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The Pickle Factory: A Tall Tale of the CIA
THE PICKLE FACTORY DEVOURS ITS OWN
KRAY is a nonofficial cover CIA case officer—an overseas NOC operator who works without embassy backup, relying on nerve and ingenuity to recruit and run foreign agents. That is until Headquarters summons him home and drops his naive keister into a dizzying bureaucratic maze, where initiative is taboo and solid officers get torpedoed.
KRAY’s bosses seize on a congressional bonanza—a multibillion-dollar money stream earmarked to field more NOCs. Enter Project GOOWIKI, the “Transformational Human Resources Worldwide Outreach Program.” The covert Spend every penny on consultants and donuts, stack managers on top of managers, and advance nincompoops. KRAY begins to glimpse that the one thing missing is actual spies.
When seven CIA officers die in an overseas suicide bombing, top Headquarters apparatchiks spring into action—not to hit back, but to cover their own broad backsides. Meanwhile, KRAY’s career corkscrews downward. And his return to the field gives Headquarters the perfect opportunity to solve the KRAY problem. Permanently.
Fast, sharp, and bone-dry funny, Sam R. OYKEN’s vast comic debut is Catch-22 with a security clearance, A Confederacy of Dunces with a nation on the line. Bureaucrats obsess over mandatory trainings, cafeteria upgrades, and birthday cakes, while competence quietly bleeds out in a corner. Underneath the laughs and the irony runs a hard moral contempt for cowardice, anger at waste, and respect for those who actually risk their lives for the country. None of which plays well—or at all—at the Pickle Factory.
KRAY is a nonofficial cover CIA case officer—an overseas NOC operator who works without embassy backup, relying on nerve and ingenuity to recruit and run foreign agents. That is until Headquarters summons him home and drops his naive keister into a dizzying bureaucratic maze, where initiative is taboo and solid officers get torpedoed.
KRAY’s bosses seize on a congressional bonanza—a multibillion-dollar money stream earmarked to field more NOCs. Enter Project GOOWIKI, the “Transformational Human Resources Worldwide Outreach Program.” The covert Spend every penny on consultants and donuts, stack managers on top of managers, and advance nincompoops. KRAY begins to glimpse that the one thing missing is actual spies.
When seven CIA officers die in an overseas suicide bombing, top Headquarters apparatchiks spring into action—not to hit back, but to cover their own broad backsides. Meanwhile, KRAY’s career corkscrews downward. And his return to the field gives Headquarters the perfect opportunity to solve the KRAY problem. Permanently.
Fast, sharp, and bone-dry funny, Sam R. OYKEN’s vast comic debut is Catch-22 with a security clearance, A Confederacy of Dunces with a nation on the line. Bureaucrats obsess over mandatory trainings, cafeteria upgrades, and birthday cakes, while competence quietly bleeds out in a corner. Underneath the laughs and the irony runs a hard moral contempt for cowardice, anger at waste, and respect for those who actually risk their lives for the country. None of which plays well—or at all—at the Pickle Factory.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published July 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 18, 2026
People aren’t going to like how true this is. Too bad. It’s a truth that needs to be said, amid the gonzo stories and the hysterical inside jokes. It’s not all true. But more of it is than should be. A must read for anyone who cares.
August 11, 2026
Slow start but it found its footing and had some humor to offer.
September 27, 2026
This is a book daydreaming about a fantasy version of the OSS that never was.
September 27, 2026
I think you'll like the very funny pleonastic phrasing and periphrastic style of the author. I loved the Confederacy of Dunces which has some of the same humor,
October 7, 2026
Funny story that will be familiar to anyone who joined anything for the mission and found out that’s not how you make friends and influence people.
October 16, 2026
Exceptionally funny and full of puzzles
October 18, 2026
While I get the author's points about the CIA, and found portions amusing, this book is too damn long...it could have used a good editor.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews