The Midnight House (Wheeler Hardcover) by Alex Berenson (2010-08-04)

Well, After reading his last book, I couldn't wait for another. He notified all on his list so I was one of those who pre-ordered this blockbuster. He didn't let me down. Action packed. My only problem with his novels is that I just can't put them down. Two days of intense reading and burning the midnight oil and it was all over. I just can't get enough of his characters. Thanks for a terrific read, Alex.

This is an absolutely superb book. Alex Berenson takes a deep dive in to the lowest levels of modern interrogation. What sets this book apart is the amount of time Alex takes to fill in the little details specifically how people react to a controlled environment. The story is not rushed, it is crafted like a cook making a soufflé. The result is that The Midnight House is almost an interrogation manual for other spy novel authors. This is a fantastic plot that makes for a really great read and Alex has written it in such a way that the awful things that are occurring are palatable to the reader. That is not an easy task and Alex handled it well. I really enjoyed reading this book.

Who guards the guards?
The Midnight House by Alex Berenson is a very well crafted philosophical action thriller. Mr. Berenson tackles one of today's most controversial topics: Torture. Enter protagonist CIA agent John Wells to find out exactly what happened at the super secret rendition Midnight House, and why the interrogators stationed there are being killed off. Weaving intense action with the current hot topic of interrogational torture, Mr. Berenson writes a fast paced story dealing with all the difficult and seamy psychological aspects of rendition and international espionage. Mr. Berenson's tale is broad brushed and details all the political, psychological, and philosophical aspects of today's complex world of international espionage and terror: From the frontline Delta Operators to the highest levels of Homeland Security. Simply stated, everyone at every level is affected by the over exposed world of detainee interrogation and manipulation. In today's world of hyper-politicization it matters not if the information obtained is actionable, what matters most is the process. Protagonist John Wells must deal with these difficult thorny questions and as Mr. Berenson points out there are NO easy answers. Just more questions.

A page turner but not for the normal reasons. This is a thinking person's examination of the more controversial aspects of the global war on terror. Mr. Berenson does a very good job of questioning just who are the real terrorists: The jihadists or the operators trying to catch and stop them? And what exactly is torture and does it have a place in current world events? I have my views, but it is for the reader to make their own moral judgments. All in all a finely crafted work concerning one of today's most controversial subjects.

Character development was excellent. Mr. Berenson did a fine job fleshing out numerous psychologically complex characters. The protagonist John Wells is the new younger version of Vince Flynn's explosive Mitch Rapp. Kudos for that alone. Also, high marks for no gratuitous sex, language or violence. Just a great storyline well done.

Hearty recommend for The Midnight House. Mr. Berenson gets better with each new novel. I like how he mixes his action with thought provoking questions. He challenges the reader to think and make value judgments! This keeps the reader engaged at all literary levels.
Watch out Vince Flynn you are going to be pushed by Alex Berenson and competition always brings out the best. I hate buying hardback fiction at today's exorbitant prices so check the local library as I'm sure they have a copy. I am expectantly looking forward to Mr. Berenson's next John Wells novel.

Midnight House is a study on interrogation techniques which make the reader wonder how Berenson found them out or if he utilized his own imagination. If the latter, his devices reveal that he owns a diabolical mind and perhaps is using it in the wrong field. I suppose there are tracts written on the topic, which the author may have accessed. He does not, thankfully, show the interrogators experiencing pleasure in the process. One by one, the interrogators are murdered back in the United States, setting off the assignment of Ellis Shafer, the odd CIA genius, and John Wells, who is called back from a four-year hiatus after his saving action at Time Square.

The entire narrative is based on, wound around, questionable tactics at the very top with the CIA's Vincent Duto answering to Whitby of the DNI, who oversees too many other intelligence agencies. Not nice people, either of them.

But Shafer and Wells as a team makes for enjoyable reading. Their dialogue is rich in irony and a sort of inverted camaraderie.

Perhaps, you would have to have read other books in the series to appreciate the character of Jack Wells. There was almost no characterization of Wells in this novel. He broke up with a lady called Exley and that was referred to frequently with little emotion. Otherwise, I didn't have a mental picture of him at all. I got him mixed up with Shafer at one point and had to backtrack. Oh right, Wells is the one who goes to Egypt. The ambush in a cemetery has been done so many times in other thrillers that it was very deja vu. I read over 200 pages and figured if I wasn't hooked by now I never would be and gave up and skipped to the end. I found out who the killer was and was glad I didn't waste any more hours reading. If you want an unusual thriller that keeps you guessing, try Help for the Haunted.

This is another good book from Alex Berenson. Once again the hero of this action-espinoige novel is John Wells.
The U.S. government has set up a house in Poland called the Midnight House. This house is used for interrogation
purposes. Jihadists from the war in Afghanistan are captured and brought to the Midnight House to be interrogated
(or tortured). This facility is staffed by CIA personnel.Army Rangers, and other personnel. The name of this group is 673. There are 10 members of this working group. When 7 members of the 10 are murdered the head of the
CIA brings John Wells in to investigate the killings and determine who is responsible. Wells travels around the
globe to trace down leads. He is assaulted and arrested. It turns out to be a rough investigation. Wells starts
narrowing in on the killer. The identity of the real killer will surprise you. He also discovers deception and conspiracy wound into this plot. This is a very good book that will give you insight into interrogation centers. Be sure to buy it.

Disappointing. That's my unfortunate review of Alex Berenson's "The Midnight House." The previous three books got ratings of 4s and 3.5. "The Midnight House" suffered from what many other "recurring character" novels suffer from--a character who was once interesting and unique becoming very plastic and boring.

In this one, somebody's killing off a team who took part in an off-the-books super-secret interrogation house in Poland. I don't know what Berenson's point of view is on the subject--whether we're supposed to be shocked at some of the techniques used or be cheering on the interrogators, but we do get a pretty good look at ways we try to get info from terrorists without "leaving physical marks." Anyway, John Wells, who started out in "The Faithful Spy" as an embedded Al-Qaeda operative, is sent to investigate the killings. The problem with the book is that anyone could've done this. It'd be like having Jack Bauer looking for a lost cat. I mean, really? Can't we find something better for Wells to do?

So my poor rating more reflects the use of Wells than the story itself, although it's not all that interesting either. I'm not going to run out and get Berenson's next Wells book "The Secret Soldier" any time soon as I'm afraid it'll be more of the same.

In THE MIDNIGHT HOUSE, author Alex Berenson, in the age of America's war against Muslim fundamentalist attacks, addresses the topical subjects of the CIA's covert program of extralegal renditions and the enhanced interrogation of "ghost detainees" in detention facilities located on foreign soil - in this case, an alleged center located in Stare Kiejkuty, Poland. Indeed, that part of the plot involving his ongoing hero, CIA super-agent John Wells, is almost a subplot.

Now, the ten members of the joint CIA-military team - Task Force 673 - that once ran the Strare Kiejkuty gaol, nicknamed The Midnight House, are being systematically assassinated. It becomes the assignment of Wells and his boss, Ellis Shafer, to work on a parallel but separate track with the FBI to discover the killer. It soon becomes apparent to both that they also need to know what went down at the prison and who the detainees specifically were - little details nobody is willing to share in the spirit of transparency. Wells and Shafer are about to get a lesson in real politik at the highest level.

Although THE MIDNIGHT HOUSE incorporates a couple of decent plot twists, the action never reaches nail-biting intensity. The plateau of reader anticipation, such as it is, occurs well before the end of the novel, which then trails off to become but a teaser for the next in the John Wells series. That's not to say that THE MIDNIGHT HOUSE is a bad read; it isn't. As an exercise in plot development as the storyline ping-pongs back and forth between then and now and between Poland, Pakistan, and the U.S., it's actually good enough to rate four stars. And it holds out enough promise for the next installment that I'll probably buy it. What more could the author and publisher ask for?

And then, of course, there's the biggest question of all. Will John get back together with Exley or move on?

The first few John Wells thrillers from Alex Berenson were of the ticking bomb sort, sometimes literally. But in this latest entry in the series the author takes his foot off of the accelerator to consider the question of whether we ought to torture terrorists to find such bombs and to ponder what such a course of action does both to those we torture and to those whom we task with the torturing.<

Wells and his old friend/boss, Ellis Shafer, are called upon when the members of an interrogation team--Task Force 673--start turning up dead under suspicious circumstances. They have to determine whether the motive is revenge on the part of Al Qaeda, a falling out among thieves (there's missing government money and the possibility that the interrogations revealed the location of terrorist funds), a matter of someone in government silencing folks who know too much, or something else altogether.

Initially Wells goes undercover in Egypt, but for the most part the story proceeds as a sub rosa criminal investigation. There are flashbacks interspersed though that detail just what the task force did to a couple detainees at a secret prison in Poland and how their work affected the team members themselves. Central to this portion of the novel is Dr. Rachel Caller, the psychioatrist who had sought to be assigned to the squad but developed qualms about their methods. She apparently took her own life once she got back stateside.

If you're hyper-sensitive about spoilers you may want to stop reading here--but it does not give away too much to say that Task Force 673 ended up being responsible for a real intelligence coup as well as for the destruction of a number of lives. So, the question that Mr. Berenson places before us is: was what they did worth it?

By approaching the subject from a fictional angle he is able to create drama and add texture to the characters involved that might go missing in a mere factual recounting. In Wells and Shafer he also affords himself two sympathetic CIA men as judges of other operatives and of the extremes to which they went. He does not ultimately draw a hard and fast conclusion of his own, leaving that to the reader, and he also leaves the story at a point where Well's next mission seems obvious. As a result, and because he's slowed the pace of action down, the book has the unfinished quality of a middle book in a trilogy. It may frustrate those looking for the adrenaline rush of the earlier books, but the philsophical/political ruminations it will provoke in most readers are ample compensation. And the promise of further adventures should make everyone happy.

Alex Berenson's "The Midnight House" is a terrific cerebral thriller about the CIA, "AfPak" (aka al Qaeda, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), and a secret CIA prison site in Poland. If this sounds like something ripped from the pages of the New York Times, well, Berenson *is* a NY Times reporter, and the basic framework of the novel bears more than passing resemblance to events of the last decade.

The narrative drive of "The Midnight House" is an effort by two CIA agents to find out who is killing former members of a secret CIA squad that had detained and interrogated high-level terrorism suspects in a secret prison in Poland. (In fact, the U.S. did run such secret prisons in Poland and Romania, among other countries, in which high-level al Qaeda members like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, were subjected to waterboarding and other coercive interrogation tactics.) It's called the Midnight House because it's always midnight for the prisoners, who are subjected to brutal interrogations. Is it al Qaeda that's gunning for the former members of the interrogation squad? Or one of the surviving members who's trying to cover up something terrible that happened?

The writing is taut, and displays a reporter's eye for detail and efficient exposition. The shorthand codes in CIA cables, for example, are explained quickly and just enough to move the plot along with drowning the reader in unnecessary verbiage. I should say that I don't normally like novels that jump back and forth between different timelines, as this one does, but Berenson manages to pull it off without seeming like he's cheating the reader. (Often I find that authors who use the split timeline do so to generate suspense artificially.)

Finally, I gather this is the fourth novel in a series about CIA agent John Wells. I hadn't read the first three (I believe "The Faithful Spy" is the first one) but found it relatively easy to get into the storyline. There are references to events that have happened earlier, which I suppose means that at least one of the earlier books is spoiled for me, but this novel seems to be self-contained.

In short, I really enjoyed this novel. It's not as action packed as, say, books by Vince Flynn, but then, it's probably about 10,000 more realistic as well.

This is the fourth book in Alex Berenson's series about CIA agent John Wells, which started with The Faithful Spy (John Wells, No. 1). It's not necessary to have read all the previous books - in fact, this is a significantly better book than installments 2 and 3. If you're new to the series, all that you need to know is that John Wells is a fluent Arabic speaker who spent several years undercover for the CIA infiltrating the Taliban and then became a national hero after averting a terrorist attack in New York. Since then he has worked for the CIA when they need someone to help with "special problems" that require them to operate outside their usual channels.

The Midnight House which gives this book its name is a secret US interrogation center based in Poland, set up to deal with terrorists. Around a year after the center was disbanded, someone is killing off the team members one by one. John Wells is called in to find out who is responsible, which is a difficult task because so many details about what went on at the Midnight House are shrouded in secrecy. Parts of the story are set during the operation of the Midnight House, so that the answers gradually emerge from dual storylines.

This is an enjoyable thriller which is grounded in current events and therefore feels more realistic and credible than books of this genre often do. While there are some exciting action sequences, Berenson has also written an intelligent story with rounded characters. I didn't guess how the book would end, but it's a satisfying and logical conclusion.

"The Midnight House" is a very readable spy thriller. It is all about the ultra secretive American unit 673 stationed in Poland. Captured Taliban fighters, presumably with important information, are flown in to the "Midnight House" in order to extract from them whatever secret information they have. The unit uses whatever means of interrogation it chooses, with two exceptions: However harshly the detainees are treated, they must not have telltale marks on their bodies nor lose their sanity. Even detainees without significant information must be interrogated harshly to establish this fact. The action takes place outside U.S. jurisdiction so that whatever laws are broken they are not committed on American soil.

The author is extremely skillful in describing the artificial labyrinth of people who are in the know: From the pilots who ferry the detainees from Afghanistan to Poland, and members of the unit to the U.S. for rest and recreation, to their commanders on American soil and, of course, the people responsible for funding the operation. The people who are in the know don't really wish to be aware of all the sordid details. Members of unit 673 even have a presidential letter stating that they cannot be tried for fulfilling their duties, except that these duties are not specified. Unit 673 is just obeying orders, though it is difficult to ascertain whose orders and what exactly they are.

When the unit is disbanded, they are murdered one by one. Two former CIA agents are recalled to solve these crimes. The protagonist, John Wells, slowly pieces together the repugnant information about unit 673 trying to find a reason for these murders. I have not read the previous books featuring John Wells and therefore am not familiar with his early life. However, it is fairly clear from this book that he had been raised in the U.S. Later, he traveled to many countries, learning Arabic, and masquerading as a Muslim. Here is where the author goes beyond the limits of "poetic license." It is next to impossible for persons older than their early teens not to betray their native tongue when learning a foreign language. However well Wells may have learned Arabic he could not have passed as a native speaker of that language. When he is in Egypt, he pretends that he is a Kuwaiti. Spoken Arabic varies from country to country just as English and Spanish do. A Londoner would be ridiculed if he claimed to be from Brooklyn, or a Mexican alleging that he was from Argentina. In Egypt, Wells asserts that he is a Kuwaiti and is taken at his word. Later in the book, a squad of Americans operating clandestinely in Pakistan and Afghanistan, speak Pashtu with the natives, giving the impression that they were from the same region. Alex Berenson should have found a more plausible explanation.

Still, the book an easy read, and describes vividly the horrors of "rendition," both for the prisoners and their keeper.

This is the fourth of Alex Berenson's thrillers, all featuring his CIA agent John Wells. All of Berenson's books have been intelligent and thoughtful thrillers, very much not following the standard approach but still with pace and thrills.

This one I really enjoyed as once again the author gives a different perspective to intelligence thrillers, here dealing with rendition.

A small US rendition team was based off the books in Poland dealing only with high value prisoners, now back in the US they are being killed off one by one and Wells and his boss Shafer are tasked with identifying the killer in an off the books investigation. The more they investigate the more they find that something went on that nobody wants unearthed.

To say more will give spoilers, but this does sound like many such thrillers but actually it is not. Wells is an interesting character, flawed and restless but no all action heroes. Berenson gives us a clear distinction between Islam and those who use Islam as an excuse for terrorism and also provides characterisation and motives for all involved in his story - it's very satisfying to feel a connection to the characters, whether they be jaded CIA types or Pakistani intelligence officers.

For readers of the previous novels there is mention of Exley but no appearance and Well's relationship with Shafer seems more relaxed then I remember, but the lack of Exley is in context with the state of Well's mind...

As the story unpeels (with back-story to explain the Midnight House - the nickname for the rendition centre) you are challenged to decide whether the end justifies the means as the difficult subject of rendition is explored, along with the consequence for both prisoner and interrogators.

Keeps you guessing until a satisfying and enjoyable end.

This novel continues the story of John Wells, CIA spy, as the CIA chief, Vinnie Duto task him and long time CIA operative, Ellis Schafer to investigate a string of murders. Their investigation is "off the books", and the FBI and the Director of National Intellidence do not want Wells and Shafer on the case. All the victims served for 18 months in a top secret interrogation facility they came to call The Midnight House. The author does a masterful job of establishing a point counterpoint situation where he takes the reader from the present day actions of Wells and Shafer conducting the investigation to alternating chapters desiring the actions and situations which occurred within the Midbight Hous, all the while, he dribbles out bread crumbs of information to keep the reader engaged.

Masterful job.

After Berenson's "The Faithful Spy," I found his next two books to be more action-oriented, ala Vince Flynn, with less depth than expected. While I enjoyed them, I hoped this fourth book would bring back that intelligence quotient that made me a fan of John Le Carre's earlier work and Daniel Silva's current novels.

"The Midnight House" is a clever mystery disguised as an espionage novel. Once again, stoic John Wells is called into action. This time, he's investigating a string of "accidental" deaths that are systematically eliminating a squad of US interrogators from a former detaining facility in Poland. With political pressure from the abuses at Gitmo, the intelligence community is taking extra measures to hide its continued capture and torture of terrorist prisoners, and the people now targeted are unknown to all but a handful. Is Al Qaida getting revenge? Are officials covering their tracks? Or is this the final handiwork of one of the team members, cracking under the psychological strain of their actions?

John Wells and his handler follow the trail, while the story gives us a parallel view of the capture and interrogation of the Midnight House's most valuable prisoner. The eventual secrets that come out of the detaining center, and out of Wells' investigation, lead to the tragic loss of innocence on both sides of the war on terror. No one can walk away untouched.

This is not a "thriller," as some reviewers have supposed, but it is a quick-moving story of spies, betrayal, murder, and the ethics of warfare that goes on unseen. If you want Vince Flynn's shallow characters, this is the wrong place to look. But if you want strong story, with credible action, good research, and multi-dimensional protagonist, Alex Berenson is back on track.

I've read the previous three "John Wells" books and already have No. 5 queued to start tonight. I like how Berenson weaves inconspicuous characters from previous books into the current story. I plan on reading the entire series. Love the storylines with how Berenson will go into great detail developing a character that is suddenly killed off.

I have enjoyed the John Wells series, but this book does not fit in with the series. Half the book is filled with flashbacks while in the present, Wells spends his time on a goose chase for the apparent sole purpose for the next book's setup (I haven't read the synopsis yet for The Secret Soldier). The conspiracy was somewhat intriguing, but could have been executed more effectively with a few changes to the plot and of course, with far less going on with the constant flashbacks. Almost nothing of Wells' activities were interesting and this book can be discarded as it hardly qualifies as a thriller novel. It started off great, but halted abruptly and merely plodded along until the end's rushed conclusion once Wells' investigation found the missing link. Read a wiki and move along, nothing to see here.

Once again Alex Berenson has done a masterful job blending great story telling, his reporting experience with the New York Times and knowledge of the Middle East, producing what is arguably his best novel so far.

The story line comes from the current headlines. A raid on a group of Jihadists in Pakistan yields several members of a group with connections to Al Qaeda. Instead of shipping the prisoners to Guantanamo, they are airlifted to a remote secret prison in Poland where a special CIA unit uses harsh methods to make them talk. Once the mission is accomplished and closed down, several members of the unit are murdered and the CIA brings in John Wells to solve the killings.

Berenson has done is homework on this tale as it mentions the ISI (Pakistan's version of the FBI) and its possible connection to the Blutto assassination and the call for the CIA to turnover documents related to torturing prisoners held in secret prisons outside the US.

If you follow the war on terrorism and the events in Afghanistan, like I do, you will find this book impossible to put down.

The Midnight House is Alex Berensen's fourth installment in the series featuring CIA agent John Wells. As the story opens, Wells is in self-imposed seclusion as he attempts to recover physically and emotionally from previous action. Quickly, however, he is called back to Washington DC to help investigate the murders of several members of a secret terrorist interrogation unit. Although initially reluctant to reengage, he is rapidly pulled into an investigation filled with undefined allegiances and potential conspiracies.

Start to finish, this work moves along with pace. As Wells moves forward with his investigation, Berensen frequently goes back in time to slowly shed increasing amounts of light on the Midnight House and its participants. The Midnight House is not without its action and plot twists, but it is different than the previous installments of the series. In Midnight House, Wells' action is more often cerebral than it is physical, with much of the intense action left to other characters. All-in-all, this story broadens the Wells character in a good way. While this work could stand on its own, my recommendation would be to read all four books in order for maximum enjoyment.

Alex Berenson created a great serial character in John Wells. An expert in the Middle East, he speaks several dialects of Arabic like a native and can bring hte fight to the enemy. An interesting side note is that Wells is a Muslim, and needs to balance his beliefs in his religion against those of fundamentalist terrorists.

This time he has to investigate why an elite team or agents - formerly interrogators working in Poland and doing whatever it takes to get answers - are being killed. Wells has to travel around the world to find out who and why this is happening. As usual for a Berenson novel, the action is hot, the characters have a human side, and Wells does what it takes to find answers to the mystery.

This is an excellent political thriller, even if it is more of a mystery than a thriller. More than that, it is a meditation, in fictional form, on the moral and politicl dilemmas posed by "enhanced interrogation." The story itself revolves arounds a series of murders committed against members of a CIA team that tortured Islamic terrorists at a secret prison in Poland. The first third of the book is taken up with a mission by CIA operative John Wells to Egypt to scope out and make contact with some suspected terrorists who may have some information about the murders. The mission to Egypt ends ambiguously, and thereafter the real story begins. Wells and his immediate boss Shafer are tasked to find out who is murdering former members of a CIA team which performed "enhanced interrogations" on captured Jahadist functionaries at a CIA prison in Poland. The scene shifts between in a series of flashbacks to the work of the CIA interrogation task force in Poland and back again to the attempts by Wells and Shafer to uncover the murderer -- and incidentally what the CIA team had been doing in Poland. The plot is at least as much about the attempts of the interrogatories to "break" the terrorists and the effects of their efforts on members of the team as it is about discovering and capturing the murderer.

What makes this a much above average political thriller is the objectivity of the author in analyzing the necssity for and effects of torture in the "War on Terror." Unlike most writers of fiction and non-fiction on the subject, Berenson takes a balanced look at the nature and effectsof "enhanced interrogation," both from the point of view of the "victims" and the "perpetrators," and from the point of view of the war on terror generally. He portrays, in no uncertain terms, the terrible mental toll torturing takes on at least some of its victims, and in equally fine detail, its effects on some of the perpetrators. And yet his CIA interrogators make a strong case for the necessity of their actions, and the outcome of the task force's efforts in breaking its subjects turns out to be a mother lode of extremely important intelligence. Berenson seems to argue that this intelligence could not have been obtained any other way.

Berenson's approach is attractive because it avoids the simple-minded "break the scum" cheerleading of authors like Vince Flynn and the equally simple-minded anti-Americanism of writers like John LeCarre. Although plenty of spy novelists write of the tragic consequences of the espionage business on the spys themselves, Berenson goes beyond this somewhat tired pot device to the larger question of the consequences of counterterrorism on national policy. "Tragedy" is a good word for it. Where a course of action is both morally revolting and politically (hence morally) necessary, there can be no good outcome. Barenson keeps in equipoise both sides of the moral equasion -- so much so that I would cannot be certain Berenson's personal political views (although he seems to lean toward the view that torture is a cruel necessity). When fictional characters deserve a medal and a prison term for the same course of action, the reader is left to decide whether what they do is worth it.

One of the virtues of this book is its minor, but unfamiliar, insights into aspects of the war on terror. For example, he indicates that a good many of what pass for Jahadist militias are really just juvenile delinquents who use Islamic sloganeering as a loose cover for acting like Cripps or Bloods. And he points out how dangerous Egypt has become for foreign tourists as the government has lost control over many areas of the country. He also suggests that the religious aspects of Jihad are perhaps overrated, while the social and criminal aspects of the movement are insufficiently appreciated. Hence, he concludes rather hopefully, a good many of the "higher-ups" in the movement can probably be "turned" if they can ever be found.

All in all, this is a remarkably thoughtful and informative book, and is probably Berenson's best novel to date.

Midnight House, in my opinion, marks the return of John Wells. The first Wells' novel, The Faithful Spy, was an excellent and unusual spy novel. The character of John Wells, a CIA operative who was undercover as a Muslim, jihadi freedom fighter, was an original character and a character that the reader could relate to. In the next novels, Berenson morphed his character of John Wells into a some type of super hero battling all types of foreign and domestic enemies. The character of John Wells lost his originality and he became a blend of Mitch Rapp, Joe Pike and, Van Lustbader's, Jason Bourne.

In The Midnight House, Berenson has brought back the original character of John Wells. There are no elaborate romantic entanglements, there are no super human fetes of heroism and there are no multi faceted threats of terrorism that Wells must face. Berenson has eliminated many of the previous novels characters or at least move them to a secondary level. He has made the plot simpler and much more believable. The are no new massive terrorist threats, no multinational threats and no threats of nuclear annihilation. Berenson has presented the reader with two questions;
1. What is the role of enhanced interrogation tactics in a free society?
2. The reader is also asked to consider who is the greatest threat to our country, Middle East terrorism or our supposed allies in the war on terror who condone and even outright support the terrorist?

The Midnight House revolves around those two questions. However, at times, Berenson had trouble with his characters and some of the plot elements. The killing of the Army Rangers seemed to be accomplished fairly easily and the perpetrator did not seem to be someone who could easily kill several Army Rangers. It was a little too convenient and too easy. Setting aside the secondary characters, the reader will find that John Wells has returned. I hope that Berenson can keep him around this time.

Alex Berenson skillfully creates both a thriller and an opportunity to question morality in does the end justify the means in this his fourth book. The theme is current with the war on terror with Al Quaeda, Pakistan and Afganistan and the subtext - who guards the guards. A secret interrogation house had been set up in Poland staffed by military and agency operatives called Team 673 to interrogate detainees with methods not generally approved. Berenson explores the physcological aspects and impacts on Team 673. Now someone is killing members of Team 673 and it is up to John Wells, CIA operative, to determine who and why. There are twists and turns from dealing with a political manipulative boss to just who has the motivation to terminate Team 673. You won't want to put the book down once you have started it!

The Midnight house, Alex Berenson's fourth spy novel featuring CIA super-agent John Wells, continues his action-packed yet sophisticated take on the sprawling War on Terror and its frightening collateral consequences. Here Wells is called upon to investigate the serial murders of a disbanded eleven-member interrogation squad, whose well-financed torture methods were designed to break terrorists in a secret Polish military prison without traceability to its backers in the Pentagon and three-letter-agencies. The FBI is already on the case, and it is clear to Wells and his supervisor, Ellis Shafer, that they are being asked to conduct a parallel investigation to further some political agenda well above their pay grades.

As with the previous Wells novels, the writing is first rate, and Berenson's knowledge of the military and intelligence community allows him to maintain a realistic, authentic feel throughout. The plot, however, suffers from being part thriller, part mystery, with chapters alternating between Wells's present-day investigation of the murders and flashbacks seen through the eyes of those involved in the interrogations. The effect is a hodgepodge of scenes in which the reader knows more than the investigator Wells, diminishing the intensity and fluidity that could have been achieved by holding true to either the thriller or mystery format. Even so, this is a timely, entertaining novel that highlights the psychological toll that torture techniques exact on prisoners and interrogators alike.

Alex Berenson seems to be conflicted in this book. On one hand, as a good liberal NY Times writer, he feels compelled to condemn the practice of foreign renditions and portray the terrorist detainees more sympatically than their American interrogators, on the other hand he grudgingly admits we did obtain some vital information with those harsh methods. It's books like this when really wish Vince Flynn was still alive. There would be no such am bivalence from him.

Thus far Midnight House is my favorite John Well's book. Thus far I've read The Faithful Spy, The Ghost War, The Silent Man, The Night Ranger and now Midnight House. I've enjoyed all of Well's adventures. Alex Berenson is an exceptional writer and his stories play out like a movie in my head. All I can say is John Well's is one cool warrior and I look forward to Berenson other books.

In "The Midnight House" author Alex Berenson takes his main character John Wells in a new direction. Previously, Wells had been an overseas CIA Operative in, as an example, in The Ghost War.

But in his newest novel, he is called in to investigate the deaths of CIA operators whose one common denominator was.....that they were all at the Midnight House, an interrogation center at a military base in Poland. This was a center where hard core jihadis
were taken for "enhanced" questioning to develop actionable intelligence.

In his 385 paged novel, Wells is tasked with finding out who is killing the operators and why.

This was an interesting, although different, work by Berenson and I thought it was a solid 4-star effort.

The Midnight House is the fourth book in Alex Berenson's series featuring super spy, John Wells. This latest addition is different from the others in the series in that it focuses much less on action, adventure and pulse-pounding suspense, and much more on involving Wells and his boss, Ellis Shafer, in an investigation into the murders of two members of an interrogation team that, a few years earlier, had operated out of a secret base in Poland called The Mid­night House. This team's assignment was to use whatever techniques necessary on known jihadis in order to uncover information about major terrorist activities. While The Midnight House relies more on Wells using his mental, versus physical, capabilities, the book is very engrossing and insightful into the secret "goings on" used to obtain information deemed necessary to protect the country from potential terrorist threats. If you are in the mood for a spy thriller that is driven by an intelligent, complex investigation moreso than one driven by intense action sequences, than The Midnight House is a book I think you'll enjoy.

Following the New York incident (see The Silent Man), CIA agent John Wells receives some needed R&R. He takes off for rustic New Hampshire with only his dog Tonka as his hiking mate.

However, his respite abruptly ends when his assignments boss Ellis Shafer calls asking him to come back to work as he is needed. An assassin has killed probably five members of the defunct 10 manned Task Force 673, whose mission was to interrogate high-value terrorists; they had no rules except obtain information anyway they can. John searches for the killer with the biggest barriers coming from within as security agency chiefs are willing to allow more Americans to die in order to gain more power.

Shakespeare said "All's well that ends well", but even if he ends the serial killing spree, the espionage operative learns otherwise as Pogo trumps the Bard with "we have met the enemy and he is us". The latest Wells' spy thriller is more a whodunit except for the penis envy testosterone wars between the American spy agencies. Fans will appreciate Alex Berenson's super thriller as his hero may be The Faithful Spy, but others place agency desires over national security.

Harriet Klausner

Alex Berenson's John Wells series has really hit it's stride, though this book is a bit of a departure from earlier books in the series.

The Midnight House is more like a murder serial killer mystery set with the shadowy world of counter terrorism and espionage as a backdrop. There is less action than in the previous books, but that doesn't make the story any less compelling.

In fact, Berenson managed to keep me guessing on various theories of the crime central to the plot nearly to the end. Though he gives hints, he surely doesn't telegraph who is actually behind the killings.

As the story of what happens unfolds, we come to see the toll the war on terror demands from those conducting it, the effects on their families. We also see the untidy like innocent detainees, what can happen when questioning goes too far, and the questionable nature of some of our "allies".

John Wells continues to develop and grow as a character. It was interesting seeing him face a problem that he can't shoot through or punch.

Despite the ending of this book, I fully expect more Wells from Berenson in the future.

As Daniel Sliva used to do, Alex Berenson raises hot-button issues while telling a terrific adventure story. The question of what's moral in a time a war is at the heart of this narrative and no one is likely to be happy with the answers.

I'm giving this 5 stars because it's a great thriller. Berenson sort of wants to (sic) make it something more, but he doesn't give the attention to John Wells' thought that he gives to everyone's action. But fair enough. A good thriller is nothing to sneeze at.

Saving the world is hard. Doing it convincingly book after book must be a huge challenge. This is the fourth John Wells thriller, and Berenson manages to give us a more a hero who changes - that's good - but who isn't actually transformed, despite some angst-ridden narration. A number of current mystery/thriller writers have intellectual heroes - Donna Leon's Brunetti; Silva's Gabriel Alon in the middle of the series (he's stopped thinking and now merely leaps to kill people); Stephen White's Alan Gregory; Winspear's Masie Dobbs. But each of these characters engages issues through reading and disciplined thinking. Susan Dunlap's Darcy Lott brings the mental disciple of Zen to her daily life, her work, her investigation. Berenson gives Wells a few biographies to read, but he doesn't tell us anything about them and Wells doesn't respond to them critically. It would be terrific to see the thinking of a NYTimes reporter on the shaping of post-9/11 history, but Berenson doesn't put in the time to develop the life of Wells' mind.

The first in the series, The Faithful Spy, was amazing. The second book was a second book. In the third novel Berenson allows Wells to develop believably, still at odds with his American culture, although with nothing said about his faith. (Wells converted to Islam while spending years under cover in Afghanistan. In the second book, he moves into more secular mind-set, and in the third all we hear about is not eating pork - superficial stuff.) In The Midnight House he returns to the practice of Islam while undercover again, but the passages of introspection on theology are sophomoric at best. There's a real opportunity here to explore the ways in which religion engages with political action and moral practice, but all we get is the occasional paragraph of generalized comparatives.

Jennifer Exley, a central character in the first book , becomes more and more marginal as the series progresses, for all that she did figure out the solution in the second book. Here she is entirely absent and I actually prefer that to seeing her as an accessory (in both senses) rather than a protagonist. Berenson can draw strong women characters -- there's a mother of 3 here who I'd love to meet again -- but he has yet to sustain one. This is a guys' adventure, very conventional.

Berenson gives us good suspense and compelling action. If he wants to turn Wells into a philosopher king -- or even a mensch -- he needs to make the character do his homework.