The Quantum Spy

by David Ignatius

Overview

“The Quantum Spy takes us to a whole new level of intrigue and espionage. It’s also unbelievably timely. In short: David Ignatius knows his stuff.” —Wolf Blitzer

A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb; whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. The question is: who will build one first, the U.S. or China?

In this gripping thriller, U.S. quantum research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, inciting a mole hunt of history-altering proportions. CIA officer Harris Chang leads the charge, pursuing his target from Singapore to Mexico and beyond. Do the leaks expose real secrets, or are they false trails meant to deceive the Chinese? The answer forces Chang to question everything he thought he knew about loyalty, morality, and the primacy of truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393356243
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/06/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	294,081
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David Ignatius is a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for four decades. He has written several New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Washington, DC.

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating, beautifully textured thriller…For inside dope on the day-to-day work and personal lives among America’s espionage personnel, Ignatius is unbeatable."

Washington Post

"[A] fascinating thriller.… Involving and realistic-seeming."

Wall Street Journal

"A work for now and forever. Couldn’t put it down."

Michael Hayden

"The Quantum Spy is David Ignatius at the top of his game! A truly thrilling, superbly crafted spy novel that focuses on pivotal contemporary issues—the competition to achieve quantum computing technology, the high-stakes rivalry between the U.S. and China, and the conduct of spycraft in a digital age."

General (Ret.) David Petraeus

09/25/2017
Will the U.S. or China build the world’s first quantum computer? That’s the question at the heart of this fine espionage thriller from Ignatius (The Director). The Americans appear to have the edge through a company in Seattle—actually a front for the CIA—that’s developing the superfast technology. But the Chinese are just a step behind thanks to corporate theft and good old-fashioned tradecraft; they have managed to turn a disgruntled CIA officer into a spy for the Ministry of State Security. Meanwhile, Harris Chang, an American interrogation specialist new to Langley, uses his Chinese heritage to infiltrate Beijing’s intelligence operations in the U.S. and secretly keep tabs on the Chinese efforts to achieve dominance. In past books, Ignatius has been better at characterization; Chang, for example, at times behaves in ways that seem too naive for a well-trained professional. Still, Ignatius’s realistic peek into the inner workings of the CIA and its Chinese counterpart shows why he’s at the top of the thriller pack. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, Sagalyn/ICM. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"I’ve read many novels by David Ignatius and have loved them all—but The Quantum Spy takes us to a whole new level of intrigue and espionage. It’s also unbelievably timely. In short: David Ignatius knows his stuff."

Wolf Blitzer

"The Quantum Spy provides a thrilling window into the future world of high-tech espionage. David Ignatius may call it a novel, but for those of us who know the work of the intelligence community, this book is nothing less than a real-life insight into the ongoing battle for dominance in the digital world. The names may be fictitious, but what they are fighting about is very real!"

Leon E. Panetta

09/15/2017
"Like I said, pull on the thread. Eventually, no more sweater." That's the advice that CIA spook Harris Chang receives from his boss as he searches for a mole inside the agency. Someone is reporting to the Chinese on U.S. efforts to develop a quantum computer, a machine powerful enough to crack any code in lightning time. Chang's search is a process of small steps. Often he's in the dark; sometimes he doesn't know whether he's sleuth or bait. But once he gains some leverage, he uses it to gain more, then more, until the truth, or a semblance of it, comes into view. In his tenth spy thriller, Washington Post columnist Ignatius (The Director) demonstrates again his superior storytelling skills. This engrossing tale of spy vs. counterspy rockets back and forth from Washington, DC, to CIA headquarters in Langley, VA, to Beijing, with stops along the way in Dubai, Singapore, Mexico City, Kyoto, and Amsterdam. In this sly, fast-moving story, everyone is hiding something. The trick is finding out what—and then using that knowledge for one's own ends. VERDICT Ignatius's latest is up to his usual high standards and should appeal to all lovers of spy fiction.—David Keymer, Cleveland

Library Journal