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WORK TITLE: Need to Know
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://karen-cleveland.com/
CITY:
STATE: VA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
Literary agent: David Gernert, The Gernert Company, info@thegernertco.com; married with two kids; former CIA analyst
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: two.
EDUCATION:Trinity College Dublin, M.A. (Fulbright Scholar); Harvard University, M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked formerly as an analyst for the CIA.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Karen Cleveland is a writer and former CIA analyst. She received master’s degrees from Trinity College Dublin as a Fulbright Scholar and from Harvard University. Cleveland is married with two children. She lives with her family in northern Virginia. Cleveland is represented by literary agent David Gernert of The Gernert Company. Need to Know is her first book.
Described by a contributor to Library Journal as “an electrifying psychological thriller,” Need to Know opens with an introduction to Vivian and Matt, a happily married couple living in Washington DC. The two met by chance and it was love at first sight. The book delves into their history, interspersing the present with flashbacks of the couple’s courtship. As the relationship moves through time and the plot progresses, the reader sees the development of the relationship. The two fall deeply in love, marry, and buy a house. Financial success allows them to live in a suburb near some of the best schools in DC. Children follow soon after.
While Vivian and Matt are thrilled to be parents, they both pursue their careers. Matt is an information technology technician and Vivian works for the CIA as an analyst. The flashbacks detail the parents’, especially Vivian’s, strong love of her children. Four children later and the family begins to feel some inevitable financial strain, but they find ways to balance parental responsibilities with work obligations. All the while, at least in Vivian’s eyes, the love and connection between the couple remains strong.
In the present narrative of the story, all seems well. Despite some financial pitfalls, the family can put their three children in the best schools in DC. Matt is happy in his career, and working as an IT technician gives him the flexibility to pick up where Vivian cannot in parenthood, such as getting the kids after school. Vivian loves her job. As a CIA analyst, she feels fulfilled and challenged. She works in the Russia division of the CIA. Her job is to aid the CIA in research and investigations into Russian sleeper agents. Specifically, her team works to uncover the system that keeps tracks of secret Russian aids.
When she gains access to the computer of a midlevel Russian handler, she is thrilled at what the device might reveal. She secretly explores the hacked laptop, seeking out any evidence of clues to Russian agents or the system that keeps them hidden. On the computer she discovers a key piece of evidence: a folder containing photographs of five sleeper agents. When she opens the folder, she is shocked at what she finds.
Of the faces in the photographs, Vivian finds one to be much too familiar. Looking closely, Vivian cannot ignore the fact that one of the men in the photographs is, indeed, her own husband. She must now look back and question everything she thought she knew about her husband and their life together. Vivian does not know whose side her husband is actually on, but either way, he has been keeping this information a secret from her. The story then dives back into old flashbacks and Vivian reanalyzes her whole relationship and life with the man she thought was her dedicated life partner.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote,”thriller fans who like tradecraft and action will have to look elsewhere,” while also noting, “the deep backstory may attract readers not usually drawn to espionage novels.” “Vivian’s inner conflict is clear and somewhat poignant,” wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews, adding, “Matt seems a somewhat slippery character from the beginning, so maybe she just wasn’t very good at reading people.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 1, 2017, Jane Murphy, review of Need to Know, p. 22.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2017, review of Need to Know.
Library Journal, June 15, 2017, review of Need to Know, p. 4a.
Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2017, review of Need to Know, p. 64.
About Karen
Karen Cleveland is a former CIA analyst. She has master’s degrees from Trinity College Dublin, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar, and from Harvard University. She lives in northern Virginia with her husband and two young kids.
Need to Know
Jane Murphy
Booklist.
114.5 (Nov. 1, 2017): p22.
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Need to Know
Publishers Weekly.
264.43 (Oct. 23, 2017): p64+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Need to Know
Karen Cleveland. Ballantine, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-5247-9702-7
Former CIA analyst Cleveland's assured if thinly plotted debut is an unusual mix of family drama and spy
thriller. The narrator, CIA analyst Vivian, is part of a team in the Counterintelligence Center, Russia
Division, that's searching for agents running sleeper cells in the U.S. She lives in Washington, D.C., with
her four young children and doting husband. Flashbacks chart the couple's courtship, then their lives as
hyperbusy young parents, delving deeply into maternal and marital love. When Vivian isn't fretting about
her family, she's trying to extricate herself from a colossal treasonous mess that results from a startling
discovery that she makes in the course of her research. The deep backstory may attract readers not usually
drawn to espionage novels, but thriller fans who like tradecraft and action will have to look elsewhere.
Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Need to Know." Publishers Weekly, 23 Oct. 2017, p. 64+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512184168/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=85370b6a.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512184168
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Cleveland, Karen: NEED TO KNOW
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Cleveland, Karen NEED TO KNOW Ballantine (Adult Fiction) $26.00 1, 23 ISBN: 978-1-5247-9702-7
In Cleveland's debut novel, a CIA analyst tracks Russian sleeper agents--to her own front door.
On the surface, Vivian and Matt live a traditional American life: they have a happy marriage based on a
lucky meeting and love at first sight; a house in the suburbs near the best schools; four beautiful children.
There is some financial strain, but Vivian feels fulfilled by her work on the Russia desk at the CIA, and
Matt's IT job allows him flexibility to pick up the kids as needed. Vivian's team is working hard to uncover
the system used to keep track of Russian sleeper agents, and as she secretly navigates through the hacked
computer of a midlevel Russian handler, she's thrilled to discover photographs of his five agents--until she
realizes that one of the faces is that of her husband. Suddenly, everything she thought secure--her marriage,
her patriotism, and her very life--lies on shaky ground. Whose side is Matt really on? Should she turn him
in? Can she betray her country to keep her family together? The fast-moving plot will appeal to fans of The
Americans and to conspiracy theorists, and Cleveland was herself a CIA analyst, so she knows her way
around secrets and those who fight to keep them. The problem is that the characters lack human
development. Vivian's inner conflict is clear and somewhat poignant, especially as she looks back over the
years of her life and has to reconsider every word her husband ever said, every decision they made, even the
way they met. But Matt seems a somewhat slippery character from the beginning, so maybe she just wasn't
very good at reading people.
If you don't expect a deeply thoughtful thriller, you'll get carried away by the action enough to enjoy it.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Cleveland, Karen: NEED TO KNOW." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509244105/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b9753d87.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509244105
3/4/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Need to Know: A novel
Karen Cleveland
Library Journal.
142.11 (June 15, 2017): p4a.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
An electrifying psychological thriller debut from a CIA insider: In pursuit of a Russian spy ring on U.S.
soil, a CIA analyst uncovers a dangerous secret that will test her loyalty to the agency-and to her family.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
978-1-5217-9702-7 | $27.00/$36.00C | 250.000
Ballantine Books | HC | January
* 978-1-521-79703-4 | * AD: 978-0-525-53062-6
* CD: 978-0-525-53061-9 | * LP: 978-0-525-58782-8
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER / SUSPENSE
Social: Facebook.com/KarenClevelandAuthor RA: The Expats meets The Americans meets The Girl Before
RI: Author lives in Northern Virginia
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Cleveland, Karen. "Need to Know: A novel." Library Journal, 15 June 2017, p. 4a. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495668152/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=11f1c44d.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495668152