Almost 5 stars until the ending. The author built tension throughout the story in slow, subtle ways. I thought the plot was well constructed even if I didn’t believe in the almost instant “love” between Sam and Mariam. The ending is what dropped my rating from 5 stars to 4.5 stars. Mariam supposedly disappeared and can’t be found but was still in her home. Can’t understand why Ali wasn’t making her go back to her job so he could keep using her for intelligence inside the government and outside to report on others. There was also too much ambiguity in the ending. I like endings that are tighter, especially if the sequel doesn’t have the same characters.
I wasn’t sure I’d find the setting in Syria interesting, but it was. The story caused me to research more recent history on Syria. The novel is pro-CIA which isn’t that common these days in this genre. That said, reading this did make me wonder why people choose to be a CIA field agent in a hostile country. The risks are high, the government pay is low, and recognition is basically non-existent. I just hope there are a lot of Bradleys and Procters in the CIA.
The narration overall was fine for me. I thought he narrated Sam well. My only issue was that sometimes when a scene changed, there was no pause to let the listener know that it was a new paragraph or situation.