story torn from today's headlines - "New York Times" reporter Alex Berenson has drawn upon his experience covering the occupation in Iraq to write the most gripping and chillingly plausible thriller of the post-9/11 era. "The Faithful Spy" is a sharp, explosive story by an author who truly knows his territory. John Wells, the only American ever to penetrate al Qaeda, has been undercover so long that the CIA is no longer sure he's loyal - or even alive. Since before the attacks in 2001, Wells has been hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, biding his time, building his cover. Now, on the orders of Omar Khadri - the mastermind spearheading al Qaeda attacks on America - Wells is coming home. Neither Khadri nor Jennifer Exley, Wells's CIA case officer, quite know what to expect. During his years in the mountains, Wells has become a Muslim and begun to doubt the Americans' agenda. Yet he hates al Qaeda and the way it uses Islam to justify its murderous assaults on innocents. He is a man alone, and the CIA does not know whether to trust him. But as their high-tech intelligence gathering strategy fails and Khadri moves closer to unleashing the most devastating terrorist attack in history, Wells and Exley know they must find a way to stop him, with or without the government's approval.