Classified Waste — Alexander M. Grace

Highly-popular, adventure novelist, Alexander M. Grace broadens the genre in his newest novel, Classified Waste, where espionage and adventure are mixed with fantasy, whimsy, and the occult. The action begins at CIA headquarters in the Special Activities Division, Office of Occult Operations, North (SAD/OOO/N), where mid-level CIA operations officer Dale Feeney has been parked in the hopes he can get his life back together. Recent events, while stationed in Santa Domingo -- his young daughter died and his wife left him -- have caused his superiors at headquarters find him a new job, one where he would be out of the way and could soon be forgotten. His new position as Chief of SAD/OOO/N seems to be the perfect place for him. But, In the best tradition of adventure fiction, this obscure office almost immediately finds itself in the middle of a major Middle Eastern terrorist operation. And, in the best tradition of fantasy, the SAD/OOO/N staff witches -- Did they say "Staff witches?" -- rise to the occasion, dragging Dale along with them. From the unfolding story of a seriously compromised terrorist informer network detailed at a meeting inside the claustrophobic and highly bureaucratic walls of CIA headquarters, to initial interrogations at "the farm" outside Williamsburg, to the assassination of a high-level terrorist defector in Mexico City, the action never slows, while Dale is led from place to place and back again by his ever-supportive staff as he rebuilds his life and his career. Terrorists, traitors, toil and trouble???all come together in this fast-paced, entertaining look at CIA operations in the post-cold war era. Sure to be a hit with Grace fans as well as add a whole new following, Classified Waste is a winner -- and SAD/OOO/N may well be an idea whose time has come.