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 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
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NEED TO KNOW, by Karen Cleveland, is a wonderful thriller by a serious new talent. I can assure you that after reading the first chapter you will not be able to put it down. If you love suspense as I do, you’ll devour NEED TO KNOW.
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.
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.
I never would have picked this book up but I received it from Net Galley. This is a must read!!! I could not put it down.
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“I’m overcome with a strange sensation, a feeling that we dodged a bullet but that somehow, inexplicably, I’m bleeding.”
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I LOVED this book… I seem to be on a Russia kick lately, and have always loved spy books, so this was just the right book at the right time. I am captivated by stories in which regular life is revealed to be precarious, balanced on a knife-edge of outright lies, secrets and not-quite-the-truths – in which good people find themselves in horrid situations that snowball… I’m fascinated by the psychology of it all, but also by the mystery – the idea that there is a seamy underbelly to even the most banal-seeming life. And even more than that, I’m fascinated to see if and how people dig themselves out of the holes they find themselves in when their lives turn out to be not at all what they thought they were…
Karen Cleveland offers all of that in spades in this excellently paced and plotted novel. And if that wasn’t enough, the characters are fantastic too. Everyone is a little battered and windblown, clinging with desperate fingers to the things they need to hold on to in order to keep their world intact. As Viv’s story unfolds and we get tidbits of her and Matt’s history, it is difficult not to want to grab her and shake her and scream in her face that there were a thousand clues that things were not what they seemed and that she – a CIA counterintelligence analyst – should have seen them from a mile away. But then the story would dip back into the present, the day-to-day routine of children and work and real life, and I’d wind up chastising myself, asking how many little things we all encounter throughout a decade of marriage and life that would look like gigantic red flags from the pole position of hindsight (and of the omniscient narrator and/or reader to whom much has already been revealed)… That delicacy in storytelling style – the ability to make me feel like I’m there with Viv, living her life, feeling her pain, even when I am still aware that I’m a separate entity who knows that this is a story and therefore more trouble MUST be coming – is part of what made this book so great for me. It really helped keep the suspense taut and the pages turning…
Karen Cleveland is definitely on my list of Authors to Watch!
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
What an ending!!!
It kept me on the edge of my seat
I love mysteries. Need to Know was a quick engaging read. Check it out!
This book was so interesting. It kept me up late reading it!
What do you do when the man you love might be a Russian spy? This was a great book and I think it fits perfectly in our nation’s current events.
I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. Wow! The twists and turns in this book, I just did not see coming, all the way to the last sentence! Meet Viv and Matt. Viv works for the CIA in the Russian intelligence section. Her husband is Matt, they have 4 kids. Average family in D.C., right? Wrong! Matt has a devastating secret that can tear their family apart. Viv is looking for sleeper cells in the US. Sometimes the things you are looking for are closer than you think!
Need to Know by author Karen Cleveland is a page turner that you will not want to stop reading! As I read the story, I was reminded of the TV shows Alias or The Blacklist.
When Vivian goes to work for the CIA she has pledged an oath to protect the documents, research, and all the intell at her level of security as an analyst. She has the very best of intentions and has faithfully performed her job that she loves.
Her hectic but wonderful life is all she could have ever wanted after she marries the man of her dreams and has children. Of course life has problems and she experiences a miscarriage, and later has twins, one of which has a heart defect. But all things considered, life is good!
UNTIL…. During her research one day within the Athena program she has helped develop, as she is searching for people who are suspected to be Russian sleeper agents she sees a picture of her husband, Mark. How can this be??
I won’t post spoilers, but as I read the book, I wanted to shout.. ”NO, Don’t trust him!”
Now, are you hooked? If you enjoy the suspense and thrills of active and intelligent books written from today’s headlines, than you won’t be disappointed in Need To Know!
Need To Know by Karen Cleveland is a fast paced spy novel that takes the reader into the depths of the spy trade, and its cost on the family of a CIA agent. The pace is fast and the plot is twisted, just the way I enjoy it. It is the first I have read of this author, but will not be the last! I listened to the audiobook and it was great.
Wow…just wow. I’ve had this title on my stack of books to read for over a year. I wish I would have picked it up sooner. It was so good!
National security. Family lies. A mole in the CIA. A woman trying to save her family. Russian operatives. All of this and more. Then, just when you think it’s safe…the book ends…and is it really safe???
Shivers up my spine. Great thriller.
This is a fast-paced read that kept my attention long enough to finish it. I anticipated the major plot twists and had a difficult time identifying with the protagonist, but if you like this genre it’s worth a read.
full of twists and turns, kept me guessing who could be the perpetrator.
This is the best book I’ve read in a long time. I couldn’t stop thinking about it long after I had finished it. Story line held up to the very end !!!
I would have liked a more complete ending. I felt like I was left hanging at the end.
Loved it!
Need to Know kept my interest but the beginning was a bit excruciating at times as the heroine seemed to keep rehashing the same emotions of disbelief and fear. The flashbacks to the earlier parts of her marriage and pregnancies (which took away from the pacing of the book) did give the reader a more complete picture of her relationship with her husband.