A Firing Offense

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining - Great for a long flight!
Review: I read this on a long flight (of all places to Beijing) and was thoroughly entertained the entire time. Great page turner. D.I.'s storyline kept my attention throughout the book. My only negative comment is that the women in the novel are insignificant - the most notable (Annie) was completely undeveloped as a character. And some of the DC references are wrong, but inconsequential. Although not an intellectual challenge, A Firing Offense is entertaining nonetheless. I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Quality thriller on trendy topics
Review: Ignatius gets better with each book. This one entwines the CIA and journalism and the trendy topic of Chinese espionage. From the first scene at a funeral in Washington the reader should be captured. Like all thrillers this story has its improbable moments, but that is part of the genre and much of this rings true.

Rating:
Summary: A good spy story and--more unusual--a good newsroom novel.
Review: It's hard to capture what journalists do for a living. Much of it seems dull and a lot of it is also silly--and yet journalism is fascinating to people inside and outside the business. Not since Tony Hillerman's A Fly on the Wall has a reporter written a book that so authentically captures the texture of reporting--the thrills, the pain, and, most of all, the moral ambiguity. My favorite moment in the book is when the reporter-protagonist, having gotten admission to a fancy restaurant where diners are being held hostage by terrorists, thinks to ask one of the diners what he had been eating when the gunmen burst in. I used to be a reporter and I can imagine myself asking that question, knowing it seems silly--and knowing also that small details like that one make or break a piece of reporting.At the same time, Ignatius has created a completely believable spy story, with genetic engineering, Chinese disinformation, and CIA incompetence blended into an original and exciting brew. Even the obligatory sex scenes are good!

Rating:
Summary: Slow going ...
Review: Slow going and slow ending. The plot was fair, but I wasn't impressed. There were too many schemes going on at one time. I couldn't keep up with it. The confusion lessened toward the end, but by that time I had already lost interest.

Rating:
Summary: Slow going ...
Review: Slow going and slow ending. The plot was fair, but I wasn't impressed. There were too many schemes going on at one time. I couldn't keep up with it. The confusion lessened toward the end, but by that time I had already lost interest.

Rating:
Summary: A pure thriller.
Review: This book had an interesting effect on me. It was as good a thriller as I've ever read. But that's all it was, a thriller. After reading it I decided not to read any more thrillers, because you forget them as fast as you read them. It was a lot of fun to read, but ultimately a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Okay start, excellent ending
Review: This book is about a man who works for a major newspaper in the US. He has sources from the CIA that give him material that boosts his career. In return, this CIA agent would likve a few favors from him. The reporter get tangled in a web of deception and conspiracy. This book had an okay start but the ending was supurb. It was thrilling, suspensful, and exciting. I really reccomend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Okay start, excellent ending
Review: This book is about a man who works for a major newspaper in the US. He has sources from the CIA that give him material that boosts his career. In return, this CIA agent would likve a few favors from him. The reporter get tangled in a web of deception and conspiracy. This book had an okay start but the ending was supurb. It was thrilling, suspensful, and exciting. I really reccomend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A very readable, intelligent thriller
Review: This book was listed a few years ago on a respected reviewers "best bets" and although I recorded the title for reading at some future time it was only recently that I remembered the title again while browsing and decided to give it a try. In the book, Ignatius has captured the essence of a young reporter's conflict between writing a good and important story and compromising his beliefs. The development of the central character, Eric Truell, is masterful and the inside look at the workings of the intelligence community is fascinating. The plot moves quickly and keeps you interested. I particularly like the way in which the chapters and the scenes flow which makes the reader want to continue reading even beyond bedtime! I recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers and adventure but is looking for something a little bit different than your typical international espionage fiction. It's very readable and worth a try!

Rating:
Summary: Only the morality & patriotism of the Paper made me wonder
Review: This is a book tried to subtlely bashing the France Inc. As in reality, US did lose a lot of business abroad when competing with France. D.I. tried to tell us that the Paper is without any morality standard or any patriotism behind their daily news printing, and it's a firing offense to the Paper. The journalism when dealt with the reality, should become a non-conscience being. There should be with no morality or conscience existed in a reporter if he wanted to stay in the business. It's just like reading another edition of police using unnecessary personal judgement or feelings carryied out a duty, and had it backfired. The reading only gave me a very controversial feeling about journalism itself,i.e. there is no ISM in it. Neither did I understood the moral standard of the newspapers' subscribers. To me, if a reporter could kill two birds with one stone, doing something good for his country or even the world during his investigation, it would be a rare blessing