Guest Review: The God's Eye View

Summary: Knowledge is power…and they know everything.

NSA director Theodore Anders has a simple goal: collect every phone call, email, and keystroke tapped on the Internet. He knows unlimited surveillance is the only way to keep America safe.

Evelyn Gallagher doesn’t care much about any of that. She just wants to keep her head down and manage the NSA’s camera network and facial recognition program so she can afford private school for her deaf son, Dash.

But when Evelyn discovers the existence of an NSA program code-named God’s Eye, and connects it with the mysterious deaths of a string of journalists and whistle-blowers, her doubts put her and Dash in the crosshairs of a pair of government assassins: Delgado, a sadistic bomb maker and hacker; and Manus, a damaged giant of a man who until now has cared for nothing beyond protecting the director.

Within an elaborate game of political blackmail, terrorist provocations, and White House scheming, a global war is being fought—a war between those desperate to keep the state’s darkest secrets and those intent on revealing them. A war that Evelyn will need all her espionage training and savvy to survive. A war in which the director has the ultimate informational advantage: The God’s Eye View. -- Thomas Mercer

It's a pleasure to welcome Booking Pap Pap back! It seems like it's been awhile since he's read and reviewed a book! His latest read is THE GOD'S EYE VIEW by Barry Eisler. Here are his thoughts:

NSA Director Theodore Anders has devised a surveillance system so powerful that he has named it God’s Eye. The system raises a red flag concerning a meeting between a journalist and a Special U.S. Liaison Advisor in Turkey that could be a serious information breach similar to the 2013 breach by Edward Snowden. When analyst Evie Gallagher reports this to the Director, he immediately sets out to eliminate the two men before any possible information breach becomes public. He gives the task to his two assassins, Delgado and Manus who owe their lives to Anders and are therefore totally committed to him.

When Evie begins to see a connection between her reports and the mysterious deaths of several reporters and government whistleblowers, Anders becomes suspicious and sends Manus to “keep an eye” on Evie and her deaf son Dash. Manus bonds with Evie and Dash and for the first time in his life he has feelings for someone other than the Director. What follows is a suspense thriller that pits Evie against the power of the U.S. government.

THE GOD’S EYE VIEW by former CIA insider Barry Eisler is a classic battle between the forces who want to reveal the deep dark secrets of the government (Evie) and the government’s desire to keep them (NSA). The reader will have no problem discerning which side of the argument the author favors. Most government characters are depicted as evil while the anti-government characters are not only portrayed as good but are very likable. The main characters are well developed and it was easy for me to form a picture of each. The government characters are dark, sadistic and brutal while Evie is a single parent with a deaf child who only wants to reveal the truth.

THE GOD’S EYE VIEW is a political thriller that plays on the fears we have concerning the depth and breadth of the information gathered by the NSA. The action is fast and the novel makes the reader think about the current state of government surveillance and the chances of it getting out of control. The one caution I have for the reader is that the violence is extremely brutal and the sex is very explicit. With those caveats I recommend THE GOD’S EYE VIEW for those who enjoy a good thriller and have some concerns about where the government is taking their information gathering efforts.

Thanks to Booking Pap Pap for his review and thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy of this novel.