Need to Know: A Novel

Karen Cleveland

Jan 2018 · Sold by Ballantine Books

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE ITW THRILLER AWARD • Perfect husband. Perfect father. Perfect liar?

“Terrific.”—John Grisham
“Superb.”—Lee Child
“Breathtaking, heart-pounding.”—Louise Penny
“A fast-paced, relentlessly gripping read.”—Chris Pavone

Vivian Miller. High-powered CIA analyst, happily married to a man she adores, mother of four beautiful children. Until the moment she makes a shocking discovery that makes her question everything she believes.
 
She thought she knew her husband inside and out. But now she wonders if it was all a lie. How far will she go to learn the truth?  And does she really . . . 
 
. . . NEED TO KNOW?

Film rights sold to Universal Pictures for Charlize Theron • Rights sold in more than 20 markets

“Shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest new thrillers.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“So timely . . . Think of the perfect mix of Homeland and The Americans. . . . Need to Know needs to be read by all who relish spy novels. As entertaining as it is informative and as irresistible as it is impossible to put down.”—Providence Journal
 
“Pulse-pounding.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
 
“Accomplished . . . a nonstop thriller tapping into a hot mix of contemporary digital counterintelligence, old-school spying and ageless family drama.”—Shelf Awareness

“An early contender for next year’s Gone Girl.”—GQ (UK)
  
“The Russia page-turner that should be on everyone’s list.”—New York Post

Ratings and reviews

I was hesitant about reading Need to Know at first because I typically lose interest in political based books very quickly. There was no way I was going to lose interest in Need to Know. It is fast paced and keeps you constantly on your toes. Reading this thriller was like reading an episode of Quantico. Vivian is definitely a heroine to admire. She is fiercely protective of both her family and her country and willing to sacrifice everything to protect them. Cleveland managed to perfectly weave a story of fast paced political thriller with an underlying romance story in this book. I voluntarily received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After finishing Karen Cleveland’s novel Need to Know, I was amazed to discover this is her debut. This absolutely stunning book grabbed my attention from the get go and held it to the final page. Vivian and her husband are struggling to keep afloat, juggling their two jobs and four young children, including one of their infant twins who was born with a heart defect. Sleep deprived but still determined to prove herself at her CIA counterintelligence job, Vivian has developed a state of the art system to seek out Russian spies within the US. While putting the system into action, she discovers a link to several operatives that completely blows her world apart. No longer knowing who she can trust, she starts down a path to save her own little corner of the world while making multiple questionable choices. The farther she proceeds down this path, the less she’s certain who to believe or how to escape from her mistakes. With so many intriguing plot twists, this book will keep you guessing to the very end. A conclusion I never saw coming!

While I do love thrillers and suspense, I don't read a lot of CIA/Spy type stories, but the blurb for this one intrigued me. I started reading and I have to say that for most of the book, I wasn't sure how I would rate this one. I went back and forth between rolling my eyes at Vivian's decisions and being so aggravated with her that I wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled, especially a memory from the past would feature a big red flag. At the same time, I couldn't stop turning the pages. I had to see how it all came out. Then, I thought about her situation. It's easy to sit back with a bird's eye view and say what we would do in her shoes, but when faced with extreme circumstances, when everything we hold dear is on the line, what would we really do? In the end, I realized that this is not just a story about spies, it's also a tale of a seemingly good life disrupted by betrayal and deceit. The book is wonderfully written and any time that an author can keep me turning pages, stir up that much emotion, and leave me with gasp, she's done her job and done it well.

About the author

Karen Cleveland is a former CIA analyst. She has master’s degrees from Trinity College Dublin (international peace studies) and Harvard University (public policy). Cleveland lives in northern Virginia with her husband and two young sons. This is her first novel.