Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Body of Lies (2008): A Novel
    Body of Lies (2008): A Novel
    Body of Lies (2008): A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Body of Lies (2008): A Novel

    Written by David Ignatius

    Narrated by Dick Hill

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Roger Ferris is one of the CIA's soldiers in the war on terrorism. He has come out of Iraq with a shattered leg and an intense mission-to penetrate the network of a master terrorist known only as "Suleiman." Ferris's plan for getting inside Suleiman's tent is inspired by a masterpiece of British intelligence during World War II: He prepares a body of lies, literally the corpse of an imaginary CIA officer who appears to have accomplished the impossible by recruiting an agent within the enemy's ranks.

    This scheme binds friend and foe in a web of extraordinary subtlety and complexity, and when it begins to unravel, Ferris finds himself flying blind into a hurricane. His only hope is the urbane head of Jordan's intelligence service-a man who might be an Arab version of John le Carre's celebrated spy, George Smiley. But can Ferris trust him?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 29, 2008
    ISBN9781400179930
    Body of Lies (2008): A Novel

    More audiobooks from David Ignatius

    Related to Body of Lies (2008)

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Zeroing In On Southern New Mexico

      Aug 31, 2021

      From childhood David Gerald Thomas aspired to be a good chess player, and as a young man in 1974 he played for Lebanon at the 21st Chess Olympiad, in Nice, France. He also wanted to travel, so over a span of four years he checked off Europe, Africa,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Guilt by Association

      Nov 14, 2023

      Guilt by Association
      11 min read

    • Article

      Being The Son Of A Nazi

      Mar 22, 2014

      Being The Son Of A Nazi
      14 min read

    • Article

      Sedition Hunters: How Ordinary Americans Helped Track Down The Capitol Rioters

      Oct 28, 2023

      For one rioter at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, wearing a Caterpillar hoodie proved a bad fashion choice. Admittedly, with an American flag-patterned cap and some shades, the garment helped shield his identity as he manhandled a police officer. Y

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Son Probes His Stepfather’s Ties To Jimmy Hoffa

      Sep 24, 2019

      Jack Goldsmith untangles a family relationship that involved links to the mob and the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Five-decade Mystery Harold Holt's Shocking Secret life!

      Dec 18, 2022

      Harold Holt is credited with helping shape modern Australia, yet his achievements have always been overshadowed by the enduring mystery of what happened on that fateful day at Portsea in Victoria when he disappeared without a trace. Did the Australia

      2 min read

    • Article

      All Those Impostors

      Oct 26, 2021

      All Those Impostors
      4 min read

    • Article

      Most Wanted

      Jan 25, 2023

      Kate Clark had craved adventure since she was a little girl. Born in 1873, her parents Emaline and John worked hard to make ends meet on their small farm. But flame-haired Kate had a rebellious streak. She later idolised the train-thieving Dalton Gan

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Packard To Kill For

      Aug 10, 2020

      Editor’s note: The following story by Old Cars reader Matt McLaughlin contains crime details not usually found in Old Cars. As such, reader discretion is advised. In 1921, the Adams, Wis., area had only five dealerships for the automobile-buying pub

      10 min read

    • Article

      Gottcha

      Oct 12, 2018

      Gottcha
      7 min read

    • Article

      From Combat To Conspiracy

      Jul 9, 2021

      From Combat To Conspiracy
      15 min read

    • Article

      Argo II

      Dec 19, 2021

      Argo II
      25 min read

    • Article

      Harry THE AFTERSHOCK

      Jan 25, 2023

      Harry THE AFTERSHOCK
      8 min read

    • Article

      Zodiac Killer Found!

      Oct 17, 2021

      Zodiac Killer Found!
      2 min read

    • Article

      First Western Gunfighter?

      Nov 24, 2020

      First Western Gunfighter?
      11 min read

    • Article

      Harry THE AFTERSHOCK

      Jan 29, 2023

      Harry THE AFTERSHOCK
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Body of Lies (2008)

    4/5

    28 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      I was first attracted to this book because it involved the relationship between Jordanian Intelligence and the CIA. Since there had been a recent story in the news about several CIA agents who were killed by an operative who came from Jordanian Intelligence, I thought perhaps this novel may have predicted the actual news event. Well, this book didn’t do that, but I’ll have to admit that I was impressed with the book’s ending.Through the first half of the book I seriously considered bailing out and not finishing. The description of personal relationships seems sophomoric, written at a level to appeal to adolescent males. The description of CIA activities could only appeal to people who think the real life CIA program of “extraordinary rendition” was a good idea. Then the action started becoming more interesting, so I decided to finish the book. But I still planned to rate the book at one star. Then I came to the end. I was blown away. So I have to give it more than one star. What do you do with a book that you both love and hate? Well, how about two stars?Here's the review of the book that was on my PageADay Calendar:EVERYTHING YOU WANT IN A SPY NOVELThis intricately plotted post-9/11 spy thriller is so gripping because its author, journalist David Ignatius, has a masterful command of the ins and outs of Middle Eastern politics, and because his characters are such fully drawn individuals. The suspense is riveting and the conclusion unexpected, to put it mildly.BODY OF LIES, by David Ignatius (W. W. Norton, 2007)The WW2 era Operation Mincemeat is referenced in this book. It's interesting to note that a recent book by the same title has been published, Operation Mincemeat by Ben MacIntyre. If you don't know what Operation Mincemeat involved, I'll let you do your own research.
    • 4/5
      Spy fiction about games and trickery between US, Jordanian, and al-Qaida intelligence. Entertaining, but not my favorite genre.
    • 2/5
      The book had aged very much. Mostly because of 2000th things and accent on Iraq war.
      Start of the book was perfect, but then it fades away.

    • 5/5
      This is a book by a masterful story teller. Roger Ferris is the CIA agent working in Amman for Ed Hoffman. They create a situation involving dropping a body (Harry Meeker) to compromise an Al Qaida operative named Suleiman. Ferris dissolves a relationship with his wife Gretchen (a Washington lawyer) and takes up with an American in Amman named Alice who is involved in programs to aid Arab refugees in Jordan. While Ed and Roger are involved in the elaborate hoax to frame Suleiman, their intelligence operative in Amman named Hani, turns out to be one step ahead of them. When Alice appears to be kidnapped by Al Quaida, Roger gives himself up to them in exchange for her live. Hani saves him and eventually Suleiman is fingered as being in cahoots with the CIA, thereby screwing up the works for his fellow terrorists.
    • 3/5
      Good story line. Just a personal quirk of not liking that some innocent characters were expendable -- the justifiable means towards an greater end, but that is just the nature of espionage and black ops. I didn't know that it had been made into a movie (and have clearly not seen it), but having read the book, I can probably correctly surmise that much of the subtler aspects were traded for the action.
    • 3/5
      “Body of Lies” is the second book by David Ignatius that I’ve read (last month I read “Agents of Innocence”). Ignatius is an American journalist/novelist whom I never heard of until the infamous 2009 “Davos Incident”. Ignatius discovered – I’m sure to his amazement – how mad you can make a Turkish politician when you dare interrupt his ranting by putting a hand on his shoulder. No doubt Ignatius has been keeping his hands to himself since.Anyway, some time ago The Economist recommended the new Ignatius novel “Bloodmoney”, and since I have this medical condition which impels me to make an effort to read books by the same author more or less in the chronological order they were published, I started with “Agents” and only then moved on to “Body of Lies”.I didn’t like “Agents of Innocence” even though it was set in Lebanon and dealt with events surrounding the Palestinian encroaching takeover of that country in the 1970s, a topic I once used to be very interested in. I found the book to be lacking in depth and the characters to be too underdeveloped to be meaningful. I also found a factual mistake, which is always a real put off in books (Ignatius refers to the Israel currency, the Shekel, at a time when the currency was still the Lira). I had greater hopes for “Body of Lies” especially as I was vaguely aware there was a Leonardo DiCaprio character somewhere in there…And I was not too disappointed. “Body of Lies” is a much more mature book than “Agents” and, if anything, moves at a much faster pace. Roger Ferris, a CIA agent stationed in Amman, Jordan, devises a scheme to set a trap for Al-Saleem, a terrorist responsible for multiple car bombings in Europe. He creates a fictional terrorist to “compete” with Al-Saleem (by setting off his own bomb), thus hoping to lure the terrorist out of hiding. His fatal mistake is not involving Hani Salaam, the elegantly dressed head of Jordanian Intelligence, in all the details. The two weave a “body of lies” around each other which eventually ends up in a shootout in Syria where Ferris almost dies but is saved at the last minute by Salaam. As is almost obligatory in these novels, Ferris is unhappily married and meets a beautiful woman, a nurse by the name of Aisha, with whom he falls hopelessly in love with, etc.Right after finishing the book I watched the movie. That’s when I understood why I thought of DiCaprio; he plays the Ferris character. I liked the movie and thought it was perhaps even more enjoyable than the book, which I’m afraid doesn’t say much for David Ignatius’ writing. After all, a movie starring DiCaprio being better than something surely isn’t a good sign for that something…
    • 3/5
      An engaging behind-the-scenes story of the war on terror. The book tells the story of a CIA agent who gets caught up in an operation where everything might not be what it seems. Most of the action takes place in Jordan rather than the usual places one might expect. There's also a love story thrown in that only sort of works but is used mostly to drive the story to a conclusion. The last third of the book is interesting and fairly clever. From what I hear the movie is vastly different from the story told in the novel which isn't very surprising. It's a good read and it didn't take me long. Not sure I'd put it at the top of any list, but worth the time if you like this type of story.
    • 4/5
      A very clever thriller involving both the cleverness and ineptitude of the CIA. The peek into the Jordanian intelligence operation was very interesting.