The Agent

A fascinating futuristic novel of spies and betrayal from Robin Eschliman, the author of "The Agent" series of political thrillers. Chelsea Evans is a highly paid but extremely bored commercial real estate agent and mom living and working in Washington, D.C. longing for a more exciting job and a more exciting life. Her charming but devious husband, Josh Evans, is an architect who is an undercover case officer with the CIA and who frequently travels on mysterious assignments out of the country. Chelsea's sedate world is shaken when Josh disappears in turmoil-stricken Iraq. But having anticipated bureaucratic ineptitude, he has left cryptic clues and photos with the family lawyer about enigmatic gold antiquities and a Mideast skyscraper. The CIA believes that he has been killed, but Chelsea refuses to accept this and travels overseas in search of more clues to the Babylon Metro skyscraper where Josh was working. Can she raise enough reward money before time runs out, meanwhile resisting a stubborn government agency that is in bureaucratic turmoil? Or should she accept Josh's death and move on to a new romance? Set in the backdrop of three continents, The Agent: The Spy is frighteningly plausible and Eschliman's most ambitious novel to date.