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98th out of 119 books
—
316 voters
Red Cell: A Novel
by
Mark Henshaw (Goodreads Author)
From the Tom Clancy for a new generation, a debut thriller following two CIA outcasts who must race to stop a secret Chinese weapon that threatens to provoke a world war After her first assignment in Venezuela goes disastrously awry, rookie case officer Kyra Stryker is brought back to Langley to work in the Red Cell, the CIA’s out-of-the-box think tank. There she’s paired...more
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published
May 1st 2012
by Touchstone
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Another one of those almost 4 star (but not quite) books. Although I should, by all rights, give this an extra star just for being clean and devoid of foul language. Thank you, Mr. Henshaw for providing an entertaining read without offending those sensibilities.
Aside from the over-use of acronyms (which is probably an occupational hazard given Mr. Henshaw's background) I was surprised this was a first novel. The characters were pretty interesting, although at times I found myself thinking they w...more
Aside from the over-use of acronyms (which is probably an occupational hazard given Mr. Henshaw's background) I was surprised this was a first novel. The characters were pretty interesting, although at times I found myself thinking they w...more
http://www.cozylittlebookjournal.com/...
Reading Mark Henshaw's debut novel Red Cell was a little like watching the movie The Hunt for Red October when I was a kid. I didn't always understand what was going on, but I found all the drama and gravitas very compelling. Everyone was shouting and acting important and outwitting the enemy. And Alec Baldwin was very hunky. Okay, that last one only applies to The Hunt for Red October...
Red Cell is a CIA thriller that's been rightly compared to Tom Clancy...more
Reading Mark Henshaw's debut novel Red Cell was a little like watching the movie The Hunt for Red October when I was a kid. I didn't always understand what was going on, but I found all the drama and gravitas very compelling. Everyone was shouting and acting important and outwitting the enemy. And Alec Baldwin was very hunky. Okay, that last one only applies to The Hunt for Red October...
Red Cell is a CIA thriller that's been rightly compared to Tom Clancy...more
Red Cell by Mark Henshaw is non-stop action, from the opening chapter to the final word. Rookie case officer, Kyra Stryker, after almost losing her life on an assignment in Venezuela, is brought back to Langley where she joins the CIA’s Red Cell and is paired up with analyst Jonathan Burke. That pairing takes Stryker and Burke from Langley to China to impending war in the South China Sea.
Red Cell is an intense, fast moving read that’ll keep you turning pages. Lives are on the line and war is rum...more
Red Cell is an intense, fast moving read that’ll keep you turning pages. Lives are on the line and war is rum...more
Synopsis: After her first assignment in Venezuela goes disastrously awry, rookie case officer Kyra Stryker is brought back to Langley to work in the Red Cell, the CIA’s out-of-the-box think tank. There she’s paired with Jonathan Burke, a straitlaced analyst who has alienated his colleagues with his unorthodox methods and a knack for always being right, political consequences be damned. When a raid on Chinese spies in Taiwan ends in a shoot-out and the release of a deadly chemical, CIA director K...more
“Red Cell” by Mark Henshaw, published by Touchstone Books.
Category – Mystery/Thriller
This is a top notch mystery/thriller with espionage and military action all wrapped up in the possibility of a major war.
Kyra Stryker, a CIA agent is on assignment in Venezuela. She is a rookie and is given an assignment that doesn’t feel right. The assignment blows up in her face and she is reassigned to a “think tank” at Langley. There are only two in the tank and their job is to “think outside the box”.
This c...more
Category – Mystery/Thriller
This is a top notch mystery/thriller with espionage and military action all wrapped up in the possibility of a major war.
Kyra Stryker, a CIA agent is on assignment in Venezuela. She is a rookie and is given an assignment that doesn’t feel right. The assignment blows up in her face and she is reassigned to a “think tank” at Langley. There are only two in the tank and their job is to “think outside the box”.
This c...more
RED CELL
Mark Henshaw
If you like stories of our intelligence service and its possible interaction with the intelligence agencies of other countries, in this case, China and Taiwan, you will enjoy Red Cell. The suspense is somewhat uneven, going from a tense walk into a trap and a run for her life, to the several pages of unnecessary detailed explanation. At the heart of the novel is a possible war with China, and how the intelligence communities, despite their shortcomings, save us. Since this is...more
Mark Henshaw
If you like stories of our intelligence service and its possible interaction with the intelligence agencies of other countries, in this case, China and Taiwan, you will enjoy Red Cell. The suspense is somewhat uneven, going from a tense walk into a trap and a run for her life, to the several pages of unnecessary detailed explanation. At the heart of the novel is a possible war with China, and how the intelligence communities, despite their shortcomings, save us. Since this is...more
Starts slowly...but the pace picks up about a third of the way through. The author takes his time in setting the stage. The leader of Taiwan,Liang sets up a sting to provoke his large neighbor to the West.A raid in Taiwan catches some Chinese spies but also results in the death of an agent from another country. Now the leader of China, Tian is not going to stand idly by. He must show Taiwan that they really are no more than a part of China. The size of the ensuing maneuver is going to be very tr...more
He has already been called the ‘Tom Clancy of a new generation’. Such is the high acclaim that debut author, Mark Henshaw, must live up to. He has set the bar incredibly high with his first novel, RED CELL. This is because he himself was a decorated CIA analyst and charter member of the think tank known as Red Cell.
Created on September 13, 2001 in direct response to the infamous terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, the Red Cell team was set up to tell the CIA Director what no one else is telling him....more
Created on September 13, 2001 in direct response to the infamous terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, the Red Cell team was set up to tell the CIA Director what no one else is telling him....more
Having a little background in HUMINT—human intelligence—I enjoy reading espionage novels, and having spent 20 years in the Army, I also love military fiction. Mark Henshaw, a former CIA analyst, brilliantly combined both genres in his first thriller, Red Cell. I wouldn’t have thought that an analyst would be as up as he is on tradecraft—clandestine HUMINT operational techniques, such as secret writing, brush contacts, and dead drops. The novel, concerning a brewing conflict based on China’s desi...more
It's great to find a smart thriller about modern espionage from a new author. China is the enemy here instead of Russia, but I found Red Cell to be as compelling a read as The Hunt for Red October, the book that launched Tom Clancy's career. But unlike Clancy, Henshaw is a CIA employee instead of an insurance salesman (not that Clancy didn't do his research). After a powerful opening action scene, the first half of Red Cell builds up the suspense rather than becoming a 70-page chase scene. But t...more
I really enjoyed this book. I bought it because I read a review that told me about the author, Mark Henshaw. A BYU grad, he was part of the specialized Red Cell team that was put together after 9/11. I love spy/CIA novels, but they are so often riddled with terrible language and go to places that are too dark for me. This book had none of that. It's very intellectually written (I had to pay attention or I'd get lost), and I learned some fascinating things. My only complaint is that there were SO...more
I was surprised at how well this novel was laid out for a first time fictional writer. Believe this will rival Clancy’s earlier work such as Red Storm Rising. The tradecraft used is accurate but not all inclusive. I would have loved to see the author cover the concept of the “Beginner’s Mind” when assigning one of the main characters to Red Cell. Although fiction, it is a brief glimpse into the workings of how an intelligence agency should collect, disseminate, and analyze data and then develop...more
Red Cell
by Mark Henshaw
From page one the reader is taken into the veiled world of the CIA. For 336 pages you become one with the CIA. From field agent to analyst, you get the inside on the workings of these people.
The job of Agents at the Red Cell is to think outside the box- to find the possibilities that other analysts overlook or dismiss. Case officer Kyra Stryker is brought back to Langley to work in the Red Cell after her first assignment in Venezuela goes disastrously wrong. In charge of...more
by Mark Henshaw
From page one the reader is taken into the veiled world of the CIA. For 336 pages you become one with the CIA. From field agent to analyst, you get the inside on the workings of these people.
The job of Agents at the Red Cell is to think outside the box- to find the possibilities that other analysts overlook or dismiss. Case officer Kyra Stryker is brought back to Langley to work in the Red Cell after her first assignment in Venezuela goes disastrously wrong. In charge of...more
Factual correction needed - US embassies are NOT American soil. (This is a common, but false, belief. Because of diplomatic immunity and diplomatic relationships, host governments typically do not invade foreign embassies, but a baby born to Chinese nationals in the US embassy in Beijing would not be a US citizen because that embassy is still technically on Chinese, not US, soil.)
Great read, though. Off to watch Burn Notice....
Great read, though. Off to watch Burn Notice....
This was a great novel about espionage, the CIA, military confict, and political strife. I really enjoyed the realism and descriptions and could tell that the author had spent a number of years working for the CIA. An added bonus was the lack of profanity, something most other contemporary authors writing in this genre can't seem to live without.
My one gripe regarding this novel was the lack of fleshed out characters. I would have liked a bit more character depth and description. That said, I w...more
Wow! What an exciting read! I found it fascinating to get inside the information sector of the government, see some of the squabbles that go on between agencies (my dad was in NSA and confirms it with a chuckle), but also how assets are used to gain intelligence. Some of the technical equipment, weaponry, etc., was over my head, but there were several events that I found very exciting and suspenseful. I was impressed with the complexity of the plot and the way Henshaw moved from location to loca...more
My cousin wrote this book so I'm a little biased, but I thought it was great. I got a little lost in some of the military jargon, but it definitely kept my interest. If you like CIA spy novels, you'll love this one. It's very clean. I'll probably let my 10 year old read it. He loves military stories.
A top-notch thriller, Red Cell could easily become a fantastic movie. Though fiction, it read like a true story of present day espionage and a very real threat to the precarious peace of today. My favorite character was Kyra and enjoyed following her through her parts of this exciting adventure.
First learned of this book on an International Spy Museum podcast interview with the author, who is an analyst with the CIA and used to work in the Red Cell. So the book - even though it has to go through approval by the CIA - has the patina of someone who knows what he's talking about. The book works well as both a spy novel and a military techno-thriller a la Tom Clancy, and should appeal to both audiences.
The only thing that would have enhanced my enjoyment of the book more would have been t...more
The only thing that would have enhanced my enjoyment of the book more would have been t...more
I gave it 4 stars because it was a CIA thriller novel with no bad language in it. It was hard for me to get through for some reason. There were lots of characters and locations like a Tom Clancy and it took a while to piece everything together. Not my type of book I guess.
I liked this book and got sucked into the plot. It was very interesting because the author had a lot of inside knowledge as to how the CIA works which made it very real. The action sequences were great. Kind of your typical spy thriller.
Great read. I wish I knew more military terms but I was still able to get through it. Having lived in the area of DC where the author is from made it even more relatable and I found all of the details about the CIA intriguing.
There is no audio version of this in Goodreads. I will try to add it if noone else gets to it first. I really liked the story, but the narrator was a bit awkward to me. Very good with pronounciation, but a little stiff sounding.
This rookie writer almost got four stars, and I look forward to his next endeavour. I like the picture of bureaucratic mind-think afflicting the CIA, and a relative who used to work there affirmed this is true, which is scary.
Hey Mr. Henshaw, please keep writing. And I like Kyra...bring her back.
Hey Mr. Henshaw, please keep writing. And I like Kyra...bring her back.
Loved this book! I loved his style of telling the story through different people and helping figure out the mystery/problem. If he has any other books I am definitely reading them. Very well done.
This was better than reading Tom Clancy. An intricate plot set against modern situations and great explanations of how things work in the world of CIA analysts and operatives.
I enjoyed this one. A pretty good look at how the CIA overseas deep cover assets work and what motivates them. It's not always the money, or love of Americans!
A lot of interesting information about the CIA, stealth aircraft, and China, bit poorly developed characters and not terribly plausible plot.
Hard to get into (too many acronyms and lots of characters to try to keep straight) but I did enjoy the last third of the book.
A good story about the possible conflict between China and Taiwan, written like the old Tom Clancy and Larry Bond novels.
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