Victor in Trouble

Victor Caro #3

by Alex Finley

When case officer Victor Caro arrives in Rome for his retirement tour, he and his family anticipate a three-year joy ride filled with good food, even better wine, and all the cultural wonders the Eternal City has to offer. But when Russia's intelligence services help install a new American president, Victor finds himself in a national security nightmare. He and his team must race from Rome to Moscow to Washington, fending off an American senator clamoring to ride a Russian bear and a Russian honeypot who shoots guns in stiletto heels. At the same time, scooter-riding assassins are threatening his source, who infiltrates a family values conference packed with prostitutes. All the while, a massive disinformation machine funded by an oligarch with yacht envy wreaks havoc around them. Can Victor protect his source but still battle the bureaucrats breathing down his neck? And can he protect America from a president who shares his intelligence briefings with a Russian matryoshka doll? Victor quickly realizes there will be no coasting to the retirement finish line. This tour is going to be trouble.

249 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 18, 2022

About the author

Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. Before becoming a bureaucrat living large off the system, she chased puffy white men around Washington DC as a member of the wild dog pack better known as the Washington media elite. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CBC’s The National, Sirius XM’s Yahoo! Politics, The Cipher Brief, the Spy Museum’s SpyCast, and numerous other media outlets.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun read. Gets into the Trump-Russia stuff pretty heavily, so satire is probably the best way to consume it all. The real events were so absurd that they don't need to be played up too much, and the lighter moments keep it from slipping into depressing territory. Mostly. Solid spy bureaucracy details on display as well.

The inside look at propaganda is particularly good, as is the portrait of Max, our Italian nationalist coming to terms with the realities of the party he's supported and the price of Russian friendship.

Bonus points for an absolutely cutting portrait of a Snowden analogue in the beginning. More superyacht content, please.

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a farce, firmly rooted in Vladimir Putin's efforts to weaken democracies everywhere, not just the USA. The author's afterword is serious and thoughtful. If you like satire and whimsy mixed with intelligence tradecraft and a serious dose of anti-democratic movements by dictators, then this is a good book for you.

Added bonus, most of the action takes place in Italy, and it makes for an interesting travelogue.

[Mimi Pockross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because the author takes a cynical view of the underground aspects of how foreign relations work and, at the same time, gives the reader new insight as well. The characters are quite charming and the food and entertainment descriptions a great balance for the seriousness of the topic. A welcome change from all the talking heads chatter about the subject.

[Ty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 2nd in a series written by a for CIA agent (or was she?). These books are not going to winning any Pulitzers, but they are very entertaining parodies of the world that we live in today. Almost any libtard will find them laugh out loud funny. If you are interested in a very quick read that will bring on many smiles, give these a shot.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 3rd in this series satirically follows current events with Russian influence operations throughout Europe and the 2016 US elections. Similar to the second, the ending feels somewhat rushed in the last quarter of the book. The scary truth seems less comical and more of a scary reality check heading into the 2024 elections.

[Marilyn Null · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard Hitting Parody

This is the most direct narrative, yet, of the damage done to our country by the last "administration." Kudos to Alex Finley for telling it like it is!

[Christopher Gerrib · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satire which hits a bit close to home, given current events.

[LJ Lombos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed tearing through this book and how it hilariously portrayed the bureaucratic trappings of spycraft and the crazy zeitgeist of populism in America and Europe. No over-the-top moments typical of spy thrillers. Just real-world spooks struggling with their work-life dramas while keeping autocracy at bay. While it's clearly written as a parody, the book is an upfront social commentary on the dilemma between a civil service sworn to maintain a well-oiled machine called democracy and a leadership under foreign influence bent on driving it towards a dangerous cliff for political expediency.