The Once a Spy Series by Keith Thomson

Once a Spy (The Once a Spy Series #1)

Author: Thomson, Keith
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 324pp.
Pub. Date: March 2010
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Nominated for the 2010 Dilys Award Award

The ebook and audio book is available from the CLEVNET eMedia Collection.

Publisher’s Summary
Drummond Clark was once a spy of legendary proportions. Now Alzheimer’s disease has taken its toll and he’s just a confused old man who’s wandered away from home, waiting for his son to fetch him.

When Charlie Clark takes a break from his latest losing streak at the track to bring Drummond back to his Brooklyn home, they find it blown sky high — and then bullets start flying in every direction.

At first, Charlie thinks his Russian “creditors” are employing aggressive collection tactics.

But once Drummond effortlessly hot-wires a car as their escape vehicle, Charlie begins to suspect there’s much more to his father than meets the eye. He soon discovers that Drummond’s unremarkable career as an appliance salesman was actually a clever cover for an elaborate plan to sell would-be terrorists faulty nuclear detonators.

Drummond’s intricate knowledge of the “device” is extremely dangerous information to have rattling around in an Alzheimer’s-addled brain.

The CIA wants to “contain” him — and so do some other shady characters who send Charlie and Drummond on a wild chase that gives “father and son quality time” a whole new meaning.

With Once a Spy, Keith Thomson makes his debut on the thriller stage with energy, wit, and style to spare.

Twice a Spy (The Once a Spy Series #2)

Author: Thomson, Keith
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 336pp.
Pub. Date: March 2011
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

The ebook and audio book is available from the CLEVNET eMedia Collection.

Publisher’s Summary
On the heels of Once a Spy, which PW hailed as a “wildly original debut [with] an action-packed story line,” Keith Thomson returns with a breakneck thriller that’s twice as explosive as the original.

In the tradition of Robert Ludlum, with a witty twist, Thomson’s second novel featuring a former spy and his son once again poses the question: What happens when a former CIA agent can no longer trust his own mind?

Charlie and Drummond Clark are now in Switzerland, hiding out from criminal charges in America and using the time to experiment with treatments to retrieve Drummond’s memory.

When NSA operative Alice Rutherford, with whom Charlie has fallen in love, is kidnapped, the Clarks must dodge a formidable CIA case officer and his team to get her back.