, destroy his life.
The Snares is a tension-filled political thriller that looks at the world of intelligence from a new perspective, that of a man of color who despite being born an American has never felt that he "belongs". His insecurities are used to manipulate him, and his ambition may destroy the life he has worked so hard to achieve. The story takes a sharp look at a period in history that was marked by morally ambiguous activities, and the reader must sort through themes of complicit behavior, the dark side of the intelligence world and the toll that working in that sphere has on those who do the job. When idealism comes up against the uncomfortable realities of the world, what decisions get made? Which lines are acceptable to cross, and which must be held at all costs? The characters are well drawn, and the pacing tight and full of tension. Readers of authors like John Le Carré, Lauren Wilkinson and Olen Steinhauer should pick up a copy of this debut literary thriller which paints a world that is not dashing and glamorous but grey and murky. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Company for allowing me access to this sobering story in exchange for my honest review
April 23, 2025
Real Rating: 2.5* of five
The Publisher Says: A Punjabi American lawyer at a mysterious new federal intelligence agency fights to keep his career, marriage, and morality intact in this gripping post-9/11 drama from a thrilling new voice.
“Are you happy where you are? Toiling in the trenches of the Justice Department?”
In the waning months of George W. Bush’s presidency, Neel Chima, a former Naval officer and federal prosecutor, is recruited to join a new federal intelligence agency—one with greater-than-usual powers and fewer-than-usual restrictions. Neel soon finds himself intimately involved in the surveillance of domestic terrorism suspects and the selection of foreigners for drone assassination—men who often look just like his Sikh family members. As both his ambitions and moral qualms mount, he is drawn further and further away from his wife and two young daughters. When he makes a critical mistake at work, he is left vulnerable to shadowy figures in the intelligence world who seek to use him in their own, still more radical counterterrorism missions. If he agrees, the world of power will open up even wider to him. If he doesn’t . . .
Is Neel an insider or an outsider? The hunter or the hunted? An idealist or a mercenary? What truths, and whose lives, is he willing to sacrifice? The novel plunges readers into the human turmoil behind the faceless operations—the torture, secret assassinations, and drone strikes—of the American security state, creating an eye-opening meditation on morality, violence, and the price of a human soul.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Like reading the diary of someone you didn't know, feel sure must be dead now, but are pretty sure you wouldn't like. Watching this bad-tempered goon make an endless series of truly foolish decisions was painful.
The storytelling was a mess. I can't really say much that isn't carping and whining about this read, except that it tells a well-known historical event from a perspective it had never occurred to me I should think about.
Random House thinks $13.99 is a goer for their ebook. I disagree. Use the library if you feel drawn to the read.
The Publisher Says: A Punjabi American lawyer at a mysterious new federal intelligence agency fights to keep his career, marriage, and morality intact in this gripping post-9/11 drama from a thrilling new voice.
“Are you happy where you are? Toiling in the trenches of the Justice Department?”
In the waning months of George W. Bush’s presidency, Neel Chima, a former Naval officer and federal prosecutor, is recruited to join a new federal intelligence agency—one with greater-than-usual powers and fewer-than-usual restrictions. Neel soon finds himself intimately involved in the surveillance of domestic terrorism suspects and the selection of foreigners for drone assassination—men who often look just like his Sikh family members. As both his ambitions and moral qualms mount, he is drawn further and further away from his wife and two young daughters. When he makes a critical mistake at work, he is left vulnerable to shadowy figures in the intelligence world who seek to use him in their own, still more radical counterterrorism missions. If he agrees, the world of power will open up even wider to him. If he doesn’t . . .
Is Neel an insider or an outsider? The hunter or the hunted? An idealist or a mercenary? What truths, and whose lives, is he willing to sacrifice? The novel plunges readers into the human turmoil behind the faceless operations—the torture, secret assassinations, and drone strikes—of the American security state, creating an eye-opening meditation on morality, violence, and the price of a human soul.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Like reading the diary of someone you didn't know, feel sure must be dead now, but are pretty sure you wouldn't like. Watching this bad-tempered goon make an endless series of truly foolish decisions was painful.
The storytelling was a mess. I can't really say much that isn't carping and whining about this read, except that it tells a well-known historical event from a perspective it had never occurred to me I should think about.
Random House thinks $13.99 is a goer for their ebook. I disagree. Use the library if you feel drawn to the read.
September 1, 2025
3.75 stars rounded to 4.
It’s post 9/11 and when former navy officer and lawyer Neel is contacted to take up a director role at a new federal intelligence agency be thinks he had hit the jackpot. Soon however Neel is having to make decisions with dire consequences. When files go missing off the back of a work trip Neel finds himself at the mercy of those around him in order to save his relationship with his family.
I found this book a really interesting read into the concept of intelligence led decision making, the fine line between following up on intelligence or choosing to file it away not to be acted upon. It’s a reminder of the life changing decisions being made by governments in response to threat and the collateral damage that often coincides with achieving the main objective.
The following sentence stood out to me “In this work skill counted more than conscience. You did what you could for the mission” that pressure of having to put your personal opinions aside for the wider benefit. Watching Neel’s principles change as to what he felt was acceptable was fascinating, how do you juggle that pressure of doing what your country is asking of you when you know that innocent lives maybe lost as part of the process. How much does it mean to serve your country and what does it give you in return for that sacrifice. It’s not a situation many of us would find ourselves in so made me think what would i do in these situations.
The competitiveness between the different agencies felt realistic to me and unsurprising that it was a matter of who was the victor in identifying a target rather than working together to provide the most informative insight to aid decision making. It is at times a dark read that will get you thinking, an insight into the harsh realities of intelligence and its use in war where there is positives and negatives to all decisions and a balance that feels impossible to achieve.
It’s post 9/11 and when former navy officer and lawyer Neel is contacted to take up a director role at a new federal intelligence agency be thinks he had hit the jackpot. Soon however Neel is having to make decisions with dire consequences. When files go missing off the back of a work trip Neel finds himself at the mercy of those around him in order to save his relationship with his family.
I found this book a really interesting read into the concept of intelligence led decision making, the fine line between following up on intelligence or choosing to file it away not to be acted upon. It’s a reminder of the life changing decisions being made by governments in response to threat and the collateral damage that often coincides with achieving the main objective.
The following sentence stood out to me “In this work skill counted more than conscience. You did what you could for the mission” that pressure of having to put your personal opinions aside for the wider benefit. Watching Neel’s principles change as to what he felt was acceptable was fascinating, how do you juggle that pressure of doing what your country is asking of you when you know that innocent lives maybe lost as part of the process. How much does it mean to serve your country and what does it give you in return for that sacrifice. It’s not a situation many of us would find ourselves in so made me think what would i do in these situations.
The competitiveness between the different agencies felt realistic to me and unsurprising that it was a matter of who was the victor in identifying a target rather than working together to provide the most informative insight to aid decision making. It is at times a dark read that will get you thinking, an insight into the harsh realities of intelligence and its use in war where there is positives and negatives to all decisions and a balance that feels impossible to achieve.
September 20, 2025
In this debut novel, Grewal-Kok was a bit all over the place and for most of the book I was probably going to go three stars but then he finally settled on what the book was about - a man who is watching his world collapse upon him and how will he respond. Our protagonist, a first generation American of India-Punjabi descent who somewhat floats through life although from the outside seems pretty accomplished, is given a chance at the big time after stints in the Navy and Attorney General office - being a higher up in a new government intelligence service. Things start out ok and his first big action seems a success....and about then things start unravelling in all kinds of ways, with past actions coming back to haunt while outside forces are taking him down a bad path that he deals with very poorly.
Now, the story of the man and how he handles things, which gets pretty close to rock bottom at the end with a setup for the 2nd book being "what's next" as he knows he's in a real fight for his life, is pretty good. You don't empathize too much as he's not a man you find "good" but he's also not evil by any stretch - mostly just in over his head in all kinds of ways.
The issue was Gewal-Kok was also trying to tell side stories about Indian-American issues, wealth and power, and the American war machine. These mostly came off a little ham-handed and tangential. A focus on any one would have probably worked but by having both a "one man's fall" novel going while trying to comment on 4 or 5 world issues just was a bit too much.
But yea, the ending got me back on board as now it's just a pissed off ex-vet with seemingly no friends or family by his side, but an iron pipe in his hands looking for who is coming after him....I'll look out for the 2nd one just to see where it goes.
Now, the story of the man and how he handles things, which gets pretty close to rock bottom at the end with a setup for the 2nd book being "what's next" as he knows he's in a real fight for his life, is pretty good. You don't empathize too much as he's not a man you find "good" but he's also not evil by any stretch - mostly just in over his head in all kinds of ways.
The issue was Gewal-Kok was also trying to tell side stories about Indian-American issues, wealth and power, and the American war machine. These mostly came off a little ham-handed and tangential. A focus on any one would have probably worked but by having both a "one man's fall" novel going while trying to comment on 4 or 5 world issues just was a bit too much.
But yea, the ending got me back on board as now it's just a pissed off ex-vet with seemingly no friends or family by his side, but an iron pipe in his hands looking for who is coming after him....I'll look out for the 2nd one just to see where it goes.
April 7, 2025
- in the early obama years, neel chima takes a job in intelligence, managing a terrorist threat matrix and making decisions on drone strike targets. but intelligence is a cutthroat world, and soon neel is made a pawn in a shadowy scheme headed by the man who got him the job in the first place
- i really liked the way this novel handled the "my two identities are in conflict with each other" theme. generally i don't like when books do this because they just leave the question there or resolve it with "i am both :) i am me :)", but the context here (neel is the only brown man in a building full of white guys in the middle of the war on terror) takes it to the next level imo - lots of stuff to chew over about how neel's identity may have pushed him to act in certain ways or to try to prove himself
- unfortunately evergreen political topicality here as well. i was still a child during the obama years but it felt a bit like some of the conversations that the characters had around what they were doing were tinged with some post-trump hindsight. not necessarily a bad thing but just thought it was interesting
- pacing around the middle/back half was a little slow and it was pretty difficult to watch neel continue to make decisions that were both awful and stupid but obviously that's the point.
- didn't find the ending super satisfying either but again, that's the point.
- i never comment on covers because it's not really relevant but goddamn is this maybe the most hideous cover i've ever seen. no one could come up with anything better than drone shadow on flat greige background with some apple green block text over top? i've seen better on self published thinly-veiled autofiction
**thank you to goodreads and the publisher for the arc!**
- i really liked the way this novel handled the "my two identities are in conflict with each other" theme. generally i don't like when books do this because they just leave the question there or resolve it with "i am both :) i am me :)", but the context here (neel is the only brown man in a building full of white guys in the middle of the war on terror) takes it to the next level imo - lots of stuff to chew over about how neel's identity may have pushed him to act in certain ways or to try to prove himself
- unfortunately evergreen political topicality here as well. i was still a child during the obama years but it felt a bit like some of the conversations that the characters had around what they were doing were tinged with some post-trump hindsight. not necessarily a bad thing but just thought it was interesting
- pacing around the middle/back half was a little slow and it was pretty difficult to watch neel continue to make decisions that were both awful and stupid but obviously that's the point.
- didn't find the ending super satisfying either but again, that's the point.
- i never comment on covers because it's not really relevant but goddamn is this maybe the most hideous cover i've ever seen. no one could come up with anything better than drone shadow on flat greige background with some apple green block text over top? i've seen better on self published thinly-veiled autofiction
**thank you to goodreads and the publisher for the arc!**
December 8, 2024
“We’re in bed with some very bad people,” Neel Chima, the morally challenged protagonist of Rav Grewal-Kok’s chilling intelligence agency thriller, “The Snares,” tells an agency colleague after hearing a Thai colonel recount how he left his wife to drown at sea.
“My God,” Neel says, not soothed by his boss telling him, "just remember that we’re different, we don't kill innocents.”
This as a U.S. drone strike paved for by Neel ends up leaving an eight-year-old boy with a stump for a leg and 11 people dead – something that’s leaked to the media and has the agency hustling Neel out of sight while things cool off.
“You took one for the team,” his boss attempts to mollify him, a sentiment shared by a female colleague from whom he seeks comfort but whose only solace is to tell him that while the agency kills women and children, it doesn’t mean to – a stance diametrically at odds with that of Neel’s wife, the moral center of the novel who tells him in no uncertain terms that there’s no “silver lining” to what he’s doing – “we’re in a horror movie,” she says.
Very much Robert Stone country this is, with a dash of Newton Thornburg – indeed, Grewal-Kok’s striking ending put me in mind of the equally striking ending in Thornburg’s “Cutter and Bone,” which, as here, pulls no punches in holding America’s feet to the fire – with Thornburg and Stone, about Vietnam, and here, about drone warfare.
“My God,” Neel says, not soothed by his boss telling him, "just remember that we’re different, we don't kill innocents.”
This as a U.S. drone strike paved for by Neel ends up leaving an eight-year-old boy with a stump for a leg and 11 people dead – something that’s leaked to the media and has the agency hustling Neel out of sight while things cool off.
“You took one for the team,” his boss attempts to mollify him, a sentiment shared by a female colleague from whom he seeks comfort but whose only solace is to tell him that while the agency kills women and children, it doesn’t mean to – a stance diametrically at odds with that of Neel’s wife, the moral center of the novel who tells him in no uncertain terms that there’s no “silver lining” to what he’s doing – “we’re in a horror movie,” she says.
Very much Robert Stone country this is, with a dash of Newton Thornburg – indeed, Grewal-Kok’s striking ending put me in mind of the equally striking ending in Thornburg’s “Cutter and Bone,” which, as here, pulls no punches in holding America’s feet to the fire – with Thornburg and Stone, about Vietnam, and here, about drone warfare.
May 19, 2025
Neel Chima is a Harvard educated attorney whose Justice Department position opens doors for a role at a newly established government agency. The agency’s mission is to centralize intelligence among the various federal agencies and identify terrorism threat patterns. Neel’s new boss, the “priest,” is a well known and powerful man within the government who promises a bright future if Neel can distinguish himself. Whether through inexperience or a lapse in judgment, Neel quickly finds himself in a vulnerable position, unable to say no when too much is asked of him.
In an otherwise well paced plot, ruminations on Neel’s skin color was woven into the flow, but it is unclear why. While Neel’s sense of being different might have driven him to succeed and an immigrant’s challenges can add depth to the story, the author didn’t seize that opportunity. Neel is a gifted athlete, had a successful military career, and received an Ivy League education that led him to the Department of Justice. The only reference that heritage played a role was his interview with the priest, yet when the story focused on that region, Neel’s background was not brought in. This seemed like a missed opportunity that could have given more texture to the book.
This intriguing political thriller is well written and paced. The characters are interesting, some unlikable, but all well developed. The author does a nice job creating tension and a sense of creepiness using setting and character.
In an otherwise well paced plot, ruminations on Neel’s skin color was woven into the flow, but it is unclear why. While Neel’s sense of being different might have driven him to succeed and an immigrant’s challenges can add depth to the story, the author didn’t seize that opportunity. Neel is a gifted athlete, had a successful military career, and received an Ivy League education that led him to the Department of Justice. The only reference that heritage played a role was his interview with the priest, yet when the story focused on that region, Neel’s background was not brought in. This seemed like a missed opportunity that could have given more texture to the book.
This intriguing political thriller is well written and paced. The characters are interesting, some unlikable, but all well developed. The author does a nice job creating tension and a sense of creepiness using setting and character.
April 15, 2025
Ok wow. What a time to read this novel. It's a political thriller, not really my style. The main character is a Sikh indian attorney at the USDOJ who gets an opportunity to work for a new federal agency under the new Obama Administration called the Freedom Center that is basically a huge data aggregation operation that pulls from the NSA, CIA, FBI, etc. to identify potential high-risk threats at a very surgical level. The premise is drone warfare -- if we know who the bad guys are, we can take them out vs. man-to-man combat and tons of civilian casualties. Now you know why I read it. Lots of moral and ethical questions here, shadowy figures and crises of conscious as our main character navigates this new career. It was a very tense and compelling read—until the end. I am often unsatisfied with endings -- and I was here, too. It's almost as if the author did not know what to do at the end and so just said "and I'm done." Still, this book is worth reading, especially now. It might even be an enjoyable book if it were not so prescient. Here are a few of my relevant quotes: "Security in the face of a public insurgency is domination and slaughter" (YIKES!) and "Power without recourse. Hooded figures in the night. The tools of dictatorshio in the hands of freedom-loving patriots." 3-3/4 stars.
March 15, 2025
Well if you're going to write a book about US bureaucratic functionaries running the drone war it should definitely feel bad, and I admire and appreciate that someone has written that book (or specifically that novel) but... it really does feel bad in a way that makes for a reading experience that is pretty unpleasant and ultimately nihilistic. I'm not sure what advice I would give to change this? A book about this should not have moral uplift? But it's punishing in a way I'm not exactly sure I'd recommend, or not to anyone who's not specifically interested in this.
I think part of the problem is that the central character is such an absolute void—as you'd have to be to sign up for a job like this. But, again, that doesn't necessarily make for the most compelling reading. I think including the wife character more might have helped with this but honestly I don't know.
There's just something lacking that I can't put my finger on. I was electrified by The Card Counter, for example, which also deals with this incredibly dark subject matter. That has the smallest bit of Schrader's religious sublime—but it's very important. This is just a void.
I think part of the problem is that the central character is such an absolute void—as you'd have to be to sign up for a job like this. But, again, that doesn't necessarily make for the most compelling reading. I think including the wife character more might have helped with this but honestly I don't know.
There's just something lacking that I can't put my finger on. I was electrified by The Card Counter, for example, which also deals with this incredibly dark subject matter. That has the smallest bit of Schrader's religious sublime—but it's very important. This is just a void.
September 1, 2025
The Snares is a powerful, intriguing novel based in the murky, dark world of counter intelligence, as we follow Neel, an Punjabi America lawyer, who's recruited into the federal intelligence agency, and soon finds himself at the centre of domestic terrorism surveillance, and the selection of foreigners for drone assassination.
It's not long before Neel is questioning his choices and morals in such a cut throat world, which leads to him making a damming mistake, which leads to his manipulation by his peers in that gloomy business.
So all in all, an interesting read, with a main character who's quite the bad person. No dedication at all to his family, prepared to do anything that might get him ahead, with no regret whatsoever, unless it costs him personally. Basically, exactly the type of person you'd expect to be doing the job he does.
Although, for me, Neel was unlikeable, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the story. You're supposed to dislike some characters, and the story was very well written, with lots of great details of the intelligence industry.
4 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 's from me.
It's not long before Neel is questioning his choices and morals in such a cut throat world, which leads to him making a damming mistake, which leads to his manipulation by his peers in that gloomy business.
So all in all, an interesting read, with a main character who's quite the bad person. No dedication at all to his family, prepared to do anything that might get him ahead, with no regret whatsoever, unless it costs him personally. Basically, exactly the type of person you'd expect to be doing the job he does.
Although, for me, Neel was unlikeable, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the story. You're supposed to dislike some characters, and the story was very well written, with lots of great details of the intelligence industry.
4 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 's from me.
April 25, 2025
I'm lukewarm on The Snares. A man whose parents immigrated to the US from India changes jobs, moving from the Department of Justice to a newly formed homeland security type program looking for possible targets for drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He starts spending more and more time at work. Tensions arise with his wife, a U.S.-born daughter of wealthy white bigots who works as a professor of law. Then, our central character is talked into moves he's less than comfortable with—and you can see where that leads. Each compromise leaves him more vulnerable, which forces him to make more compromises.
The idea is interesting. Unfortunately, the characters all struck me as two-dimensional. Things happened, but I wasn't engaged because the characters didn't seem substantial enough for me to care for them.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.
The idea is interesting. Unfortunately, the characters all struck me as two-dimensional. Things happened, but I wasn't engaged because the characters didn't seem substantial enough for me to care for them.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.
October 31, 2025
2.5 rounded to 3. I'm not really sure what to make of this book. If someone asked me what it was about, I would say it's a government drama(?) taking place in the aftermath of 9/11, as the presidency and cabinet switched between George Bush and Barack Obama. That's the gist, I guess? The main character is deeply unlikable even though I feel like the author wants to portray him as a basically "good" guy. He's not. He's an OK father, a very bad husband (despite believing himself that just a couple cheating transgressions early in his marriage are commonplace), and an all-around self-serving jerk. I would say that his character is supposed to be nuanced due to the racism he faced (particularly post 9/11), but even that part of the story falls flat. We don't learn enough about Neel as a person before we're subjected to his many (MANY) transgressions as a person, so I just don't care much about him at all. I walked away thinking, "what was the point of this story?"
April 25, 2025
In the early days of the Obama administration, a young Indian - American man, anxious to be accepted by everyone in his life as a "real" American, is offered a prestigious position with an intelligence agency helping to run America's drone war in Afghanistan. But do the senior intelligence people who sponsor him really want to further his career? Or are they helping him because they think he could be persuaded to join their scheme for "off the books" operations well beyond anything the White House has approved?
This is a story of political intrigue, and a very interesting one. It's been compared to the novels of John Le Carre. The writing isn't nearly that good, but I think fans of Le Carre will find this enjoyable. I did. Highly recommended.
This is a story of political intrigue, and a very interesting one. It's been compared to the novels of John Le Carre. The writing isn't nearly that good, but I think fans of Le Carre will find this enjoyable. I did. Highly recommended.
May 5, 2025
Excellent debut novel about about an Indian American lawyer who is offered a career altering opportunity, or is it?? Neel Chima grew up in suburban NJ to parents who emigrated from abject poverty India. Now after graduating from Columbia, serving in the Navy and married with two young daughters, Neel is a muddling mid-level federal prosecutor in DC. Out of the blue he is interviewed by a cabinet level spook to be second in command at a newer spy agency which was created as a result of 9/11. Neel has always been left out or looked over due to his ethnicity and this is a chance to make his mark. Things don't go exactly as planned and hijinks/disaster/investigations ensue.
Well written and fast paced, enjoy.
Well written and fast paced, enjoy.
June 28, 2025
I agree that this was a super readable and well-written debut, set in the “war on terror” years immediately after the Bush administration and at the start of Obama’s. I enjoyed the blend of the personal and political, and thought the story offered a fresh, original take on the idea of a “scapegoat” using an outsider who will give anything to become an insider . A very sobering and truthful picture of what even supposedly liberal US military and intelligence agencies are like, but it also made me understand the difficult decisions governments need to take, and the importance of knowing where you stand.
December 15, 2025
A clever, sophisticated and thoughtful book about being an outsider, the war on terror,US government , rivalry and bureaucracy, and being the fall guy.
There is a depth to this writing that is both original and compelling, it brings to mind Graham Green at his best.
Set in the early days of the Obama presidency, the drone wars there is a reality in the story that is brilliant.
A spy novel that is literature, haven't seen this for a long time.
There is a depth to this writing that is both original and compelling, it brings to mind Graham Green at his best.
Set in the early days of the Obama presidency, the drone wars there is a reality in the story that is brilliant.
A spy novel that is literature, haven't seen this for a long time.
May 7, 2025
4.25 stars
This dark novel is about a man who enters a part of the government espionage apparatus in a role where he observes, selects and approves targets to be killed by drones. It's an effective but grim story that goes into his experience in the military, Punjabi identity, family life and marriage while his ethics circle the drain.
This is the point--it's not a thriller in the traditional sense--I see it as an interesting foil to Moshin Hamid's book The Reluctant Fundamentalist in some ways because they're both studies of man's transition into extremes of different kinds.
This book was absolutely thought provoking and I enjoyed thinking about it, but it isn't a fast thrillery read, it's literary fiction to make a point.
Thank you to Random House for an advance reading copy for an unbiased review.
This dark novel is about a man who enters a part of the government espionage apparatus in a role where he observes, selects and approves targets to be killed by drones. It's an effective but grim story that goes into his experience in the military, Punjabi identity, family life and marriage while his ethics circle the drain.
This is the point--it's not a thriller in the traditional sense--I see it as an interesting foil to Moshin Hamid's book The Reluctant Fundamentalist in some ways because they're both studies of man's transition into extremes of different kinds.
This book was absolutely thought provoking and I enjoyed thinking about it, but it isn't a fast thrillery read, it's literary fiction to make a point.
Thank you to Random House for an advance reading copy for an unbiased review.
May 25, 2025
A Punjabi lawyer enters the intelligence service at the start of the Obama administration, loses his soul in a bid for power. High literature with a genre bent, a paranoid thriller made real as much by its attention to practical detail as by the life and depth it breathes into its characters. Excellent, strong rec.
June 29, 2025
I thought this book was a bit slow to start, but once it picked up, I was hooked. This book focuses on a Punjabi American lawyer who works within the federal government in DC. There’s a lot of drama going on, and it leads to conflict within himself, his relationship with his wife, and his job… highly recommend this read!
Thank you Random House and Net Galley for a copy of this book.
Thank you Random House and Net Galley for a copy of this book.
July 18, 2025
What a fantastic and timely novel. I feel like I learned a lot about contemporary warfare, while getting to know an interesting character and enjoying a good read. If you’re interested in geopolitics and government operatives, set in a fictionalised but very real feeling context, this is a novel for you.
June 27, 2025
I wanted to like this book more for the behind the scenes cia espionage but I just could not. The writing style felt choppy and I didn’t like any of the characters, especially Neel. I feel like I learned more of what goes on for the government side of things but man he seems like an awful person.
November 6, 2025
Parts of this were well done, others not as good, so uneven overall (especially into the ending). The handling of the story was probably realistic, but was a pretty depressing narrative I would also say
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