A Firing Offense: A Novel

Great read as usual, fiction that is very close to reality, but maybe is just fictionally and that’s all that there is

Well written plausible story line probably closer to the truth than people suspect. Whether or not this was prompted by the suspicions of COVID origins, the elements are somewhat similar except for the French involvement. Replace them with Anthony Fauci and we are probably getting warmer to real world occurrences.

A really good writer, writing about an industry he really knows. The newspaper elements are so good it might almost be better without the espionage plot.

Having watched Mr. Ignatius contributions to TV news programs for years I have been long impressed with his knowledge. He has a gift for story telling such that his books are always engaging.

I've been a reporter off and on my whole life, but my newspaper experience is minimal. What I know is from having friends in the business who earnestly do their best, mainly in smaller papers.The collapse of print journalism has hastened since Ignatius wrote this book, so it has the sense of having been written by a visionary. It is very real. But I bought this in need of a fresh read in the high-end spy genre. And what I got was a wonderful two-fer. The intelligence community stuff is first rate, and the issues the protagonist must wrestle are, in a macrocosm, issues every weekly rag writer must handle, even If it's just the local cops. I simply love this book and have actively recommended it to friends in the biz. I also recommend it to you, the reader who wants a great spy tale.

This tale about a journalist getting slowly, inexorably sucked into working with...for the CIA rings true. Maybe truer than we would like to admit. David Ignatius is a good writer and he weaves his tale skillfully. We like, hate, and are annoyed with his characters, but seldom indifferent. I liked the slow progression from a young journalist shocked by the possibility that one of his mentors was working with a foreign intelligence agency, to getting even more involved himself, all the while trying to rationalize what he is doing. It's good storytelling and a good morale dilemma. There are points where the story gets a little far from the edge, but who knows. Maybe the weird world of journo-intelligence is really that convoluted. Great book for the summer holiday to make you feel like you are having a good time, but maybe learning something too. What would you do?

A very engrossing tale about one can be sucked into doing the right thing in ambiguous situations when you mix in ambition with a dash of lost love. A meloncoly tale of playing on the big stage with all its dangers and its aftermath. Ultimately a story of our time.

I am a fan of the spy novels of David Ignatius and find them compelling, interesting stories, almost, but not quite as good as the master in this genre, Le Carre. I enjoyed "A Firing Offense" but found it to be the weakest novel that he has written so far that I have read. For people intersted in an Ignatius book, try "Siro", Agents of Innocence" or "The Increment" which are all excellant, before getting around to reading "A Firing Offense".This book does raise interesting issues, i.e. how is the press influenced by the CIA or other intellegence services. But I found the first person perspective, the lead character and the finish not too compelling. All things considered, however, it is a riviting page-turner.

Excellent novel, easy to get into the characters. A bit of a change from his other novels, just as good.

Ignatius escreve muito bem, sem dúvida. Insere o leitor na narrativa e, sendo jornalista, conhece bem os meandros da atividade. Contudo, em meu entendimento, o livro carece de um pouco mais de ação, para compatibilizá-lo com a categoria em que está classificado.

This is not an espionage novel; this is a book about journalism, specifically about journalism ethics. The connection with the world of intelligence just provides the angle from which the author delivers his point of view about his profession, through the struggles of the protagonist (Eric Truell, I liked the play of words) in a moment when the crisis of newspapers starts and when jThe narration falls at times into the syndrome of "the good old times", the golden age when journalism was all about courage and honesty, and when newspapers were only after the pure truth and not after profits, as opposed to nowadays when journalists are amoral sharks and newspapers start laying off as the crisis of their business models begins.So, at times, the tone becomes unnecessarily nostalgic but, for the major part, I thought the novel was pretty enjoyable, as usual well written even if not at the level of Ignatius' best books.

Non all'altezza di altri suoi libri, ma meritevolissimo di essere letto. Belli i valori che racconta, un pó meno belli i sacrifici che costano....ma l'importante é credere nella veritá. Lo consiglio.

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