The Echelon Vendetta (Micah Dalton) [Kindle Edition]

David Stone (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Somebody is killing the former CIA agents who took part in a brilliant but highly illegal top secret operation known as Echelon. A couple of ghosts may also be involved, real or imagined, but they don't interfere with the credibility or the sustained excitement of the pseudonymous Stone's debut thriller. His hero, Micah Dalton, is a "cleaner"—a special operative sent in under cover to make sure no agency dirt gets into the public air. When his friend and colleague, Porter Naumann, is found savagely slaughtered in a Tuscany hotel, Micah tries to find out what happened. Cool and endlessly resourceful, the likable Micah does whatever it takes to clean up the mess. Also memorable are a shrewd Italian policeman, who can tell when something isn't kosher, and Micah's immediate boss, Jack Stallworth, "a short, sharp, bullet-headed hard-nosed razorback hog with all the languid charm of a quick knee to the jaw." The author, who has served in the military and been an intelligence officer, clearly knows his way around the higher levels of official treachery. 75,000 printing. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Despite a title that doesn't exactly roll off your tongue, this is a smoothly written spy thriller. Micah Dalton is a CIA "cleaner," the guy who wipes away the mess after something goes wrong in the field. When his good friend apparently commits suicide in a particularly gruesome manner, and then the man's family is murdered, Dalton discovers that someone is killing agents who have knowledge of a certain top-secret intelligence operation. Stone, a veteran intelligence officer writing pseudonymously, packs the novel with the kind of nitty-gritty detail that draws espionage fans. A promising debut. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 536 KB
• Print Length: 432 pages
• Publisher: Jove (March 25, 2008)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000PDYVVQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,816 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

David Stone is the cover name for a man born into a military family with a long history of honorable service. Stone has served in the military, has worked as an intelligence officer and as an investigator for a state-level law enforcement agency, and has lived and worked in North America, Central America, and Southeast Asia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific!, February 23, 2007

By 

RonAnnArbor (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Echelon Vendetta (Hardcover)

I got to read an advance reading copy of this book, and found myself buying two copies for friends of mine. At first I thought "great, here's another CIA-thriller from some unknown author"...only to find myself immersed in the novel within only pages, and suddenly thinking "where did this author come from?"

Many surprises, a few violent deaths, and wonderful scenic settings. It's rare that all the elements come together as well as they do in this novel thriller.

But one warning -- the emphasis is on VIOLENT in the "violent deaths" sentence above. We're talking SIlence of the Lambs violent. Still, it's entertaining and fast paced, and truly surprising! I can imagine the folks in those studio offices in Hollywood jumping over each other to buy the movie rights.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LeCarre's heir, March 11, 2007

By 

G. Ware Cornell Jr. "anotherlawyer" (Weston FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Echelon Vendetta (Hardcover)

Michah Dalton, a "cleaner" for the Company is called to Cortona, a small Italian town where his friend Porter Naumann has met a horrific end. Before the day is over Dalton is fighting for his own life with Croatian thugs and then a bright green spider.

Determined to avenge Naumann's death Dalton traverses the globe from a horrendous crime-scene in London to Langley to the badlands of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. At every turn he he encounters danger and loss of life. Yet he perseveres, sometimes by pure luck and sometimes by cunning and sometimes by military savvy.

George Smiley, LeCarre's quintessential Cold War spy confronted betrayal behind operation. Here it is duty that drives Dalton onward. But Dalton is also bright, literate and angst-riddled. If there is some betrayal lurking, it is not for me to say. But this book never lets go, never compromises, and never can be put down.

A new master spy designed for the Long War has emerged. May we see him again!

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an intriguing new protagonist, February 26, 2007

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Echelon Vendetta (Audio CD)

Quite often discovering a new and intriguing protagonist is akin to making another good friend, someone you know you'll enjoy, a person you want to spend time with. Such was my feeling when first coming upon Micah Dalton in The Echelon Vendetta. He's unique, having formulated his own morality system. He's also very much aware of the best and the worst in people. Cynical, romantic, often approachable, courageous, determined all describe Dalton.

He works for the CIA as a "cleaner" - precisely what the name implies. It's up to him to clean up messes made by others or step in when undercover operations go dramatically awry. His best friend and mentor is or better said was Porter Naumann. It appears to have been suicide when Naumann's body is found in a chapel courtyard in the beautiful hillside town of Cortona, Italy.

However, Dalton isn't buying any of that suicide nonsense and decides to do a little investigating on his own beginning in Venice where Naumann lived. (Don't you love this author's locations?) The deaths of Naumann's family in London corroborate what Dalton was beginning to suspect - there's a mad man on the loose, a killer hunting those with ties to the CIA and someone has to stop him.

Known primarily for his outstanding work in stage productions, Firdous Bamji delivers a suspenseful reading of this too-close-for-comfort tale. His narrative is well paced, his diction scrupulous, and his voice masterful.

- Gail Cooke