I am a David Ignatius fan. I have read 7 of his 8 novels and have generally been very impressed with his grasp of countries in the Middle East and the various intelligence agencies in those countries and the CIA. His books are paper turners , really grab you and impossible to lay down. The plots are generally complex and a bit unbelievable, overloaded by Arabic phrases that just take up space, but are nevertheless excellent reading. This novel is a real BUMMER. After having read 5 to 10 pages it puts you to sleep and was next to impossible to finish. I seriously wonder that it was a "ghost author" type novel and not written by him, with the personal knowledge of his other novels which I would give 4's and 5's. It is not possible in this review to give a ( 0 )or I would have done it.Personally I would not recommend wasting money or time on this novel!!!!!