Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland

What would you do if you were a CIA analyst and you found out that your husband of ten years is a Russian spy?  That is the crazy way day started in Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland.  Cleveland, who worked as a CIA herself, puts herself in Vivian's shoes, a CIA analyst working on rooting out Russian sleeper cells in the U.S.  When she hacks into a suspected handler's computer and sees her husband's face staring back at her, her world is rocked.

Her all-American husband confirms the worst: that he's a plant from Russia, that he targeted her and married her to get an inroad to the CIA, and that they are trapped with no way out.  Torn between her sworn duty to protect the United States, and her motherly duty to do what is best for her and Matt's four children, she tries to make things right and stay out of jail.

Cleveland's narrative is brisk and captivating.  I was at the same time frustrated that Vivian couldn't just do the right thing, and empathetic with her struggle to decide what the right thing was.  Just as Vivian can't decide whether or not she can trust Matt, Cleveland keeps us guessing until the end.  I have no idea whether sleeper cells like Cleveland describes exist in the U.S.  But she makes me wonder where they might be. . . .  Need to Know is an entertaining, suspenseful novel that will keep you reading and guessing.  Hopefully Cleveland will be back with more.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!