-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Vanessa Pierson Novel
by Valerie Plame & Sarah Lovett
Covert CIA ops officer Vanessa Pierson is finally close to capturing the world's most dangerous international nuclear arms dealer: Bhoot, alias the ghost. One of her assets has information about Bhoot's upcoming visit to a secret underground nuclear weapons facility in Iran - in only a few days. But just as Pierson's informant is about to give her the location, they're ambushed by an expert sniper. Pierson narrowly escapes. Her asset: dead.
Desperate to capture Bhoot and the sniper before they inflict more damage, Pierson enlists all of the Agency's resources to find them. But with each day, the pressure of the manhunt mounts, causing her to push her forbidden romance with a fellow ops officer to its limit when she asks him to do the impossible. Despite the risks, she refuses to halt her pursuit of the terrorists, and she puts her cover and her career and her life at risk.
With rapid-cut shifts from European capitals to Washington to the Near East, and with insider detail that only a former spy could provide, Blowback marks the explosive beginning of the hunt for Bhoot, the villain whom Vanessa Pierson devotes her life to capturing, dead or alive.
"Readers looking for a strong female lead will be rewarded." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. A tightly wound, vigorously deployed thriller echoing the real-life stories of CIA agents and their enemies." - Library Journal
"Want to read a thriller about the real CIA and how it actually works? Then dive into this corker from former agent Valerie Plame and Sarah Lovett." - James Patterson
"Great storytelling, real insider authenticity, and above all a fascinating main character in Vanessa Pierson. And maybe those initials are not a coincidence - sometimes fiction can reveal things that nonfiction can't." - Lee Child
"Plame and Lovett have hit a home run in their fiction debut...Blowback is an outstanding addition to the thriller genre and ushers in a writing team that I hope will enthrall us for years to come." - David Baldacci
"Plame and Lovett know their stuff cold and have written a realistic, vivid, fast moving story full of shocking twists and unexpected turns. This is truly an epic thriller - the first in what promises to be a fantastic series. I highly recommend it." - Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Monster of Florence and co-creator of the legendary Pendergast novels
"[A] well-told tale of high stakes and lives on the line, starring a brilliant, edgy protagonist I can't wait to see more of. A powerful read." - Linda Fairstein
"With an alpha female heroine and a plot as familiar as her own backyard, Blowback is a stunning debut. Here's to many more." - Steve Berry
This information about Blowback was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Valerie Plame's career in the CIA included assignments in counterproliferation operations, ensuring that enemies of the United States could not threaten the country with weapons of mass destruction. She and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, are the parents of twins. Plame and her family live in New Mexico.
Sarah Lovett's five suspense novels featuring forensic psychologist Dr. Sylvia Strange have been published in the United States and around the world. A native Californian, she lives with her family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
If you liked Blowback, try these:
by Lea Carpenter
Published 2025
Set in the dark world of international espionage, from London to Mallorca, Croatia, Paris, and Cap Ferret: the gripping and suspenseful story of a young woman who unwittingly becomes a perfect asset in the long overdue finale of a covert special op
by Hanna Bervoets
Published 2023
For readers of Leila Slimani's The Perfect Nanny or Ling Ma's Severance: a tight, propulsive, chilling novel by a rising international star about a group of young colleagues working as social media content monitors - reviewers of violent or illegal videos for an unnamed megacorporation - who convince themselves they're in control...until the ...
The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures
by Jennifer Hofmann
Published 2020
An audacious debut that combines spycraft, betrayals, and reversals to show that sometimes it's the secret that destroys you.
Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the ...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
