DAMASCUS STATION 

Written by David McCloskey & Reviewed by Detective Dru

First foray into this author and his reputation would make any mother proud.  Looking forward to this one.  We begin with Sam, aka Canadian James Hansen on his Canadian passport as he’s smuggling KOMODO in his trunk, a mid-level scientist for Assad’s chemical weapons who’d become Damascus station’s most valuable asset.  The CIA also wants Val Owens, the handler. KOMODO’s arrest is imminent, so the CIA is taking shortcuts with this extraction.  Sam and Val are panicking all night at the safe house as protests grow outside. Someone busts down their door.  If Dostoevsky tried to describe Argo with only three characters, the first chapter would probably resemble this one.

Mariam and Razan are at the protest. Mariam feels like a scared little girl and Razan has a megaphone. Assad plants start firing throughout the crowd and Razan is murdered.  A swashbuckling and tense chapter one that morphs into a visceral chapter two.

Back to Val, and she doesn’t fit in the boot. But she has immunity, so she stays in the safe house while Sam gets in the car and speeds off.  Cut to an interview of Sam by some guy named Tim. Debrief/interrogation. Sam said after he drove away, he heard Val scream. Great writing and reveal.  Bradley, a work friend and Procter, the Damascus station chief, are also present.

 The Palace is Bashar’s office. Ali Hassan is his brother and in charge of the military Republican Guard.  They get a file on a woman named Mariam. Due to her access as an employee and motive because of Razan’s assault, she’s the prime target for Sam regarding Assad’s Chemical weapons program. Mariam is at work and coldly suggesting blackmail to get some asset from Paris to Syria. Jamal Atiyah is another Palace counselor to the President.  Fun fact, Jamal is a pedo. Mariam goes to some cousin’s engagement, family is there. Her brother and dad are stranded in Aleppo on military and her uncle – Dad’s brother - is the father of Razan, who was apparently not murdered but just severely beaten for her “sedition.”

General Ali Hassan is torturing some spy that met with Val in Abu Dhabi. It’s Ghazali aka KOMODO who was the asset Sam and Val had wanted to smuggle. He goes home and acts like a normal non-torturing husband until a neighbor knocks hysterically. Her son was arrested and she wants Ali to intervene. He does begrudgingly and contacts Rustum (big brother) to free him. Basil is the actual younger bro of Ali and he arrives.

PART TWO - RECRUITMENT

It’s chapter seven, and Sam secured an invite to some event after trying to tail Mariam while she jogged, but she was tailed by someone else, probably Syrian.  At the party he rescues her from some guy then convinces her to meet him for dinner the next evening so that he can properly pitch his CIA plan. They exchange secrets about his recruitment while in a Vegas casino and her protest from chapter two with Razan. He asks for another meet up but she declines. He doesn’t persist, confident he’s going to recruit her since there was sexual tension.

Mariam conversely, is ready to recruit Fatima. She meets Fatima and threatens her family if she doesn’t comply, but her answer was still no.  Mariam calls Sam despite knowing it’s a bad idea. They meet at her Krav Maga place and spar before a dinner. Fatima has agreed to a meet up in some coastal town. Sam invites himself and Mariam accepts, as well as confirming that her people threaten the families of oppositionists.

Sam and Mariam convene at some villa in the coastal town and she already suspects he’s no diplomat as he claims, so she mentions Ali Hassan is the spycatcher for the Palace. She also mentions Jamil and her boss Bouthania, two pedos that hate each other. Such honor amongst these thieves.  Sam and Mariam start hooking up but he stops because of protocol. She’s pissed and demands a ride home. When they get there the three Syrians that were tailing her earlier are waiting to ambush her. Sam and Mariam kill all three and bounce up out the crime scene. 

 The next couple chapters are more or less an 80’s movie montage that combines spy training as well as a sexual tryst in lieu of a pop quiz about how Sam’s brother died. (He told her he was run over by a car.  What a lady’s man.)  Top level girl boss Procter finally arrives in chapter fifteen to supervise and she likes Mariam. It is the last night before the move back to Damascus.  Sam and Mariam discuss her uncle Daoud, the man she should target for intel regarding the sarin attack, despite his villainous disposition.

PART THREE – BOMBS

Val is killed, followed by an erroneous press release made by Ali. Ali receives intel on Sam and Mariam and he is mildly suspicious. Kansan provided the intel before Ali’s older brother Rustum called, asking about Daoud.  Rustum and Daoud meet to procure Russian materials for some bomb. They convey coordinates and a nearby village is bombed with sarin. They inspect and find 57 prisoner bodies, the last of which was Daoud’s daughter for leaking some sort of secret.  No denying the man’s vision and focus.

Sam arrives in Damascus in chapter nineteen, finds his safe house and asks his bandits to start running building surveillance for Ali specifically.  Sam receives the almighty mcguffin usb stick and loses Ali’s surveillance before dropping the mcguffin to Mariam. She gets to Bouthania’s office and distracts Bouthania, but Jamil suddenly appears during her usb download. Mariam makes the switch with Sam at a spice market. Mariam and Razan visit uncle Daoud and he reveals to Mariam that they tested sarin on people and are readying for war. Just typical family stuff type conversation…

Chapter twenty four and POTUS signs off on Ali’s assassination. They’re gonna use cigarettes as the weapon.  (cue Roger Moore telling the camera that cigarettes will kill ya, you know). Bouthania and Mariam go to Jamil and he flaunts their failure at recruiting Fatima. He makes inappropriate remarks toward Mariam before Bouthania insists they take another run at Fatima. Mariam graffitis the wall to alert Sam of her emergency, enabling Sam and Mariam to meet before the trip to Italy where he gives her the necklace they had made with a recorder in it.

Paulina at Langley and Abu Qasim are both building bombs in different parts of the world intended for Ali Hassan.  Paulina has a car door shipped from Jordan and Abu is bringing explosives near Ali via tea cart.  Many folks mention the Act II lull, and it wouldn’t be a trope without a reason, but as much as we’d like to avoid such a label, it seems to be upon us.  Ever since the dual plot introduction for Ali’s demise, things have started to drift toward something far less interesting.

PART IV – HUNTED

Ali and Kanaan arrest Razan in front of Mariam to ensure she does her job in Italy.  CIA gets the planted intel about the sarin being moved.  Mariam confronts Fatima after arresting her whole family. Fatima agrees to lie and resign, but also spits on Mariam. Then Sam, Mariam and Procter meet and give Mariam an iPad for keeping up comms. She’s visibly shook as she leaves for her mission. 

Chapter forty felt cheap.  The author tricks the reader by making one think Sam is in danger at the safe house but he isn’t. Sam and Ali suddenly meet and do the Bond villain thing. They know each other’s true identities and motivations, but don’t let on to one another. Then Sam returns to the safe house to find it destroyed with a picture of him and Ali at the meeting on his bed. Also the ongoing car bomb plot seems to have failed at the last second.  Mariam makes the switch of the bags with the guy they’re framing before he sleeps with Bouthania. Now Mariam thinks she’s let everyone down -though at this point it’s slightly unclear why- and decides to find Sam.   Thankfully, the surveillance backs off Sam for plot armor purposes.  Sam is approached by three Syria “militia” and at the last second Mariam appears to kill them via Krav Maga before they kill Sam via murderous methods. Mariam says Ali used her to trick Sam, then tells him about the misinformation that Bouthania was fed.  Way too much double crossing and information that ultimately was rendered moot to the arching plot. 

But fear not, because explosion at a meeting with the tea cart! President and the two brothers lived, um, convenient? But now Ali provides intel to big brother Rustum that Bouthania was the leak, because Mariam told Sam who in turn told CIA.  Bouthania is killed.  Mariam visits Uncle Daoad, who conveniently decides on a timely change of heart and gives Mariam five locations on a paper before leaving her, acting as if he’ll never return. He says he’s avenging Razan apparently.  Sam convinces Procter that Mariam is the golden goose of intel after the Bouthania hit, despite previous misinformations. They want to protect her and stop the sarin, but Ali intercepts the iPad that Sam uses to reach out to Mariam …and now Ali is waiting for Sam at the safehouse instead.  Catfish for the win.

PART V - FREEDOM

Chapter fifty one opens with an exponential eye roll. Sam is tortured by Rustum and Ali (in the same room as Val), they bring in their new prisoner Mariam to witness this. But don’t worry, Sam planned for this with Mariam in Italy. He gives Jamil a name while being tortured. Then Rustum snaps and knifes Sam in the neck and cheek after bloodying his foot. Then Mariam gets stabbed in the lung. Then apparently Ali attacks his brother while having a grandpa flashback and stops further damage to Sam and calls for a doctor for Mariam? So now, Ali was betraying his country this whole time? Mariam was his agent too? What? Ali visits Sam and says he’s suddenly a family man. He offers a tape and evidence of Val’s murder, which he tried to stop. He wants consideration for his family when it comes to future USA bombings. Also, Jamil the OG pedo is found with the planted evidence that he’s a traitor.   

Six weeks later…

Basil is still alive and Sam must contact Ali to locate him for CIA.  Also apparently no one knows where Mariam is? WTF? Ali calls a meeting with Basil so Sam can have the team kill him with that car bomb in the door that was originally meant for Ali, but Sam is on leave after all the foul ups and admitting to humping Mariam. But Procter shows at his place and gives him a message (presumably from Mariam, even though no one can find her.)

Thankfully the author knows where Mariam is while she arranges Razan’s defection and stays behind, confirming Uncle Duoad provided the locations before leaving, knowing he would be at a bomb site. Razan leaves and Mariam prepares her next dead drop note for Sam.

The reputation and the first two thirds of this book had this reader fired up, but damn if it didn’t fall off a darn cliff trying to reconcile all the double crossing.  Even General Zod, an alien from the planet Krypton and Phantom Zone refugee, didn’t buy Lex Luthor’s “I was undercover the whole time” schtick.  If the greatest criminal mind of our time can’t pull it off, how could David expect Ali to do what Gene Hackman could not?  This book had some great writing and tension, but ultimately withered under the weight of its plot twisting.