Rick Behringer is an outside contractor working for the Central Intelligence Agency. He owns a small company that, in the light of day, provides communications security for government offices, including the CIA. In the shadows, though, Rick’s a spy. He runs overseas agents for the CIA and, through his firm, buys foreign military technology that the Agency wants to inspect but can’t be seen purchasing. The divorced father of two little girls, Rick carries on a cold war with his ex, Liz, and a hot romance with his sexy girlfriend, Frannie. He still broods over the mysterious death of his father, a high-level CIA officer during the Vietnam War, who committed suicide when Rick was thirteen. Through contacts in what he calls the “Black World,” Rick hears of a mysterious Pakistani Islamist, a rogue nuclear physicist, who is trying to acquire highly-enriched uranium in order to construct “an Islamic bomb” - a scheme that is all too credible. In tracking him down, Rick encounters a host of characters, some willing to help, many more willing to take his life. And in the explosive conclusion, he struggles in a deadly game of wits with Russian gangsters and the terrorist who is plotting nuclear mass murder in America. In The Contractor , Colin MacKinnon shows once again his rare ability to turn real-world facts into riveting spy fiction. The Contractor could happen...could be happening now. MacKinnon’s latest, following Morning Spy, Evening Spy (2006), sprawls from Washington to Siberia, Istanbul, Dubai, and points in between to tell a tale of the efforts of a shadowy Pakistani engineer and his terrorist sponsors to acquire an “Islamic bomb.” The contractor is Rick Behringer, a telecom security consultant and contract agent for the CIA. Because the Agency has lost a political turf war, Behringer is pretty much the only CIA agent who can stop the Pakistani’s scheme. If that sounds James Bondish, it’s not; in fact, it’s an eerily plausible story. The Pakistani engineer is presented as the protégé of A. Q. Khan, who sold nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea; meanwhile, the U.S. has outsourced human intelligence in Turkey and the Persian Gulf to a Blackwater-like private company. There is a wealth of fascinating detail here about telecommunications, signals-intelligence wizardry, and post-9/11 realpolitik. Behringer is fully fleshed, and the subplot concerning his CIA analyst father’s suicide is nicely meshed into a truly compelling contemporary spy thriller. --Thomas Gaughan Praise for The Contractor : "Middle East expert MacKinnon puts a fresh twist on the stolen suitcase-nuke plot in this smart thriller...This fine espionage procedural should please spy and adventure fans alike." -- Publishers Weekly "A truly compelling contemporary spy thriller." --Booklist Praise for Morning Spy, Evening Spy : "MacKinnon...shows great insight into the inner workings of U.S. intelligence. His clipped prose style, descriptive discipline and tone-perfect dialogue elevate this thriller above the pack." -- Publishers Weekly "This CIA procedural... pays off in a gut punch of an ending.” Booklist "A richly drawn, splendidly written novel....If you're a thriller reader, snatch this one up. It's the best of the year, by far." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch "A riveting behind-the-scenes look at CIA dealings with al Qaeda. So convincing you can't be sure where fiction ends and non-fiction begins. A first-rate intellectual thriller." --John Altman, author of The Watchmen "MacKinnon is an incredibly talented writer, and Morning Spy, Evening Spy holds its own with the best of John le Carre and Len Deighton. In a world of high-tech thrillers full of robotic wizardry, MacKinnon delivers espionage literature in its classic form, where intelligence agents are human, flawed, and ultimately courageous in the face of this era's formidable enemies." --Steven Hartov, author of the New York Times bestseller The Company of Heroes "MacKinnon's writing is sharp and fast moving...[he] provides a good window into how the CIA operates." – The Washingtonian "MacKinnon has a quiet, spare style and a knack for nailing down just the right details...A nicely written thriller." -- Kirkus Reviews COLIN MACKINNON is former chief editor of Middle East Executive Reports. He is author of the well-received novels Finding Hoseyn and Morning Spy, Evening Spy . He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife Diane.