Judas Horse: An FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Mystery [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

April Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 12, 2008

Maverick FBI Agent Ana Grey is back in a suspense-charged new novel, going undercover into the volatile core of a terrorist cell.

Emotionally vulnerable after a shooting incident, Ana has just returned to the job when she learns that a fellow agent has been murdered by a group of hard-core anarchists operating behind the façade of FAN (Free Animals Now). Dispatched to the FBI’s infamous undercover school to learn the art of deceit, Ana takes on the identity of a down-on-her-luck animal lover determined to save the wild mustangs of the West. Now she’s ready to work her way into the inner circle of Julius Emerson Phelps, the unstable, charismatic leader of a “family” of outcasts who live on an isolated farm in Oregon, and who are preparing an act of terrorism Phelps has dubbed “the Big One.”

The stakes increase significantly when Ana learns that Phelps is playing his own game of dangerous deception, and that he possesses a stockpile of dirty secrets about the Bureau sufficient to blow it sky-high.

With razor-sharp realism, Smith renders the psychological vise of a deep-cover agent living a lie 24/7. Negotiating a minefield of loyalty and betrayal, under constant threat of discovery, Ana is forced to commit the very crime she’s determined to stop.

Judas Horse is a breathlessly exciting thriller.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the start of Smith's superb third thriller to feature Ana Grey (after 2003's Good Morning, Killer), the FBI special agent, who's still recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder after shooting a crazed detective on a suicide mission seven months earlier, learns that the skeletal remains of her missing onetime fiancé, fellow special agent Steve Crawford, have turned up in Oregon's Cascade Mountains. Ana later finds out Steve was murdered by members of an anarchist group with a penchant for homemade bombs. After training at the FBI's undercover school, Ana uses an alias to penetrate the group, which includes a former FBI agent gone bad, Dan Stone. As Allfather Stone plots a terrorist act he calls the Big One, Ana must burrow through layers of paranoia to discover the precise threat the FBI is dealing with. Ana's nuanced and coolly observational narrative voice perfectly complements the well-paced action, which builds to a satisfying conclusion that leaves open the next chapter of Ana's story. 5-city author tour. (Feb.)
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Review

“A genuinely scarifying thriller with a consistently vertiginous, through the looking glass mood. Every character is a hologram of sorts and every episode has the momentum of a theme-park ride. One of Smith’s cleverest tricks here is her unsettling depiction of unlikely alliances: Ana turns out to have more in common with the villain, Stone, than she might ever have imagined.”
–Los Angeles Times

“A feverishly pitched adventure . . . With every dynamic scene, including a wild mustang roundup that thunders right off the page, the reader, like Ana, is reminded of the lost ideals and divided loyalties that make these mortal conflicts so bloody–and so sad.”
–Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Why does the FBI still seem so sexy? Part of the reason is murder mysteries like April Smith’s Judas Horse . . . It’s creepy, chest-thumping stuff, with snitches and loyalty tests and the good guys and villains constantly in flux.”
–Los Angeles Magazine

“A runaway but cagey novel that never lets up . . . The incidents with which Ana must deal [at FBI undercover school] are so fast, harrowing, and breathtaking that they are like skiing down the expert slope while juggling vials of nitroglycerine.”
–Otto Penzler, New York Sun

“Smith’s superb third thriller to feature Ana Grey . . . Ana’s nuanced and coolly observational narrative voice perfectly complements the well-paced action, which builds to a satisfying conclusion that leaves open the next chapter of Ana’s story.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Smith does a convincing job of conveying the trials of maintaining a dual identity . . . The narrative is fast-paced without becoming frantic, and the intertwining story lines are deftly handled. Highly recommended.”
–Library Journal (starred)

“A demonic ride through undercover terrain . . . Smith creates an undercover training regime for Ana that the FBI might do well to emulate. She’s so expert at implanting stress that you could become bipolar just from reading one chapter. Feisty, disturbing and exceptionally well done.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (February 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400042054
• ISBN-13: 978-1400042050
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 1.3 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,176,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

April Smith grew up in the Bronx, where she was inspired by her dad's library of sci-fi books to enter the world of the imagination. During long New York winters, she read Ray Bradbury, Ian Flemming and Edna St. Vincent Millay. The tiny public library above a dry cleaner on Kingsbridge Road was her favorite place to be. She majored in English at Boston University, graduating cum laude, and received a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Stanford University. She came to Los Angeles in 1977 to write for television, garnering three Emmy award nominations and two from the Writer's Guild. 1994 saw the publication of North of Montana, the first in the FBI Special Agent Ana Grey series, which has become a California noir classic, in print ever since. More at www.aprilsmith.net. (Photo by Jonathan Exley)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIALOGUE SO SHARP IT CUTS LIKE A KNIFE, April 14, 2008

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judas Horse: An FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Mystery (Hardcover)

Daring, resourceful FBI Agent Ana Grey has been in some pretty tough scrapes (North of Montana, Good Killer). However, the situation she's in with her latest adventure is more than a scrape - it's a wound that could prove fatal.

Still emotionally fragile following a shooting incident Ana has been through what is called "critical incident training, psychoanalyzing with other agents who have been through a life-changing trauma," and is deemed ready to return to duty. But she hardly has time to fall into step again when fellow agent Steve Crawford is blown to pieces while undercover investigating FAN (Free Animals Now).

Solution? Send in Ana. First she undergoes rigorous (an understatement) training at the FBI's undercover school from which she will eventually emerge as Darcy DeGuzman, a feisty, broke animal lover in a sixties leather jacket that "looks like Jackie Kennedy on the skids."

Her task is to infiltrate FAN, a cover for a terrorist group based in Oregon led by an unstable megalomaniac, Julius Emerson Phelps. She first hooks up with Megan Tewsbury whom she considers to be a warm hearted woman who will be her entree into the group. She's right - partially. Megan is an alias for a former Berkeley professor driven out and into the arms of Julius who is actually former FBI agent Dick Stone. Living with them on an isolated farm are Sara, a waif-like runaway and Slammer, an addicted miscreant. All are looking forward to what Stone calls "the Big One."

Actually, penetrating the group was the easy part for Ana because she soon discovers that Stone knows far too much. She is sure that someone, perhaps even a powerful figure at the Bureau is feeding him information. Who can she trust, if anyone? Perhaps more importantly who will protect her?

April Smith's dialogue is sharp, cutting like a knife as the story builds to its inexorable conclusion. Judas Horse is not only an action packed thriller but an imagined story so plausible, so current that it could be tomorrow's bold headline.

- Gail Cooke

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Everything takes place in present time. Fluid. Treacherous. Addictive.", February 12, 2008

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judas Horse: An FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Mystery (Hardcover)

Recently returned to duty at the LA office of the FBI, Special Agent Ana Grey struggles to put a shooting fatality behind her, still in thrall to sweat-soaked nightmares but ready to return to the career she loves. Offered an undercover assignment in Portland, Oregon, Ana quickly agrees, anxious to be temporarily free from the weighted glances of her colleagues. Gathering for the special service of her friend, Steve Crawford, Ana learns that the young man's death was not an accident, but deliberate. Going to Portland to pick up where Steve left off, Ana is charged with the importance of her mission: uncovering the mastermind behind Steve's death. But first she must endure rigorous undercover training, a tough preparation for deep cover of indefinite determination: "In undercover work, it is always midnight in the universe, and you are always alone."

Infiltrating a local group, FAN (Free Animals Now), is of paramount importance and for this Ana adopts the identity of Darcy deGuzman, making friends with a local animal rights activist, Megan, and her ageing hippie "man-of-many-faces", Julius Emerson Phelps. Julius controls the small faction of dissidents who participate in local demonstrations against the BLM and the recent slaughter of wild mustangs. Pretending to be an activist with a shady past, "Darcy" manages to move into the ramshackle farmhouse where Phelps is known as Allfather, his every command obeyed, even when he lapses into the mindless mania that occasionally occurs. While Megan welcomes Darcy and her commitment, Julius is far more suspicious, patrolling the farm, plotting for his greatest anti-government coup, "The Big One".

Despite my doubts about how easily Darcy is accepted into the eco-terrorist group, Smith covers the quick-paced drama from every angle, circles within circles: from the disaffection of youth who join the cause du jour and follow Julius' fatherly directions to the stubborn, cost-conscious bureaucrats who betray their positions as keepers of the public trust; from passionate loyalists in search of change to the righteous anger of field agents who see their brothers cut down, victims of needless violence; from the heady fraternity of the FBI to life on the edge in deep cover; and from the security of loyalty and dedication to the possibility of treason. Ana's naïve arrogance turns to cold fear as she finds herself in a conundrum with no way out, facing the consequences of pivotal decisions. Ana must consider treachery from the most unexpected place, wild mustangs, wild men and the deadly manipulation of power. For she is "the single animal who betrays the herd": the Judas horse. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars April Strikes Again, March 2, 2008

By 

Richard B. Schwartz (Columbia, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judas Horse: An FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Mystery (Hardcover)

I was unaware of April Smith's television credits when I bought North of Montana in hardcover. There was something about the book and its author that drew me to it. Since then I have watched her steady rise to the top of contemporary crime writing. Judas Horse is, broadly speaking, 'FBI procedural' and a 'thriller', but it is primarily a study in character. Ana Grey is on the ropes, psychologically, and takes on a very difficult challenge--going undercover in a terrorist 'family' that has been responsible for the death of a man she loved. We learn about her new identity and the mental twists and turns that she undergoes as she goes in and out of character, her undercover persona taking on a complete life of her own.

The sense of place is excellent and the plot never wavers. The ending is particularly strong. I won't give it away, but suffice to say it is a ripple-effect ending that 'isn't over until it's over' and then some. The cast of characters is somewhat stereotypical--northwest tree huggers, bikers, meth customers and souls lost in the rain, but they work well together and serve as the perfect context for Ana's pursuit of the case and simultaneous pursuit of her own deeper self.

Her television writing has taught April the rules of plotting and she follows them exquisitely. The wildlife in the story are also attractive--from wounded horses to some nasty rattlesnakes. This is a don't miss novel. And note Amazon's get-North of Montana-also deal if you haven't read April's smash debut.