Once a Spy

Once a Spy by Huffington Post columnist Keith Thomson is an espionage novel with a twist.

Drummond Clark is a spy. He has been a spy most of his life and, as such, has many secrets that cannot fall into the wrong hands. Now he is developing Alzheimer's and is becoming a potential sieve of information. His own agency is following him to make sure he is not becoming a danger.

According to his son, Charlie Clark, Drummond is an appliance salesman who is the dullest human he has ever met. Anyone who would miss his son's birthday for a wash machine expo cannot be a good dad.

When Charlie is called to collect his father from a senior center he wandered into, Charlie thinks the men following them work for the bookie he owes money to for gambling on horse races. But during one of his father's lucid moments he learns that the boring appliance salesman is awfully adept at hot wiring a needed get-away car.

Once a Spy combines the action-packed story of a super spy novel with the chance for a son and his father to get to know each other after 30 years of lies (provided they are not killed by the CIA assassins who are after them), plus a wrench thrown in called Alzheimer's. It is a perfect balance of suspense and substance that will thrill readers of many genres. I will be scanning the Huffington Post headlines until his next book is written!

Thomson, Keith. (2010). Once a Spy. New York: Doubleday.