Book Review: The Negotiator’s Cross

BOOK REVIEW:  THE NEGOTIATOR’S CROSS: A Novel

by Kenneth Dekleva / Independently Published

Reviewed by Cipher Brief Expert Joseph Augustyn

The ReviewerJoseph Augustyn is a 28-year veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service, and once served as the Director of the National Resettlement Operations Center. 

REVIEW — Author Kenneth Dekleva is a practicing psychiatrist in Dallas, Texas, and a self-described “former physician-diplomat for the US Government.” His tours of duty included Moscow, Mexico City, New Delhi, Vienna and London.  The Negotiator’s Cross is Dekleva’s first novel, which showcases the author’s intimate knowledge of these cities and their cultures, his appreciation for the spy business, and his deep and profound understanding of Christian doctrine. 

Dekleva is an excellent writer, at times on par with some of the most established spy fiction authors around. His ability to describe the physical settings and cultural environment in which his story unfolds is remarkably good, and the pace of the novel is quick, resulting in an easy and mostly entertaining read, in 140 pages.

The Negotiator’s Cross’ hero is Father Ishmael, a San Antonio, Texas-bred Jesuit priest, the son of an American Scots-Irish father and a religiously-devout Mexican mother.  Ishmael grew up on a small ranch and learned the skills of a frontier cowboy while also praying the rosary daily.  The book is a story of how Ishmael transitions first from a US special-forces trained soldier, to a priest who “finds his calling,” and who, unexpectedly, winds up as an asset for the CIA.

Father Ishmael’s first posting as a priest is to Mexico City, where he tends to the needs of a small parish of mostly expats, and where he believes his new religious life will provide the satisfaction, stability and contentment he has long desired. Instead, when one of his flock (who happened to be an undercover CIA officer) goes missing, Father Ishmael’s life takes a dangerously different turn. 

He is called to the US Embassy where he meets with the Ambassador and the Mexico City CIA Station Chief.  They convince Father Ishmael to engage with one of his parishioners, who is widely known in the church as the key liaison with the Mexican drug cartels, to help arrange the exchange of the CIA hostage for the daughter of a cartel leader. With his acceptance of the challenge, Father Ishmael’s life is forever changed.  While the hostage exchange does not go as planned, Father Ishmael’s reputation as a talented and willing asset for the CIA is firmly established.  From here on, The Negotiator’s Cross is pure spy novel.

When Father Ishmael is reassigned to Moscow to minister to a community of Spanish-speaking expats, he is again called upon to help, in this case to find a missing missionary priest who has disappeared and is presumed to be arrested by the Russian FSB for being an alleged American “illegal.”  Like in Mexico City, Father Ishmael is summoned to the US Embassy where he meets with the Ambassador and CIA’s Moscow Station Chief, known as The ‘Fat Man’.  Father Ishmael is asked to negotiate the exchange of an imprisoned Russian arms dealer for the missing priest but this time, with an added twist, involving a third individual they want back, a material witness and former GRU officer wanted by the Hague Tribunal for questioning regarding the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995, where more than 7,000 Muslim men, women and children were slaughtered by a special unit of the Serbian military. 

The rest of Dekleva’s storyfocuses on the chase for the witness, who seems to be wanted by everyone, including not only the Hague, but the Israelis, the FSB, the GRU, and the US. 

First novels are always grounds for learning and Dekleva’s detailed description of each character and their backgrounds are – in my view – at times more than the reader needs to know and add little to the overall tenor of the novel. His efforts to portray the squabbles over the case between the FSB and GRU falls flat.

Dekleva is indeed a talented writer and storyteller, and The Negotiator’s Cross is a good first novel.  The author knows the intelligence business, but perhaps spends more time than necessary impressing the reader with his knowledge of tradecraft and the intricacies of operational activities.  Given his training as a psychiatrist, he also knows what makes people tick, but sometimes over analyzes their personalities with no apparent link to his story.  He is also well versed in scripture, and cites it often, but possibly too often for some readers.  And for the intelligence wonks, the use of a clergyman to assist the CIA inoperations may be a step too far, even in fiction. 

Nonetheless, The Negotiator’s Cross is worth the read and, we can only hope, there is more to come from now spy novelist Kenneth Dekleva.   

The Negotiator’s Cross earns three out of four trench coats.

This book earns a solid three trench coats.

 

 

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