A SPY AT HOME [Kindle Edition]

Joseph M. Rinaldo (Author)

Book Description

Oversight for the CIA? Are you kidding? Once the CIA receives money from Congress they can spend it without answering to anyone. Everyone in Congress, and even the President wants deniability.

I worked for the CIA and personally wasted tens of millions funding rebellions in African countries hoping to put in new governments sympathetic to the good ol' US of A. Wasted your money is what I did, and I got sick of it, so I stole over nine million dollars. The money should have gone to fund a coup, but it was obviously going to fail, so I kept the dough. You, the reader, can decide if I'm a villain with evil intent, a hero with altruistic motives, or a regular guy sick of working for peanuts in a dangerous environment.

Back at home… My wife, Louisa, and I looked forward to our golden years being luxuriously comfortable and opulently relaxed. Unfortunately, we weren't together long enough. Without Louisa I have to learn all that she knew about caring for Noah, our mentally retarded son. After a life of planning for contingencies, dealing with the possibility that I might die before Noah is destroying me. Who will care for my son when I've spent a life out of the country and don't have anyone to lean on back home?

Product Details

• File Size: 315 KB
• Print Length: 296 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0033WSVVC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #503,280 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The intrigue, suspense, and drama of a spy with a loving family February 18, 2011

By Ratso Rizzo VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

Spy at Home is a story of an ex-CIA agent named Garrison, early forties, wife Louisa, a nurse and their adoped child. The story opens dramatically, as the couple are faced with a neighboring child whose mother has died in a trailer home fire. The baby has Down Syndrome. The opposite story involved aside of the spy life is the loving family side of the story that revolves around the care, support and guidance of living with a Down Syndrome child whose name is Noah.

This is not a story told chronologically, the events of family, vacationing, home life are interspersed with the intrigue and excitement of a CIA agent's life and work, smuggling arms to rebels, transferring millions of dollars, hiding the money, traveling to countries, living the good life and of course the danger.

The focus of the story is when Garrison's last assignment was to funnel support to the rebels of a small African country. This led to millions of dollars kept by CIA agent Garrison, who hid the money in another country. With his family, he had to travel to access it, figure out what to do with the money... like vacationing extravagantly each year in Martinique, a sanctuary in the Carribean island. With 9.5 million in a Swiss account, the next challenge is how to live without anybody knowing you have come into a large amount of money, how to donate millions to charity without putting up a red flag.

Eventually, they settled in Nashville, using up more money, taking special care of their growing son, Noah and the Special Olympics. And, again, buying a home in Martinique, and still figuring out how to safely spend some money! Yet more spy drama and suspense carry on, and then, of course, tragedy strikes.

The Spy at Home is well-written, dialogue believable, conflicting drama, and with very good characterization and development of all. One feels a deep association to the characters. And, as mentioned, this is not a chronological story, but well-done, and very organized. There is plenty to learn from this story, whether it is the CIA, or Down Syndrome. This story takes the reader into different worlds. ...Rizzo

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Inscrutable Life of a Spy January 24, 2011

By Citizen John TOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

The Number One lesson for a band, it is said, is to get off stage while the audience still wants you. A Spy At Home is like a Grisham novel exiting stage right just as the subconscious mind tells you this is not really fiction. I'm ready to read more by Joseph Rinaldo.

Spies like Garrison, the protagonist, have a tendency to become their legend, their claimed background or biography. They support it by documentation, memorization and years of life experience. They live what they project. One of Garrison's tradecrafts is moving and hiding large funds clandestinely. However, Garrison assumes caregiver responsibilities and that changes everything.

I was unsure whether Garrison is an unusually caring man or if so much of his time was window dressing. He could not easily have selected a better cover story to convince observers that what they are observing is genuine. My suspicions were confirmed that there would be a wet job well into the approximately 125-page story. Even now I think about this story and wonder where reality ends and fiction begins.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 5* Review for A Spy At Home June 6, 2011

By maddwriter

Format:Kindle Edition

Mr. Rinaldo contacted me via my blog and offered me the chance to review his novel A Spy At Home and, being the lover of books that I am (especially free books), I took him up on that offer. I'm glad that I did.

The title threw me off - I was expecting some kind of Jason Bourne type of thing (don't ask me why) - but the story is SO MUCH MORE than simply being about a spy and really can't be categorized as being in one genre. This book is one part about the spy life but also touches more upon the family life than anything.

Told from a first person perspective of Garrison, a CIA agent, we learn about him and his family. Garrison knows all there is to know about how to read people and situations but, after being away from his family for so long due to his assignments across the globe he's sent out on, it's like he knows nothing about his wife Louisa and his son Noah. The family aspect is the real kicker to the story as the CIA aspect really plays in the background though it's the spy aspect that lays the foundation for why some things play out the way that they do. We learn pretty early on that, while on assignment, Garrison did something that would be frowned up on by the government (of which I will not spoil) and it's certain to make some readers not relate to him or possibly not like him at all depending on what side of the moral compass you fall on. I think what he did is believable and I had no problem buying why or how it was done. But, like I said, I will let you figure that out as I would like to focus more on his family.

Garrison's son Noah (how they come about getting him is a great part of the story) was born with Downs Syndrome. Later on in the book he also comes down with Alzheimers and how Garrison and his wife Louisa deal with this and try to help their son is at times heartbreaking but is, to me, 100% authentic in how it's written. I would love to go on and on about this and the other parts but I would be doing you the reader a disservice by even remotely spoiling it for you.

A Spy At Home is a wonderful book and grabs you from the first few lines. I've never read a book like this before. Joseph Rinaldo takes the spy genre and strips away all the gadgets and exotic missions, exposing us to the real life that awaits them when they come back home and learn how to deal with the most important mission/assignment they could ever have - FAMILY.

A MUST READ!

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More About the Author

Joseph Rinaldo currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. From this most American of southern cities he writes about the violent activities of a Mormon sect in A MORMON MASSACRE, the internal turmoil in the CIA in A SPY AT HOME, and about deadly gangs in HAZARDOUS CHOICES. You've probably heard that authors write what they know. Think it's true?