Artemis Procter is back with a vengeance.

CIA officer Sam Joseph is sent to Singapore to meet with a Russian spy, who has offered up some juicy information. However, the meet goes wrong and Sam is captured and interrogated, while the Russian goes missing. His chief, Artemis Procter, is made a scapegoat for the catastrophe and is drummed out of the service by the new Director, someone who has little love for Procter's methods. However, when Sam is traded back in a spy swap, and appears at Procter’s Florida home months later, he reveals what he had succeeded in keeping secret - there is a Russian mole hidden deep within the upper levels of CIA.

And so Procter and Sam, in their own inimitable style, embark on a mole-hunt, one which quickly indicates that the mole is a long-time friend and colleague of Procter. But which one? In the course of their private op, the pair are faced with past events (some from the first book, Damascus Station), old feuds, and new threats. As the Russians learn of her hunt, their chief spymaster takes increasingly violent steps to shut her down.

This book is possibly the best yet in the adventures of Artemis Procter. There's less talk and more action than in the previous books, and it sees a welcome return to the two favourite people from book 1. Artemis Procter is full and centre as she battles both the CIA and the Russians, facing an increasingly hostile group of opponents. Fans will know she's feisty, uncompromising, unruly, and sexy, but here we see just how loyal and unwavering she is when it comes to having her friends' backs. We see just how independent she is, her skill at planning on-the-hoof, and her resilience in the face of disaster, We also see the side of her that loves her work, and mourns for the life she lost.

Apart from Sam and Artemis, we meet a fine cast of characters, from a long-time frenemy, to a cold-blooded spymaster, and a quirky mole-hunter. Oh, and alligators.

Inevitably, the book will be compared, at some level, to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, as a mole hunt thriller, but that's unfair. Smiley never fought alligators or toted a shotgun.

Heartily recommended.

Without a doubt, this third instalment is the best to date in a series that gives you piercing insights into the CIA and the nebulous world of espionage. Artemis Procter has taken one for the team. Not through choice, Procter has been singled out as a bad egg and been kicked unceremoniously into the long grass, never to show her face again. But Procter isn’t about to draw her pension. The CIA has a mole and Procter will find it, after all, what’s she got to lose, her sanity, her life?

The dialogue, especially the exchanges with Procter are razor sharp and often just plain hilarious. In trying to find the traitor, the narrative takes you deep into the American back rooms of power and presents a picture not only of greed and self interest but of broken trust and misplaced loyalties.

A scintillating read and one that brings the spy genre into the dazzling limelight.

I read a copy of The Seventh Floor through NetGalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Seventh Floor is the third book by David McCloskey and it is another engaging espionage thriller as Artemis Procter tries to identify a Russian Mole within the CIA whilst making herself a target.

The action keeps you hooked throughout and the pages turning as the author delivers another excellent read.

Highly recommended.

4* The Seventh Floor - David McCloskey's third instalment of the Artemis Proctor series is an absolute gem, bringing le Carre style slow-burn to the modern messy CIA.

A Russian agent commits suicide as his fellow servicemen round on him. Another Russian is keen to sell a secret to the CIA but is despatched before he can do so, and the CIA officer he was due to meet is captured. As the fall out gathers pace, Artemis Proctor finds herself being blamed and run out of the Service. Fitting the pieces together, she convinces herself that there is a mole buried deep within the CIA and she needs to find out who.

What an incredible book The Seventh Floor is. Sometimes claustrophobic and frantic, at other times plodding along with the pace of an op in real time - it really keeps readers on their toes. McCloskey is brilliant with tradecraft and characters but he also pitches the level of detail and the complexity of the plot at just the right level. It will have you guessing throughout. It really is a master spy novel.

While this is the third in the series (and I always advocate starting from the beginning, not least because Damascus Station is brilliant), this would also work well as a standalone.

Thanks to Swift Press and Netgalley for an ARC.

Former CIA analyst David McCloskey burst onto the espionage fiction scene with his blistering debut Damascus Station, set in Syria in 2011 and following the exploits of analyst Sam Joseph. He followed this up with the even better Moscow X, a more contemporary novel which followed the team run by Sam’s former Chief of Station, Artemis Proctor. Joseph and Proctor are back in McCloskey’s third, and no less tense, outing, The Seventh Floor.
The Seventh Floor opens with a blown operation in Singapore. Sam Joseph has gone there to meet up with a Soviet informant. The informant gives Sam the high level information but before they can meet Sam is kidnapped by Russian agents and spirited away to Moscow where he is systematically tortured for that information. Meanwhile, back in America, Artemis Proctor finds herself on the outer as the CIA is taken over by a new head and Deputy Director Operations, with whom she has a checkered history. As a result, no one listens when she realises that Sam’s capture was possibly as a result of a mole in the organisation Proctor she is soon drummed out. When Sam finally returns, he confirms to Proctor that there is a traitor in the ranks, and it is likely one of four people, three of whom are her oldest friends. Proctor and Jospeh begin an off books operation to find out who the traitor is.
McCloskey is open about the fact that The Seventh Floor owes some of its styling to John Le Carre’s classic tale of espionage Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy and even drops a couple of Easter eggs to that end. But The Seventh Floor is not that book, and while the jumping off point may be similar, this is its own, modern, tense creature. As with the other books in this series, McCloskey keeps the tension higher by giving readers a glimpse into the opposing forces and setting up the roadblocks that his main characters are going to face. In this case that includes following a pair of deep cover Russian agents tasked with murder.
Pairing Artemis Proctor and Sam Joseph again is a treat for fans of this series. Proctor is a wildcard – hard drinking, hard living - but with a strong sense of duty and justice. Joseph is more down the line but has shown his grit a number of times now in torture situations and can stray from the rules when necessary. They are a formidable pair but also have a sweet ongoing mentor/mentee relationship.
The Seventh Floor is another great entry in this espionage series by an author who improves in his craft with every outing. Tense from start to finish but McCloskey also slows down to consider the lifelong connections that his characters have and the history that they bring with them, creating some real poignancy at times. A number of storylines wrap up in this book, making it feel like the natural end of a trilogy. But there is plenty of scope for McCloskey to return to this world. Whether he does or turns to something new, there are likely to be plenty of readers eagerly awaiting what comes next.

Mccloskey has brought the spy story genre into the 21st century. LeCarré, Forsyth and the like are so strongly associated with spy books, it’s not easy to break the mould. I love those books, but McCloskey ratchets up the pace to what feels like a real for now tale. Especially with a female lead as strong as Proctor. In this outing she’s out of favour, but as expected, she’s brought back into the fold and dep,it’s all her skills in finding a mole. It’s classic espionage stuff, but delivered with lace and panache. There’s a strong sense of realism and what feels like a real peek behind the closed doors of Langley. It’s a world most of us know little about and I’m sure McCloskey has brought his personal knowledge and experience into play in each of these stories.

This is another fast paced and intricate take of moles, double dealing, betrayal and more with the cat and mouse game played out across the world. Everything I hoped for and then some. Mccloskey is a truly brilliant storyteller and I’m already hankering for more.

McCloskey's third book that brings together his 2 main characters again, Sam Joseph and Artemis Procter.

Operating outside the CIA, hunting a Russian mole, McCloskey brings the ethos of Smiley up to date.

The tension and insider perspective common to Damascus Station and Moscow X is here, moving the narrative between Langley, Singapore and Florida.

I think its his best yet, great page turner, highly recommended

Goodreads Review
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)

The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey is a fast-paced, fun spy novel that kept me hooked from start to finish. It’s packed with the usual twists and turns you’d expect from the genre, with an ending that really delivered.

While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I didn’t find it quite as gripping as Damascus Station. Still, McCloskey proves again that he’s a master of crafting intelligent, thrilling espionage stories. A great read for fans of spy fiction!

Another episode in the Sam Joseph/Artemis Proctor espionage series that does what it says on the tin and delivers a twisting tale of double agents and ultimately revenge. Starting with Sam taken by the Russians in a casino hotel and then mentally tortured in a secret location outside Moscow. Artemis meanwhile has left the CIA under a cloud and believe it or not is wrestling alligators in Florida! When Sam is released the hunt for the Russian agent is undertaken by Sam and Artemis secretly. The ongoing hunt is entertaining but with a tragic twist . Altogether a satisfactory read.