David Stone, The Echelon Vendetta

The Echelon Vendetta

David Stone

Putnam, Feb 2007, $25.95, 432 pp.

ISBN: 0399154086

In the parlance of the CIA, Micah Dalton is a "cleaner" the person sent in when it is time to fix whatever goes wrong in the field. He is sent to the roman chapel of San Nicolo in Cartona Tuscany to examine the body of field agent Porter Naumann. The police think he mutilated his body before he killed himself but Micah has doubts. A man going by the name of Rainwater drugs him causing him to have hallucinations that clear up in a few days.

He is sent by his superiors to Porter's London home where his wife and two daughters are found murdered and mutilated. Several agents who were part of the Echleon project in the Rainwater group are being killed by the same man who killed Porter and his family in the same gruesome manner leaving behind a picture that point to an Indian as the murderer. As Micah follows the clues, he doesn't know he is being used for an evil purpose or who the people running him are.

Remember the name David Stone because in the future everyone will know him as a top thriller writer. The protagonist is trying to find the killer, shake off the effects of the poison and obtain justice for his friend who often appears to him in his ghostly form. Readers will wonder if he is hallucinating or not. The Echelon Vendetta takes the reader into the shadowy areas of a CIA operation that is a normal activity for the agency.

Harriet Klausner