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Damascus Station
CIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad’s recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy.
But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad’s spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard. Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with fear and rebellion, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet.
But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad’s spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard. Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with fear and rebellion, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet.
419 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2021
3213 people are currently reading
20435 people want to read
About the author
David McCloskey
9 books1,189 followersDavid McCloskey is the author of the novels Damascus Station, Moscow X, The Seventh Floor, and The Persian, and is cohost of the podcast The Rest Is Classified. A former CIA analyst, he worked at Langley and in field stations across the Middle East. He lives in Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,542 reviews
October 6, 2021
My first spy thriller with a focus on Syria, and with an ex-CIA author, you know you'll get a firsthand account on spycraft.
After the disappearance of an American spy, CIA case officer Sam travels to Paris to recruit a Syrian woman, Miriam, who knows the ins and outs of the Syrian Palace. She agrees to work for America and he teaches her the trade. They developed a strong connection and become romantically involved. As if spying in Damascus under the Assaad regime isn't nail-biting enough, their secret more than handler-asset relationship gives me the heebie-jeebies throughout the story!
The thrills and actions are there, but certain parts are bogged down with too much detail resulted in unusual pacing. All in all, a very compelling story, and I hope to read more books by David McCloskey.
Thank you to Tantor Audio and Netgalley for providing audio ARC.
Available October 5, 2021.
*Now on Hoopla.
After the disappearance of an American spy, CIA case officer Sam travels to Paris to recruit a Syrian woman, Miriam, who knows the ins and outs of the Syrian Palace. She agrees to work for America and he teaches her the trade. They developed a strong connection and become romantically involved. As if spying in Damascus under the Assaad regime isn't nail-biting enough, their secret more than handler-asset relationship gives me the heebie-jeebies throughout the story!
The thrills and actions are there, but certain parts are bogged down with too much detail resulted in unusual pacing. All in all, a very compelling story, and I hope to read more books by David McCloskey.
Thank you to Tantor Audio and Netgalley for providing audio ARC.
Available October 5, 2021.
*Now on Hoopla.
November 25, 2024
Buenísimo, oye.
Novela de espías de la CÍA escrito por uno que lo fue.
No esperéis una tipo James Bond, XXX o Misión imposible. No. Esta es más real, más de métodos posibles y no de macarradas que se lían a tiros o a saltar de aviones en marcha.
Y a pesar de que esas macarradas son las que me suelen gustar, lo admito, esta es la que se me lleva las 5 estrellas. Xq a pesar de esa falta de efectos impactantes tan de película, tiene ritmo y personajes interesantes.
La cosa transcurre en Siria en torno al año 2012, con Al-assad empleando los medios más brutales (gas sarin incluido) contra la oposición terrorista de radicales islámicos. Vamos, que nadie es “bueno” ahí.
Y en ese baile están nuestro protagonista, captador de activos para la CIA, y su jefa expeditiva y la activo, una joven siria con el corazón dividido.
Y lo que he dicho, que el autor maneja los ritmos de la novela de maravilla, de forma pausada pero que te engancha a base de bien.
No es una novela larga, 512 pags aunque no me hubiese importado que durase más.
Al final el autor habla un poco sobre la situación política de Siria en ese momento y tb eso me ha gustado xq yo de Siria, ni idea.
Resumen: que le deis una oportunidad, leñe, que la merece.
Novela de espías de la CÍA escrito por uno que lo fue.
No esperéis una tipo James Bond, XXX o Misión imposible. No. Esta es más real, más de métodos posibles y no de macarradas que se lían a tiros o a saltar de aviones en marcha.
Y a pesar de que esas macarradas son las que me suelen gustar, lo admito, esta es la que se me lleva las 5 estrellas. Xq a pesar de esa falta de efectos impactantes tan de película, tiene ritmo y personajes interesantes.
La cosa transcurre en Siria en torno al año 2012, con Al-assad empleando los medios más brutales (gas sarin incluido) contra la oposición terrorista de radicales islámicos. Vamos, que nadie es “bueno” ahí.
Y en ese baile están nuestro protagonista, captador de activos para la CIA, y su jefa expeditiva y la activo, una joven siria con el corazón dividido.
Y lo que he dicho, que el autor maneja los ritmos de la novela de maravilla, de forma pausada pero que te engancha a base de bien.
No es una novela larga, 512 pags aunque no me hubiese importado que durase más.
Al final el autor habla un poco sobre la situación política de Siria en ese momento y tb eso me ha gustado xq yo de Siria, ni idea.
Resumen: que le deis una oportunidad, leñe, que la merece.
December 16, 2021
Written by a former CIA analyst, Damascus Station is a gritty, brutal tale set in the midst of the Syrian Civil War. Syria is a land where everyone is tied to the State through threats and fears. No one knows what it is to be free. Even at the highest echelons of government are people who feel trapped by fear of what might happen to their families and the Syrians in exile are being approached and threatened. As the Civil War grows more deadly, Assad’s government grips power ever more tightly. Sam Joseph is tasked with recruiting a disaffected government official, an asset in Espionage parlance. Of course, Mariam is a stunning knockout and, against all protocol, a passionate love affair blossoms between these unlikely allies. Damascus, here, is somewhere beyond the gates of hell itself as torture scenes give way to sarin chemical bombings. Tightly written, compelling, and just what an espionage novel should be.
May 10, 2025
I Expected To Like This Spy Thriller A Lot But Wound Up Being Somewhat Disappointed!
Based on Damascus Station’s intriguing plot concept — which is very representative of the type of books I enjoy — and the advance praise it generated, I highly anticipated it to be a book I’d be recommending highly. However, I must admit that, while I found Damascus Station to be interesting enough to finish, I felt that, overall, it was just an okay read. That’s because, for me, the pace of the book too often got bogged down by the author providing so much descriptive detail about so many aspects within the plot and its characters that I found myself putting the book aside for long stretches of time. And, while Damascus Station provided elements of suspense and excitement, there were not enough of them and they were spaced too far apart for me to view it as an attention-holding read.
#Damascus Station #NetGalley
Based on Damascus Station’s intriguing plot concept — which is very representative of the type of books I enjoy — and the advance praise it generated, I highly anticipated it to be a book I’d be recommending highly. However, I must admit that, while I found Damascus Station to be interesting enough to finish, I felt that, overall, it was just an okay read. That’s because, for me, the pace of the book too often got bogged down by the author providing so much descriptive detail about so many aspects within the plot and its characters that I found myself putting the book aside for long stretches of time. And, while Damascus Station provided elements of suspense and excitement, there were not enough of them and they were spaced too far apart for me to view it as an attention-holding read.
#Damascus Station #NetGalley
March 19, 2022
This book is about as intense as you can get. Great story and non-stop from the first page.
May 15, 2022
I feel like the concept for this book was that it would be a spy thriller, but realistic. Cool idea! But so maybe don't make the hero be a devastatingly handsome super-smart cool-headed killer who beds the sultry, luscious, quick-witted levantine martial-arts expert he's recruited? Just a suggestion.
January 14, 2023
Sam and Mariam sitting in a tree… K-I-S-S-I-N-G
While this book provided an intriguing look inside the “cat and mouse” games the CIA, Syrian Government, Russians and rebels play with each other, I found it severely lacking in character depth and full of shallow, machismo sex and violence that left me feeling half-pregnant with “B-rate James Bond” undertones. I’m fine with a full bore “salacious spy novel”, if only about 150 pages shorter. Equally, I would have been thrilled with a rich historical fiction that made you feel and think deeply. Unfortunately this book was neither. My apologies if this review felt like a shotgun to the face 20 pages after lovemaking on a couch.
While this book provided an intriguing look inside the “cat and mouse” games the CIA, Syrian Government, Russians and rebels play with each other, I found it severely lacking in character depth and full of shallow, machismo sex and violence that left me feeling half-pregnant with “B-rate James Bond” undertones. I’m fine with a full bore “salacious spy novel”, if only about 150 pages shorter. Equally, I would have been thrilled with a rich historical fiction that made you feel and think deeply. Unfortunately this book was neither. My apologies if this review felt like a shotgun to the face 20 pages after lovemaking on a couch.
October 11, 2021
David McCloskey's first novel is a compelling and realistic political and spy drama set during the early stages of the Syrian civil war. Unlike many American "spy" thriller authors, his book actually emphasizes spycraft and espionage rather than gunfights, explosions, and special operations. The plot is a bit of a slow burner initially, with suspense gradually building, and the author skillfully creates tension out of seemingly mundane moments, like a character inserting a USB stick loaded with CIA spyware onto her boss's computer. Eventually, assets are compromised, a bomb is built in preparation for an assassination, a chemical weapons attack is in development, and a Russian counterintelligence team is sent to Damascus. Throughout, with a diverse cast of believable and developed characters, McCloskey treats readers to a glimpse of life inside a CIA station abroad and to the inner workings of the neurotic and sociopathic Assad regime. Highly recommended, especially for readers of Daniel Silva and Charles Cumming, and hopefully the first of many more books to come from this author.
September 18, 2021
Damascus Station, by David McCloskey, is a first-rate, old-school espionage thriller. Over the last year I have read a few spy novels I considered some of the best ever written and Damascus Station might be the best of the lot. The characters are top-notch: the good guys are great but the bad guys really shine. Most are vile, sadistic a-holes but one bad guy is like most of us, just trying to survive. As the novel progresses the tension ramps up, each progressive sentence feels like it could all collapse. By the end, you are absolutely invested in the characters and want nothing but the best for them. What I wasn't expecting was the amount of heart Damascus Station emitted. I can't adequately express how good Damascus Station is.
I would like to thank NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the absolute privilege to review an advance copy of Damascus Station.
I would like to thank NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the absolute privilege to review an advance copy of Damascus Station.
January 24, 2022
Very similar to Red Sparrow but not quite as intense.
August 1, 2023
Well I had high hopes for this book, which quickly were dashed by shoddy writing, poor character development, and a plot that was like a Twinkie without the filling---quite unsatisfying. The author who is former CIA, takes on a journey with a mildly unlikable main character that is attempting to recruit a very attractive female Syrian asset---google very attractive Syrian woman. I will wait. How were the results? Don't worry I know. Of course it proceeds to him sleeping with the asset, and we devolve for awhile in horrid harlequin romance territory. From this point if you do a shot every time someone in the book says "habiti" you will be quite smashed in 25-30 pages. Sometimes you would be doing 3 shots in two pages. Editor alert! Get involved that is what they pay you for. The internal machinations inside the Syrian government I wanted to find interesting but every single character was a depraved turd I wanted killed. Believe it or not the second half of the book is worse. As we move towards the "climactic" ending the CIA stooge allows himself to be captured and tortured to "protect" the asset he loves from exposure (yes insert a little mouth vomit here). Many who had my take on this book did not finish, well sports fans I made it and now feel like I need a star on that dead CIA wall. Avoid this book like a new pandemic.
July 3, 2024
I listed to the audio version. It was one that you had to pay attention to what was going on. Not exciting but a good story.
November 5, 2021
In Syria, a CIA officer has disappeared, and presumed killed. Sam Joseph is a CIA case officer in Paris and is tasked with recruiting Mariam Haddad, a Syrian national who works in the Syrian palace. The plan is for them to work together to identify the man responsible for the missing spy. However, Miriam is a beautiful woman and during the course of the recruitment, they fall for each other. Sam knows this is forbidden by the CIA; a case officer should never enter into a relationship with an agent. He struggles to hold his distance and assumes that once in Damascus, they will see each other only as the mission requires.
This novel is the first published work by David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst and consultant and a man who has worked in field stations across the Middle East. That background really shows in this work. For a first novel, this is an incredible achievement. I don’t ever recall reading a modern-day spy thriller that seems so realistic. The details of the city of Damascus, the characters on all sides of the conflict, and the mission itself ring absolutely true. And the spy craft! Brush passes, dead drops, and the fine art of losing a tail are just the beginning. One of the things I like best about the writing style is that McCloskey treats the reader with respect, not pausing to explain every acronym or idiom. But even for those unfamiliar with the terms, it is easy to pick up the meanings from the context. Additionally, it's not a clear good guys vs. bad guys novel. It's a much more realistic take on how one's "goodness" depends on one's perspective.
This is a well-balanced story, filled with plenty of action and intrigue, dangerous situations, and the ever-present violence that was (and still is) Syria in the 2010s. But there are also thought-provoking scenes, moral dilemmas, and a compelling romance. Absolutely riveting all the way through.
One of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended.
This novel is the first published work by David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst and consultant and a man who has worked in field stations across the Middle East. That background really shows in this work. For a first novel, this is an incredible achievement. I don’t ever recall reading a modern-day spy thriller that seems so realistic. The details of the city of Damascus, the characters on all sides of the conflict, and the mission itself ring absolutely true. And the spy craft! Brush passes, dead drops, and the fine art of losing a tail are just the beginning. One of the things I like best about the writing style is that McCloskey treats the reader with respect, not pausing to explain every acronym or idiom. But even for those unfamiliar with the terms, it is easy to pick up the meanings from the context. Additionally, it's not a clear good guys vs. bad guys novel. It's a much more realistic take on how one's "goodness" depends on one's perspective.
This is a well-balanced story, filled with plenty of action and intrigue, dangerous situations, and the ever-present violence that was (and still is) Syria in the 2010s. But there are also thought-provoking scenes, moral dilemmas, and a compelling romance. Absolutely riveting all the way through.
One of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended.
November 9, 2024
‘One of the best spy thrillers in years’ as stated by the Times and on the front cover is quite an accolade and gives you a high expectation before you start……
And it was good…its a very complex read, as spy/CIA books can be, complex as in many characters who come and go in the story, often related and often double dealing, it’s not a book to relax 5 mins at bed but takes some effort and determination….which then rewards you with this high stakes high tension tale
The info gathered to write the book is more than impressive ( we find out at the end in the authors very interesting letter to readers he is ex CIA ) and the history and modern day Assad run Syria is exemplary in it’s facts and descriptive nature, I felt I was in Damascus for the whole time I was reading it, the explanation of tradecraft fascinating and the intricate nature of being a spy told so you really understood the life changing and all encompassing role it is, the story based on factual events with licence
My only little gripe would be the use of the words, snorted, ( everyone seemed to do it when talking ) and clotted ( everything from leaves to ashtrays) a tiny thing but noticeable…
It is good,very good and I will be reading Book 2 and 3 😎
And it was good…its a very complex read, as spy/CIA books can be, complex as in many characters who come and go in the story, often related and often double dealing, it’s not a book to relax 5 mins at bed but takes some effort and determination….which then rewards you with this high stakes high tension tale
The info gathered to write the book is more than impressive ( we find out at the end in the authors very interesting letter to readers he is ex CIA ) and the history and modern day Assad run Syria is exemplary in it’s facts and descriptive nature, I felt I was in Damascus for the whole time I was reading it, the explanation of tradecraft fascinating and the intricate nature of being a spy told so you really understood the life changing and all encompassing role it is, the story based on factual events with licence
My only little gripe would be the use of the words, snorted, ( everyone seemed to do it when talking ) and clotted ( everything from leaves to ashtrays) a tiny thing but noticeable…
It is good,very good and I will be reading Book 2 and 3 😎
March 17, 2023
A well written thriller. The author spent time working for the CIA and the book has a correspondingly real feel to it. The inability to fly business for anything under 13 hours was particularly funny.
An agent tries to turn a member of the Syrian regime, everyone has their motivations and it all really good.
An agent tries to turn a member of the Syrian regime, everyone has their motivations and it all really good.
did-not-finish
September 2, 2024Could not get into it. Restarted a dozen times and gave up. Wanted to get through it because I’d won the third book in the series as a giveaway. Had hoped to get through the first two and read the third in order to review it. Will probably give it away in my office free library.
January 19, 2024
4 Stars for Damascus Station (audiobook) by David McCloskey read by Andrew B. Wehrlen.
Things hot between the CIA agent and his recruit as they are trying to stop a killer. It’ll probably cost him his job but he just can’t resist.
Things hot between the CIA agent and his recruit as they are trying to stop a killer. It’ll probably cost him his job but he just can’t resist.
February 9, 2025
CIA spy thriller set in
Bashar al-Assad’s
Syria
in the early years (2011-2013) of the Syrian uprising. First book in a series.
Modern Damascus, Syria .
My audiobook version was a moderate 13-hours long. A dead tree copy would be 430-pages. It had a US 2021 copyright.
David McCloskey is an American author of spy fiction and a former American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst. He has written three novels. This was the first book I’ve read by the author.
The narrator was Andrew B. Wehrlen. He did a good job with both the male and female voices of the narrative. Although, I found fault in his injecting emotion into scenes.
I’m a fan of the contemporary spy fiction genre, of which this was an example. This was a realistic portrayal of CIA overseas operations. Reading it shortly after the precipitous Fall of the Assad regime was a timely choice. The newsfeed provided a lot of historical back story and context on Assad’s Syria glossed over in the book.
Sam Joseph (the POV contributing protagonist) was a CIA case officer with an Arab middle eastern specialization. He’s a savvy, middle-American boy, with the right tools, on-track in The Agency’s career ladder. In a rotation, he transfers to the CIA station at the American embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus> (the titular Damascus Station). While there, he becomes The Handler for Mariam (the POV contributing co-protagonist), a beautiful, bureaucrat in the Presidential palace. You can see where this was going? (It was a very simple plot.) There’s the brutal Syrian Mukhābarāt (Military Intelligence), different branches of the Syrian military with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) , the Syrian resistance, espionage, and love involved.
Writing was technically good. Descriptive prose was written in a clear, unaffected manner. The narrative contains a large number of details in scenes on the three (CIA, Syrian Regime, Syrian Resistance) sides of the Civil War. Dialog, at least that related to action scenes was good too. However, I thought the prose tended to be too melodramatic.
The characters were very flat. None of them were terribly original. They all felt like they came from Central Casting to me? In addition, besides the Sam and Mariam characters, there were a lot of additional Syrian character POVs. These in my mind did not abet the narrative. Frankly, they felt only superficially ‘Syrian’.
There was a lot of exposition. This was an advantage in the cut ‘n dried techo-political parts and the spy tradecraft. However, the narrative sounded trite when attempting to describe the emotional relationships between the characters. Most male and female relationships were filial amongst the Syrians. Amongst the Americans, it was all professional. All relationships came out as too on the nose.
What was most annoying was the cliffhanger ending, setting up the reader to buy the next book. I think that’s The Seventh Floor ?
The book contained sex, a small amount of drugs, and no music references. (That's, sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll.) There was a large amount of violence due to civil unrest. The sex was of the fade to black type and moderately-graphic. All romantic relationships amongst “the good guys” were heterosexual. The “bad guy” Syrians committed unnatural acts as well as having sex outside of marriage. Alcohol was the only drug consumed. That was in moderation. Music references were absent. Violence was: physical, impact weapons, edged weapons, military small arms and military ordnance as well as WMDs. Violence was gory and descriptive. Note that torture was described. As in many thrillers, the POV contributing protagonists had remarkable stamina. Body count was high. (There was a Civil War on.)
World building was good, but not deep. Washington, D.C. and the Virginia environs, Damascus, and several Euro-locations contained just-enough description for a TV-level “sense-of-location”. That is, I could never “smell the place” from the description.
All the technology, for the 2011-2013 timeframe was familiar enough to someone who reads contemporary spy novels. It didn’t feel like Mission Impossible .
This book was a hybrid-fiction/non-fiction work. At heart it’s about how the CIA goes about toppling a well-ensconced leader in the Arab world. There was a lot of exposition. Mostly it was about CIA technical and administrative process and procedure. The plot was very simple. However, too many POVs dragged out that simple story.
The basic theme of the book felt too pessimistic, too contrived, and not original enough for me. It was also a novel ending in a cliffhanger. (Anathema to me.) If you’re a spy geek into modern political pr0n this may be a decent beach read for you? That’s especially true, if you want to hitch your wagon to a yet another spy series. However, I’m not reading any more stories in this series.
Modern Damascus, Syria .
My audiobook version was a moderate 13-hours long. A dead tree copy would be 430-pages. It had a US 2021 copyright.
David McCloskey is an American author of spy fiction and a former American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst. He has written three novels. This was the first book I’ve read by the author.
The narrator was Andrew B. Wehrlen. He did a good job with both the male and female voices of the narrative. Although, I found fault in his injecting emotion into scenes.
I’m a fan of the contemporary spy fiction genre, of which this was an example. This was a realistic portrayal of CIA overseas operations. Reading it shortly after the precipitous Fall of the Assad regime was a timely choice. The newsfeed provided a lot of historical back story and context on Assad’s Syria glossed over in the book.
Sam Joseph (the POV contributing protagonist) was a CIA case officer with an Arab middle eastern specialization. He’s a savvy, middle-American boy, with the right tools, on-track in The Agency’s career ladder. In a rotation, he transfers to the CIA station at the American embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus> (the titular Damascus Station). While there, he becomes The Handler for Mariam (the POV contributing co-protagonist), a beautiful, bureaucrat in the Presidential palace. You can see where this was going? (It was a very simple plot.) There’s the brutal Syrian Mukhābarāt (Military Intelligence), different branches of the Syrian military with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) , the Syrian resistance, espionage, and love involved.
Writing was technically good. Descriptive prose was written in a clear, unaffected manner. The narrative contains a large number of details in scenes on the three (CIA, Syrian Regime, Syrian Resistance) sides of the Civil War. Dialog, at least that related to action scenes was good too. However, I thought the prose tended to be too melodramatic.
The characters were very flat. None of them were terribly original. They all felt like they came from Central Casting to me? In addition, besides the Sam and Mariam characters, there were a lot of additional Syrian character POVs. These in my mind did not abet the narrative. Frankly, they felt only superficially ‘Syrian’.
There was a lot of exposition. This was an advantage in the cut ‘n dried techo-political parts and the spy tradecraft. However, the narrative sounded trite when attempting to describe the emotional relationships between the characters. Most male and female relationships were filial amongst the Syrians. Amongst the Americans, it was all professional. All relationships came out as too on the nose.
What was most annoying was the cliffhanger ending, setting up the reader to buy the next book. I think that’s The Seventh Floor ?
The book contained sex, a small amount of drugs, and no music references. (That's, sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll.) There was a large amount of violence due to civil unrest. The sex was of the fade to black type and moderately-graphic. All romantic relationships amongst “the good guys” were heterosexual. The “bad guy” Syrians committed unnatural acts as well as having sex outside of marriage. Alcohol was the only drug consumed. That was in moderation. Music references were absent. Violence was: physical, impact weapons, edged weapons, military small arms and military ordnance as well as WMDs. Violence was gory and descriptive. Note that torture was described. As in many thrillers, the POV contributing protagonists had remarkable stamina. Body count was high. (There was a Civil War on.)
World building was good, but not deep. Washington, D.C. and the Virginia environs, Damascus, and several Euro-locations contained just-enough description for a TV-level “sense-of-location”. That is, I could never “smell the place” from the description.
All the technology, for the 2011-2013 timeframe was familiar enough to someone who reads contemporary spy novels. It didn’t feel like Mission Impossible .
This book was a hybrid-fiction/non-fiction work. At heart it’s about how the CIA goes about toppling a well-ensconced leader in the Arab world. There was a lot of exposition. Mostly it was about CIA technical and administrative process and procedure. The plot was very simple. However, too many POVs dragged out that simple story.
The basic theme of the book felt too pessimistic, too contrived, and not original enough for me. It was also a novel ending in a cliffhanger. (Anathema to me.) If you’re a spy geek into modern political pr0n this may be a decent beach read for you? That’s especially true, if you want to hitch your wagon to a yet another spy series. However, I’m not reading any more stories in this series.
November 28, 2025
A lot of great reviews for this thriller but unfortunately it didn't work for me. Perhaps I've read too many thrillers lately. Enjoyed the setting and the synopsis sounded solid but I couldn't gel with the characters with the exception of Proctor. Felt they lacked depth and I couldn't buy into the romance between Sam and Miriam.
July 21, 2021
This is one of the best books I have read this year. It had shades of Red Sparrow but somehow I think Syria may be a little more ruthless and plays by fewer rules than Russia. Ben works to recruit Mariam, a Syrian intelligence official to help the United States find out more about what is going on behind the scenes in Syria. A lot of double crossing, edge of your seat action. I really hope the author keeps writing. The secondary plots in this story is what really takes it to the next level. I can't overstate how good this book is.
February 22, 2023
A very good spy novel. It was interesting as it goes into detail of the Syrian civil war. The parties to the conflict are clearly detailed as are the reasons for the start of the event. An American CIA operative is tasked with recruiting a Syrian government official to keep the the American government aware of happenings inside the intelligence services. Part of the agent’s task is to determine if chemical weapons are being used. As interesting as the book is, the author spends a lot of time in my opinion in unnecessary minutiae. Overall a pretty good and informative endeavor.
February 6, 2022
David McCloskey is the real deal and has knocked it out of the park in his novel Damascus Station. In the vain of the long ago spy novels David brings you into the world that seems so real and you feel right there with them the entire time. Carrying on the traditions of LeCarre and all of the other greats the twist and turns will keep you flipping the pages and questioning your self all night!! Easily jumped up the list of my favorite books!!
November 12, 2021
I am so grateful for authors, Sharing their stories, characters, and the writing process. This book was marvelous. I have been reading a few Le Carre novels this year. This book had all the elements of the classics. What a brave new voice. I’m anticipating a second and hope we don’t have to wait too long.
November 2, 2021
Few world leaders in recent decades have proven themselves to be more savage than Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Civil War he launched against peaceful protestors in 2011 as the Arab Spring swirled throughout the Middle East has cost as many as 600,000 lives, more than one of every fifty of Syria’s twenty-two million people. The UN estimates that over six million have been internally displaced and another five million have crossed international borders seeking safety elsewhere. (Together, that’s half the country’s population.) And Assad and the sycophants and sadists who surround him have remained oblivious to appeals from most of the world’s nations to negotiate with the opposition.
SADLY, A WINNING STRATEGY
Tragically, Assad’s ferocity has worked for him. As I write, the news is emerging in the Western press that Syria’s neighbors are restoring relations with the regime. But that is now. Eight or nine years ago, when Barack Obama served in the White House, the fighting in Syria was at its peak. And it’s against that background that CIA veteran David McCloskey spins out his spellbinding spy story about espionage in Syria, Damascus Station.
A TALE OF ESPIONAGE IN SYRIA
The principal antagonists in this novel are the men and women of the CIA and the senior-most figures in Assad’s intelligence apparatus, the mukhabarat, as well as the dictator himself. But others get into the act, too, including Russian intelligence, an Israeli spy, and the jihadist rebels in Syria. The action centers on the CIA station in the basement of the US Embassy in Damascus. But the story wanders to and from Washington, DC, and to France and Italy as well.
In classic spy fiction, the characters are almost always men, with women typically playing the role of love interest or femme fatale. Not so in Damascus Station. Many of the principal characters, both Syrian and American, are women. And they’re just as tough as the men. One particularly memorable figure in the story is five-foot-tall Artemis Aphrodite Procter, the Chief of Damascus Station, whose pugnacity and liberal use of the F-word sometime shock even the men around her. But espionage in Syria is not for the squeamish or the faint of heart.
A LOVE STORY UNFOLDS THROUGH THE ACTION
At heart, the novel is a love story pairing Sam Joseph, one of the Agency’s top recruiters of agents in “denied areas” such as Moscow (and now Damascus), with Mariam Haddad, a senior official in the Presidential Palace. The CIA dispatches Sam to Paris to recruit Mariam, where she is on a Syrian delegation to a conference. This follows Sam’s aborted attempt to exfiltrate the Agency’s top source in the Palace. (The man was caught and murdered by the mukhabarat.) Both Sam and Mariam are unusually attractive (of course, this being fiction), and they are drawn together from the outset. But circumstances weigh heavily against it. For Sam, an affair with an asset is a firing offense that could get him summarily dismissed from the CIA. For Mariam, it’s a matter of life and death. If anyone in the Palace finds out, she would face torture and would almost certainly be shot as a traitor. In the novel, we follow them through the months ahead as events spin out of control in Syria.
THOUSANDS OF TONS OF SARIN
While Sam and Mariam explore the pleasures of an affair, the war within Syria heats up. The Palace is embattled. Top officials there work frantically to build a stockpile of sarin gas to use against the massed forces of the “opposition.” Assad and his allies don’t distinguish between the democratic forces supported by the West and the jihadists who are steadily gaining ground. This is the era of Barack Obama’s “red line.” Then, the US threatened to bomb Syria if the regime used chemical warfare on its citizens. We know now that Obama backed off his threat. But no one knew that at the time. And Assad was heedless of the threat. In a program managed by his Republican Guard, officials in the novel are amassing thousands of tons of sarin. The plan is to launch a major offensive and win the civil war at one stroke.
A PRIMER ON CIA TRADECRAFT
Author David McCloskey was a Syria specialist for the CIA for six years. He knows whereof he writes in this novel about espionage in Syria. Damascus Station is filled with the acronyms and jargon that officers of the agency, like employees throughout the government, throw around so casually. Employees of the Agency are officers, never “agents.” Spies recruited within Syria are “assets,” or, rarely, agents. He describes in detail the techniques Sam uses in his two tours in Syria to avoid detection. And he introduces us to gadgets developed by the CIA’s Technical Services Division that would make James Bond’s Q salivate with envy. The book comes across as a primer on tradecraft.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
According to his British literary agency, “David McCloskey covered Syria as a CIA analyst for six years, from 2008 – 2014 and watched the country descend into unrest, civil war, and state failure. During this time, he wrote near-weekly memos for the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), lived and worked in CIA field stations throughout the region, and briefed senior White House officials, members of Congress, and Arab royalty. Damascus Station is his first novel.”
SADLY, A WINNING STRATEGY
Tragically, Assad’s ferocity has worked for him. As I write, the news is emerging in the Western press that Syria’s neighbors are restoring relations with the regime. But that is now. Eight or nine years ago, when Barack Obama served in the White House, the fighting in Syria was at its peak. And it’s against that background that CIA veteran David McCloskey spins out his spellbinding spy story about espionage in Syria, Damascus Station.
A TALE OF ESPIONAGE IN SYRIA
The principal antagonists in this novel are the men and women of the CIA and the senior-most figures in Assad’s intelligence apparatus, the mukhabarat, as well as the dictator himself. But others get into the act, too, including Russian intelligence, an Israeli spy, and the jihadist rebels in Syria. The action centers on the CIA station in the basement of the US Embassy in Damascus. But the story wanders to and from Washington, DC, and to France and Italy as well.
In classic spy fiction, the characters are almost always men, with women typically playing the role of love interest or femme fatale. Not so in Damascus Station. Many of the principal characters, both Syrian and American, are women. And they’re just as tough as the men. One particularly memorable figure in the story is five-foot-tall Artemis Aphrodite Procter, the Chief of Damascus Station, whose pugnacity and liberal use of the F-word sometime shock even the men around her. But espionage in Syria is not for the squeamish or the faint of heart.
A LOVE STORY UNFOLDS THROUGH THE ACTION
At heart, the novel is a love story pairing Sam Joseph, one of the Agency’s top recruiters of agents in “denied areas” such as Moscow (and now Damascus), with Mariam Haddad, a senior official in the Presidential Palace. The CIA dispatches Sam to Paris to recruit Mariam, where she is on a Syrian delegation to a conference. This follows Sam’s aborted attempt to exfiltrate the Agency’s top source in the Palace. (The man was caught and murdered by the mukhabarat.) Both Sam and Mariam are unusually attractive (of course, this being fiction), and they are drawn together from the outset. But circumstances weigh heavily against it. For Sam, an affair with an asset is a firing offense that could get him summarily dismissed from the CIA. For Mariam, it’s a matter of life and death. If anyone in the Palace finds out, she would face torture and would almost certainly be shot as a traitor. In the novel, we follow them through the months ahead as events spin out of control in Syria.
THOUSANDS OF TONS OF SARIN
While Sam and Mariam explore the pleasures of an affair, the war within Syria heats up. The Palace is embattled. Top officials there work frantically to build a stockpile of sarin gas to use against the massed forces of the “opposition.” Assad and his allies don’t distinguish between the democratic forces supported by the West and the jihadists who are steadily gaining ground. This is the era of Barack Obama’s “red line.” Then, the US threatened to bomb Syria if the regime used chemical warfare on its citizens. We know now that Obama backed off his threat. But no one knew that at the time. And Assad was heedless of the threat. In a program managed by his Republican Guard, officials in the novel are amassing thousands of tons of sarin. The plan is to launch a major offensive and win the civil war at one stroke.
A PRIMER ON CIA TRADECRAFT
Author David McCloskey was a Syria specialist for the CIA for six years. He knows whereof he writes in this novel about espionage in Syria. Damascus Station is filled with the acronyms and jargon that officers of the agency, like employees throughout the government, throw around so casually. Employees of the Agency are officers, never “agents.” Spies recruited within Syria are “assets,” or, rarely, agents. He describes in detail the techniques Sam uses in his two tours in Syria to avoid detection. And he introduces us to gadgets developed by the CIA’s Technical Services Division that would make James Bond’s Q salivate with envy. The book comes across as a primer on tradecraft.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
According to his British literary agency, “David McCloskey covered Syria as a CIA analyst for six years, from 2008 – 2014 and watched the country descend into unrest, civil war, and state failure. During this time, he wrote near-weekly memos for the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), lived and worked in CIA field stations throughout the region, and briefed senior White House officials, members of Congress, and Arab royalty. Damascus Station is his first novel.”
October 2, 2021
This is the first spy novel I’ve read in a long time and it reminded me how good it can be to be immersed in a gripping high stakes book. I appreciated how it wasn’t too out of reach as my knowledge of the Middle East isn’t broad, making it approachable. Highly recommend!
April 8, 2025
Una ambientación increíble y una historia con muy buen ritmo. Se hace incluso corto. Recomendable!!
September 28, 2021
Damascus Station, (Norton, $27.95, 400 pages, ISBN 978-0-393-88104-2) by former CIA analyst David McCloskey, features a CIA case officer named Sam Joseph, who in his second espionage adventure is attempting to recruit a Syrian woman named Mariam Haddad, a highly placed official working for the Syrian Secret Service called the Mukhabarat.
The story begins in Paris, France, where Sam elbows his way into a diplomatic cocktail party in order to meet the Syrian noblewoman. When he spots her being badgered by a Syrian diplomat, Sam moves in and rescues her, then strikes up a conversation. One thing leads to another, and as the CIA officer recruits Ms. Haddad, he breaks all the rules and they become romantically involved. In spite of this, she agrees to spy for the Americans, despite the incredible dangers posed by the Assad regime. Sam gets posted to Damascus . . . where he’s assigned as the case officer for the newly recruited spy. His plan is to hunt down a brutal pair of brothers who are not only Syrian Palace officials, they’re also responsible for kidnapping and torturing a female American spy to death.
McCloskey portrays the incredible tension and the mission dangers so well, that the reader will feel sweat breaking out on her neck. In addition to accurately portraying the savagery and describing the appalling conditions on the ground in the war torn country, he shows the occasional ineptitude of the CIA bureaucracy. Readers will also learn the basic elements of spycraft, such as avoiding tails, the operation of a safe house and how to make a dead drop. This sobering and electrifying novel is a nail-biter that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the last page is read. If you’re a fan of spy novels you don’t want to miss this one!!
The story begins in Paris, France, where Sam elbows his way into a diplomatic cocktail party in order to meet the Syrian noblewoman. When he spots her being badgered by a Syrian diplomat, Sam moves in and rescues her, then strikes up a conversation. One thing leads to another, and as the CIA officer recruits Ms. Haddad, he breaks all the rules and they become romantically involved. In spite of this, she agrees to spy for the Americans, despite the incredible dangers posed by the Assad regime. Sam gets posted to Damascus . . . where he’s assigned as the case officer for the newly recruited spy. His plan is to hunt down a brutal pair of brothers who are not only Syrian Palace officials, they’re also responsible for kidnapping and torturing a female American spy to death.
McCloskey portrays the incredible tension and the mission dangers so well, that the reader will feel sweat breaking out on her neck. In addition to accurately portraying the savagery and describing the appalling conditions on the ground in the war torn country, he shows the occasional ineptitude of the CIA bureaucracy. Readers will also learn the basic elements of spycraft, such as avoiding tails, the operation of a safe house and how to make a dead drop. This sobering and electrifying novel is a nail-biter that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the last page is read. If you’re a fan of spy novels you don’t want to miss this one!!
October 1, 2021
I am already eagerly awaiting McCloskey’s next novel. This book has it ALL. Interesting characters. Excellent plot. Details that could only be written by a true former CIA agent. McCloskey is the real deal and takes the reader through an authentic, exciting journey in his debut novel, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a classic spy thriller, but I think it has a lot of elements that would attract those who typically find themselves in other genres. My favorite read of the year.
February 13, 2024
I thought this would be better than it was if I’m honest.
I was expecting a spy thriller and sort of got it but with a bit of Mills and Boon romance thrown in which dominates the first half of the book.
The Syrian characters felt very two dimensional, like caricatures of “bad guys”.
I kept waiting for the story to pick up but it sort of trundles along at its own pace which made the book feel much longer than its bloated 400 plus pages.
A bit boring with wafer thin characters and a story that takes forever to actually get anywhere it’s fair to say this one wasn’t for me.
I was expecting a spy thriller and sort of got it but with a bit of Mills and Boon romance thrown in which dominates the first half of the book.
The Syrian characters felt very two dimensional, like caricatures of “bad guys”.
I kept waiting for the story to pick up but it sort of trundles along at its own pace which made the book feel much longer than its bloated 400 plus pages.
A bit boring with wafer thin characters and a story that takes forever to actually get anywhere it’s fair to say this one wasn’t for me.
Read
September 27, 2021DAMASCUS STATION is an extremely effective modern espionage novel, filled with action and incident but also a profound knowledge of the people and factions of Syria, the complex maneuvers of spycraft, the gray areas, competing egos and overlapping priorities that make every day a journey through the minefield.
Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/09/24/forme...
Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/09/24/forme...
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