I was terribly disappointed. I thought DAMASCUS STATION was one of the greatest spy novels ever written, and I thought MOSCOW X was a good read, if not nearly as impressive. I had hopes that THE SEVENTH FLOOR would return to the greatness of DAMASCUS STATION, but it doesn't. It's not anywhere close. Sadly, the narrative is frequently muddled and sometimes it's downright silly. A woman is forced out of the agency and then becomes an alligator wrestler in Florida living in a broken down trailer? Oh, please.

I must also note that the formatting of the ARC I received was a ridiculous mess. Random capitalization (or lack of capitalization), random paragraphing (or lack of paragraphing), and many whole paragraphs so jumbled and muddled that they were unreadable. Why a major publisher would circulate an ARC this poorly formatted simply baffles me. A sixteen year old kid sitting at home with his laptop and a $200 piece of off-the-shelf software can turn out a perfectly formatted book with minimal errors in a couple of hours, and a big-time New York publisher sends out garbage like this? It's insulting to readers and, most of all, it's insulting to their writer. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Okay this is a spy thriller. You can tell this writer has some experience. For me the book is ion 3 parts.

It starts off like a JATO-130, the firing sequence of one of the main characters is so real it might be. Never will you read several chapters about someone getting canned and just be enthralled. The middle lags, I don't know if it was filler, if his keyboard got away from him, if they lost interest, but I thought about quitting.

Thankfully the third part made me glad I stayed. No James Bond, no females who beat up all the men, or men who can always beat up everyone else regardless of numbers or size. I think you will like this intelligent (BUT NOT BOIRING) spy thriller. It was a breath of fresh air.

McCloskey just gets better and better with every book. He writes about CIA tradecraft with the authority of someone who's been there, and in his third outing the writing is sharper, characters are better rendered, and the pacing is tighter. If there are still a few scenes that feel like they owe more to movies than reality, the book is largely grounded and kept me invested from start to finish.

McCloskey acknowledges his debt to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -- which the story does, for a while, too closely mirror. But if he isn't yet in John Le Carre's league, he seems to be well on his way.

David McCloskey is rapidly becoming one of my most favorite authors of intelligent spy fiction. His stories are superb, and this latest novel is no exception - it's absolutely brilliant and full of the what I am coming to expect from him: poetic writing, fantastic plot, and unforgettable characters. In "The Seventh Floor" we have six spies who have known each other for years, and a devious Russian mole buried deep within the CIA. What follows is some of the best spy fiction I have ever read. John Le Carre could not have done better. I highly recommend this book to all!