Broker of Lies
Broker of Lies
By: Steven James
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2023]
[Fulfilled ‘Book with less than 2023 reviews’ for Shelf Reflection’s 2023 Reading Challenge] (at the time of this review anyway…)
“Winston Churchill famously said, ‘In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’”
Steven James has finally written another book!
He’s one of my favorite authors because he is adept at writing suspenseful plot lines with twists while also incorporating some bigger ‘life questions’ in a natural way. [In this book there is a thread of justice vs vengeance and what true justice looks like]
Also this book has no swearing or sexual content! And if you think a book needs that to be engaging and awesome, you haven’t read Steven James.
Broker of Lies is a story of arson, government secrets, nuclear threats, and two unlikely characters brought together to figure out where an attack will occur, who’s behind it, and how they can stop it. Not to mention they’re being hunted by two groups of people who either want their secrets or want to kill them.
There’s a bit of complexity in the book to keep straight if you only read small chunks at a time. Hopefully my cast of characters and plot summary can be something that helps you remember who is who.
Cast of Characters
Travis Brock- main character with an eidetic memory who works at the Pentagon as a redactor dealing with government secrets and what they can release to the public;
”If there was a DOD program that needed to be protected or kept secret, odds were I’d read about it— and, consequently, remembered it.”
is also seeking to avenge his wife’s death by finding the killer and enacting justice
“some might call it vengeance; I called it a necessity. And I was ready to see things through to the end, whatever that might require of me.”
Sienna Brock- wife of Travis who is killed in a house fire at the beginning of the book; worked as a linguist for the intelligence community
Detective Caruso- investigating both the arson from Travis’s house and a missing State Department employee named Lena Rhodes
Ilya and Sergei- Russian mafia; going after Travis
Adira-(aka Flower Girl) member of the secret organization called the Red Team housed under Homeland Security/TSA to test security measures in the country
Nathan Lassiter- TSA Deputy Director, and Adira’s handler, who gave up a security access code in order to be able to pay for his father’s medical needs but later regretted it and attempted to make it right, trying to get Travis and Adira together to pursue evidence he found on who paid him for the code
Senator Cliff Richardson- senator who sold his Silicon Valley business (to Janice Daniels) to become a politician to enact change in the country, dedicating his career to bring awareness to the weaknesses in the US nuclear energy program
“Sometimes pursuing a higher ideal required sacrifice. And sometimes that required working with someone like Joshua. A man capable of the unthinkable.”
Joshua- hired by Senator Richardson to help move his goals forward using whatever means necessary
“The man was a ghost. Or a monster, depending on how you looked at things.”
Janice Daniels- billionaire philanthropist
“She was a bit of an enigma: Too much of a venture capitalist to please the Left; too much of a democratic socialist to please the Right.”
Gunnar Bane- former Army Ranger now a civilian security contractor; attempting to write a romance novel and is doing an exceptionally terrible job
Dr. Chia-hao Yong- won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work with uranium; is presenting his research on nuclear security at the Summit; is being blackmailed to secretly provide secure network access to an unidentified person during his speech
OTHER ‘PLAYERS’:
Pruninghooks Collective- radical arm of the antinuke movement (not a real group but the Plowshares movement is)
Project Symphony- a top secret research program that DARPA was involved in regarding air gap hacking (hacking computers that aren’t online)
Paraden Defense Systems- designed detonators and explosive devices for the Army; provided some key components for developing a prototype of a device being used in Project Symphony
Patmos Financial Consortium- an equity firm invested in more than fifty tracts of land all over the country
Brief Plot Summary
The book begins with a fire at Travis’s house. He sustains major burns. His wife dies in the fire, he couldn’t go back for her. He finds out it was not an accident. It was arson.
Then we jump 17 months later.
Travis, who works as a redactor at the Pentagon processing requests to release information about the DOD’s most confidential secrets, gets a suspicious request. (These requests are in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.)
What catches his attention is that it’s backdated with the date of his house fire. With further inspection he discovers an acrostic hidden within the message.
He has been on his own mission to track down the arsonist responsible for his wife’s death. He is sure this must have something to do with it.
The request is the catalyst that sends Travis on a dangerous mission to find out who was behind the request and what message it’s trying to send.
Due to both of them becoming hunted targets, Travis and another government employee, Adira, team up, and put their knowledge, skills, and resources together to get to the bottom of this. And who can they really trust?
“If we can figure out the why behind the when, we might just be able to figure out the who behind the why.”
They are eventually led to an International Nuclear Association Safety Summit held in Oak Ridge, TN— one of the sites of the Manhattan Project which was responsible for building the nuclear bomb.
Somehow the four P’s— Pruninghooks Collective, Paraden, Patmos, and Project Symphony (see my Cast of Characters) are all connected in this web of secrets and potential nuclear threat puts the pressure on Travis and Adira to stop any sort of attack before masses of people are killed or global nuclear unrest begins.
Oh… and WHO is the broker of lies…..???
Justice, Vengeance, and Secrets
Travis Brock is struggling to figure out the difference between justice and vengeance and who should carry out justice—the individual or the society? What if the society fails to carry it out? When does the individual act separately from the society? What does true justice look like? What is God’s role in that? Does justice really lead to peace?
This was interesting to ponder. Add to that the varying thoughts on the corruptness or effectiveness of the American justice system. Do we trust the system or do we individually ‘correct’ the system when it fails?
I like what he says here:
“Injustice always begins with rationalizing a wrong. Justice begins with righting one.”
Another thread in the book which appears in so many different scenarios: the greater good.
What are we willing to do ‘for the greater good’? How does morality play into decisions made with this goal in mind.
James includes these two sobering observations:
“The greater good. That was the rationalization of all dictators, of all despots, of all tyrants and those who precipitated the greatest atrocities in human history… Over and over again it was the oppressor’s justification that echoes endlessly through the raw, bloody, chambers of hell: The greater good.”
“You can never really know someone else, but if you know yourself, then you know enough about human nature to realize what people are capable of, to recognize that no one can be fully trusted to do what’s right.”
I thought it was interesting how James points out that the job Brock does cannot be done by AI. With more and more things being taken over by AI I’m glad we’re wary of handing over control of government secrets to it. AI doesn’t have the judgment and discernment like humans to determine which secrets are safe to reveal to the public and which ones are not. (For more exploration on AI read James’ book Synapse)
The Freedom Information Act (1967) was put in place to allow citizens to request information from any federal agency. This is a version of accountability with the government. However, as stated in this book there are many exceptions and exemptions that may mean information can still not be disclosed.
I like that our government has some accountability to its citizens but I also am on the side of- hey, let’s not give away all the secrets that protect our country or the people who defend it.
“In truth secrets don’t diminish our freedoms; they protect them for our children. Those who demanded more ‘transparency’ often forgot that they wouldn’t want their own lives to be transparent. And it as even more vital that the government kept its secrets to protect the lives of its citizens than it was that those citizens kept their secrets simply to protect their reputations.”
Cool References & Things I Learned
If you follow my reviews, you know that I love to learn things while I read. There was a lot of interesting information in this book and I’m curious how much of it is legitimate.
It seems a little disconcerting how much detail is given on how to sneak weapons past airport security, or how to create a bomb, or how to access a variety of tools or information that seems dangerous to our country.
I’m sure James was careful not to give readers a handbook on DIY terrorist attacks, but still! Reading books like this sometimes makes me wonder how much danger we’re actually in from day to day that we have no idea about.
Here are a few tidbits (I’m not putting bomb building in my review, I’m pretty sure I’ve already written enough buzzwords in here):
“By disguising themselves, most people forget to change their shoes. It’s one of the most common mistakes in spy-craft.”
“One of the best ways to get close to security guards, or at least to take them unaware, was to approach while shaking your head. Rather than raise suspicion, doing so changed the entire social dynamic of the encounter”
“stuck a small piece of gravel in her left shoe. It would alter her gait so that in case, somewhere along the line, the authorities had analyzed her stride and were using gait-recognition software, it wouldn’t peg her.”
If you want to convince someone to become your asset, here are the top five ways to do that using an apt acronym:
C- compromise R- revenge I- ideology M-money E- ego
Also apparently:
“In an airport x-ray machine, books, because of their size and density, looked surprisingly like plastic explosives.”
I’m always bringing books in my carry-on— good thing I don’t look suspicious!
The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world, employing nearly 26,000 people. It is possible to walk from any two points within the Pentagon in ten minutes.
The Y-12 complex was built in Oak Ridge, TN as part of the Manhattan Project. (If the Manhattan Project interests you, read An Affair of Spies) It is the birthplace of the atomic bomb and where nuclear medicine was first developed. It houses the nation’s supply of enriched uranium and is one of the most tightly guarded military complexes in the world.
It contains more than 1000 buildings on its 811-acre campus, but during WWII had more than twice that many. During WWII the population of the complex was 75,000 making it the fifth largest city in Tennessee, albeit one that wasn’t on a map!
It is true, as stated in the book, that a Catholic sister and two other activists (military veterans) entered the complex and got through several layers of security and were not realized until several hours later. So the concept of this book in regards to nuclear security is a viable and relevant topic!
A calutron is a mass spectrometer used for separating isotopes in uranium and was designed by Ernest Lawrence. It was first developed for the Manhattan Project based on his earlier invention called the cyclotron. The name calutron is a combination of University of California (Cal-U) where Lawrence invented it and cyclotron.
The Calutron building (aka K-25) was the largest building in the world at the time it was built. It was demolished in 2006.
Agathokakological: composed of both good and evil
Brobdingnagian: gigantic
WMDDs- weapons of mass destruction and disruption
The Sunsphere which was an important location in the book is in downtown Knoxville and was built for the 1982 World’s Fair. The book cover image cleverly uses redacting lines to create the city skyline and shows the Sunsphere. Here’s a picture of it:
Picture credit: https://www.downtownknoxville.org/sunsphere/
As mentioned in the book, a nuclear bomb was really dropped onto Goldsboro, North Carolina— accidentally, of course, when a B-52 broke up in the air over the state. 3 of the 4 mechanisms to detonate the bomb had been triggered. Only one kept it from becoming a huge disaster. Ironically, there is a historical marker for this incident in Eureka, NC (‘eureka’ means ‘to find’) just a few miles away from the scene. Information about this event was released in 2013 due to a Freedom of Information Act request.
So I just learned about ghost guns in the book Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni. And now it is referenced in Broker of Lies. It’s not called a ghost gun here, but it is one because it was created using a 3-D printer. In an airport! Seriously, how do these things even work?!
James also references the false missile alert that happened in Hawaii five years ago. I’m including it here because if you were ever wondering what happened to the guy responsible for sending out the ‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII’ text to all of Hawaii… Bob Goff found him and gave him a job and he tells us about it in his book Undistracted. And I’m wondering what you think his book is about now haha.
Uranium is the heaviest element. For reference: a gallon of milk weighs about 8 lbs. A gallon of uranium would weigh 150. Which was the weight of the uranium canisters in the book. Crazy.
USB drives aren’t allowed on military bases or in secure federal facilities. But the real question is: are floppy disks allowed??
Comments & Quotes
I know Steven James is a good writer so I know when he ‘wrote’ the parts for Gunnar Bane’s romance novel he was purposefully writing it cringey. But Gunnar makes a good point here: “Jaws for guys and cheekbones for ladies. The secret to great character descriptions.” Those are always the descriptors when writing attractive people right? Also broad shoulders and full lips. It gets a bit old. Let’s find something more creative.
I did not appreciate the inclusion of the example of psychological suggestion: yawning. Talking about it or watching someone else do it causes you to do it. I am even more suggestible to this. Just reading the word yawn or thinking it in my head makes me yawned. And I’ve already yawned several times writing this. Ugh. At least I know I’m not a psychopath.
There was some back and forth in timelines and perspectives so it’s best to read in larger chunks at a time.
“Never wield openness as a weapon disguised as honesty.”
“The question isn’t so much why life isn’t fair, but what we’re going to do about it in the meantime, while we search for answers.”
“Yes, temporary happiness might come from acquisition and consumption, but true joy only came from simplicity and sacrifice.”
Sidenote: Steven James has a weekly podcast called The Story Blender where he interviews lots of authors. If you are interested in that or are a writer looking for some good insights, check it out!
Recommendation
I definitely recommend this book! He’s got great story concepts and writes them so well.
You’ll read it fast, you’ll learn a lot, and you’ll enjoy it!
The only reason I would not recommend this book is if it would be too complex for some to follow or to want to follow. If you’re looking for a beach read, this probably isn’t it.
It looks like this may be the beginning of a new series. In the author’s note Steven James says, “I look forward to seeing what mischief they get into in their next adventure.”
So I’m excited for more books because this one ends on a twist and I’m wondering where it’s going.
[Content Advisory: no swearing; no sexual content; implied torture, not long or descriptive]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
This book just released April 11, 2023. You can purchase a copy of this book via my affiliate link below.
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