A young Iranian nuclear scientist calling himself Dr. Ali contacts the CIA with information concerning that country's enrichment of weapons-grade uranium. Harry Pappas, an old CIA hand, is in charge of the Iranian department.Having recently lost his only son in the Iarq War, he tries to handle Dr. Ali as he would have liked someone to care for his son.
I requested The Increment as an ARC after enjoying Body of Lies so much by the author, David Ignatius. Ignatius is a correspondent for the Washington Post and an excellent writer. In chapter one he informs the reader that "this is the story of (Dr. Ali's) decision to abandon one idea of right and good in favor of another. Like all accounts of young men stuggling to find their paths in the world, it is a story of fathers and sons. You could say that it is a story of betrayal, and also of fidelity." Fine prose indeed.
Harry Pappas and his assistant, Marcia Hill, resemble American versions of George Smiley and Connie in John LeCarre's Karla trilogy. They share the same devotion, wisdom and disappointments with others in the business of espionage.
Ignatius admitted in the Acknowledgement that he had spent only two weeks in Iran. He researched the country through interviews and reading. Setting is very important to me and I feel that the story suffered due to the author's lack of experience in the region. The plot was above average for an espionage novel. Good but not as good Body of Lies. I give it a rating of about 3.5. ( )

From Tehran an Iranian nuclear scientist boldly e-mails the USA’s Central Intelligence Agency. This simple act draws the attention of longtime CIA analyst, Harry Pappas, who wants to maintain contact with his ‘virtual walk-in’ whom he names ‘Dr. Ali’ while at the same time shielding his ‘VW’ from both Iranian counter intelligence and other US government intelligence bureaucrats. At issue is Iranian pursuit of nuclear weaponry and America’s vacillating war vs. anti-war policies. Pappas solicits the help of the UK’s Adrian Winkler, Secret Intelligence Service (in James Bond’s day, MI-6) analyst, and friend from yesteryear when both were case officers in Moscow and later as respective chiefs of station in Iraq. Knowing the criticality of protecting Dr. Ali from discovery and understanding Pappas’ plea for intelligence ‘assets’ in Tehran, Winkler reveals the existence of an SIS ad hoc ‘black operations’ unit derived from the Special Air Service, the UK version of the USA’s Army Special Forces, which is called ‘The Increment’, which unit can be utilized to extract ‘Dr. Ali’ from Iran. The twists and turns of this spy novel call to mind the intricacies of the early novels of John le Carre (The Spy Who Came In From The Cold) and Ian Fleming (Casino Royale)but with more alignment with today’s current affairs involving Iran, Israel, Russia, and other states. David Ignatius, journalist with the Washington Post, whose sphere of interest and expertise is the Middle East and America’s intelligence community, has imagined fiction to be on par with whatever is the truth of today’s political power displays between Iran and the West. The Increment is a ‘page turner’ that will lead to inevitable scanning of the news on CNN and FNC as well as Internet blogs and even Foreign Affairs magazine. It is that compelling of a novel. ( )

A young scientist working inside an Iranian nuclear development facility decides to drop a pebble into the pond and see where the ripples end up. He sends an e-mail to the general CIA website and attaches some test results from his lab. That begins a chain of events that the scientist surely could never have anticipated. In a story that looks a lot like this week's news headlines, the CIA together with British intelligence work to determine the exact state of Iranian nuclear development - just how close to having operational weapons are they? The title of the book refers to the super-secret British special ops group who has the authority to use lethal force (not quite a "license to kill", but very close) that is given the assignment of bringing the scientist out of Iran to be interrogated.

I thought the premise of the book seem promising - but it didn't work for me. All the characters are flawed and conflicted and struggling to make the right decisions, but I just didn't care about any of them. I may have been distracted by real life. I know I was put off by the audio production. Normally I am a big fan of audio books, and usually this type of story lends itself well to audio, but they used the wrong reader this time. All in all, a disappointment since I'd been wanting to read this book for several months. If you're interested in trying it, go for the print version - not audio - I wish I had. ( )

Mediocre spy novel, slandering Iran, not as good as some of this author. ( )

Back in the late 90s, I picked up my first book from David Ignatius while running through an airport. On a hop from New Jersey to Cleveland, I devoured most of it. I got a second and a third - but then my airplane commuting stopped and I lost interest in the genre of 'cold war fiction'. Coming back to Mr. Ignatius' work again has rekindled my passion for the spy thriller.

I was apprehensive: no longer the mystery of the big, bad Soviet Bear, there's now a new player with the secrets of the Iranian government being just as seductive and the security services of the US and UK back into play fighting the 'bad guys'. If, like me, you gave up on that whole LeCarre genre, I'd urge you to give this work a try. You won't be disappointed - and it may rekindle a lost pleasure as it has with me. ( )