Duet in Beirut

Book excerpt: “Ben-David delivers spy thrillers with all the authenticity and inside knowledge of an ex-Mossad agent.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography Ronen, an expelled Mossad agent, has disappeared following a failed assassination attempt against the Hezbollah operative responsible for suicide bombings in Israel. Feared to be on an unauthorized mission, it is up to his former commander, Gadi, to track Ronen down and stop him from causing harm both to himself and to his country. The physical and intellectual scuffle between the two men becomes one of deeper moral inquiry. Written with a master novelist’s terse conviction, Duet in Beirut takes us inside a much-discussed but little understood world. As revealing in its psychological acuity as it is in its portrait of life in the Mossad, Duet in Beirut is an essential thriller of espionage and political intrigue—written by an author who spent twelve years working with Israel’s legendary intelligence agency. “Le Carré fans will enjoy Ben-David’s look behind the scenes of government-sanctioned hits and the tension between loyalty to the chain of command and dissent.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Praise for Mishka Ben-David’s Forbidden Love in St. Petersburg “The novel has a solid sense of intrigue and suspense . . . The characterizations are precise, too: these aren’t stick figures in a spy story but real people in a real environment. A nice blend of classic spy-novel conventions with a thoroughly contemporary setting.” —Booklist (starred review)