Vivian Miller is just back to work after giving birth to twins. She and her husband Matt have 4 kids now, and while she loves her job as a CIA analyst, she also adores her family. But she’s worked hard to get this assignment. Being a part of the team investigating Russian sleepers is a plum assignment, and she dosen’t want to turn her back on that. Not that she can. Between the mortgage, daycare, two car payments, and health insurance for the family, Vivian has to keep her job to keep the family afloat.
And now, when their intelligence team has figured out a way to get access to the computer of Yury, known Russian agent and probable handler of five Russian sleepers, now the fun is just starting.
Vivian looks at the files on Yury’s computer, opening one folder after another, finding nothing. Their intelligence says that each handler is in charge of five sleepers. She’s looking for a group of five individuals. Five names. Or, five photos. Viv finds a folder that has five photos, and she opens them one by one. A man with glasses. A woman with red hair. Another. Another. And then there is a photo of her husband.
As Vivian tries to figure out what her husband’s picture is doing on the computer of a Russian agent, she also has to help him juggle all the details of keeping a home and raising four kids. Should she confront him? Should she turn him in? Are they being set up, or is it real? Could it be possible that her husband of 10 years is actually a Russian sleeper agent?
And what will happen to her family?
Need to Know is a family thriller about CIA agents and Russian spies, written by a woman who worked as a CIA analyst for eight years. Author Karen Cleveland took her own experience home (not that her husband was a possible Russian spy, just the analyst part) and wrote about a family suddenly in crisis.
The novel spends a lot of time going back through the relationship, from the day Vivian and Matt first met, through their wedding, their first kid, their first house, and everything since. Viv thinks back through everything, looking for clues, rethinking her whole adult life. As her thoughts turn over and over, she can’t decide if her whole marriage is a lie or if her husband is a victim, recruited into the system as a teenager and doing his best to get them out of the situation they find themselves in.
I listened to this on audio in a handful of days. Once I started the book, I didn’t want to stop. I enjoyed the reflections on the marriage and the family, but I found myself wanting more information on the job at the CIA. But it was a very compelling story, and in some ways, really eye-opening. If you’re looking for a good thriller with a CIA twist, then Need to Know is one to read.
Galleys for Need to Know were provided by Ballentine Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I bought the audio book myself through Audible.