The Seventh Floor

A Novel

By: David McCloskey

Narrated by: Sharon Freedman

Six CIA officers. Dear friends and cherished enemies. For a quarter century they have stolen other people's secrets. Now they must steal each other's.

A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, operational chief Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat for the disaster and run out of the service. Months later, Sam appears at Procter's doorstep with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole burrowed deep within the highest ranks of the CIA.

As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter's closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt requires Procter to dredge up her checkered past in the service of the CIA, placing the pair in the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow's mole in Langley at all costs. What happens when friendships forged by sweat and blood—from the Farm to Afghanistan and the executive "Seventh Floor" of CIA's Langley headquarters—are put to the ultimate test? What can we truly know about the people we love the most?

©2024 David McCloskey (P)2024 Tantor

In fiction and non-fiction life is not fair

After chapter 59 I wanted to stop listening to the book and give it a one star thumbs down review. After chapter 60 I was willing to give it a one star. Holy crap this book!!! Deep breath, take a break and rethink my review. I listened to this book again and no it did not deserve a one star. It deserves the highest review mark. Sometimes, as in life, you do not get the ending you want. Afterall, there are real stars in the CIA that represent an ending you did not want. I have a feeling the one star reviews may be from those who are upset/disappointed with the end of a beloved character.
This book brings back Sam from Damascus Station. McCluskey put Sam through so much in two books. In Damascus Station he is almost killed and he doesn’t get the girl. In this book he is kidnapped, tortured, fired and, and …..McCluskey!!
In this book we get to know more about Artimis Proctor, the relentless, badass CIA chief. She is relentless and loyal. I hope in the next book we get to know more about Proctor and Sweet's last conversation and how Proctor was convinced to go back to the CIA. Although it probably didn’t take much convincing.
You don’t find out who the mole is until almost the very end. As we have come to expect from David McCluskey, this is a brilliantly written chest game with many twists, unexpected turns, and bursts of action. Well done, well done.
I miss Andrew Wehelens narration but this book was mostly about Proctor so I got the change. Sharon Freedman was really good.

Brilliant. Gutty, Spy Novel

I was riveted from the start on this one. A gritty spy thriller with a really good mole hunt. I had no idea until the end who betrayed who. The book also reinforces my suspicions that CIA leadership is piss poor and always has been.

A story about character and perseverance

This novel challenges the cliche that the truth is stranger than fiction. At the very least, it might match some of the non fiction accounts from the first cold war. I enjoyed the characters and the details in this story in a way that the listener might remember if they had ever been to the places written about in this story. Any scratches on this memory that might dull the story are forgiven. It was a great story and the narration was excellent.

Entertaining, but comically bad at times

Let me begin this by stating that I enjoyed the first two books, and if he had decided to stick to his “unrealistic” but entertaining motif I might have liked this too. The dialogue is comically bad for a good portion of this book, and while I’m sure the author has his reasons, the kindergarten description of a counterespionage investigation is embarrassing. Also, while I’m sure the author was trying to do an homage to Le Carre with one of his major plot points, it came off more like a thrift store attempt at copying Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
On the vocal performance, this was not the right person for this. Part of her problem was just some of the basic terminology was mispronounced, saying N.O.C, instead of “knock”. While she also had some bad dialogue to deal with, her whole inflection and performance was just not right for this book.
Overall, it is certainly entertaining, but a swing and a miss third effort for this author.

Outstanding!

Author manages to stretch the genre and his creativity once again. Damascus, Moscow and now a mole hunt at Langley. I didn’t think so at first but the mole hunt was just as exciting as the non US location stories if not more so.

Great book

One of the best cia series out there. I’ve read all of this series and I’m a huge fan of it

This was pretty awesome

This book was pretty awesome. It's in the spirit of a modern day Tinker Tailor. I hate when they change up narrators but the annoyance went away after a few chapters. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Second half

Buried in the book is a good spy thriller, but the first half is a waste of time. If I had only started at haft point it would have been great.

The Legend Grows

Another awesome edition of Artemis Aphrodite Proctor and interesting tales of the CIA. The Seventh Floor is another hit! Please keep them coming!

Well detailed thriller

I really enjoyed this spy thriller. The attention to detail was amazing, while managing to not bore us to death. A fine line to walk, and he threaded the needle quite well. I highly recommend.