The Seventh Floor

A Novel

By: David McCloskey

Narrated by: Sharon Freedman

Six CIA officers. Dear friends and cherished enemies. For a quarter century they have stolen other people's secrets. Now they must steal each other's.

A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, operational chief Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat for the disaster and run out of the service. Months later, Sam appears at Procter's doorstep with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole burrowed deep within the highest ranks of the CIA.

As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter's closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt requires Procter to dredge up her checkered past in the service of the CIA, placing the pair in the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow's mole in Langley at all costs. What happens when friendships forged by sweat and blood—from the Farm to Afghanistan and the executive "Seventh Floor" of CIA's Langley headquarters—are put to the ultimate test? What can we truly know about the people we love the most?

©2024 David McCloskey (P)2024 Tantor

A story about character and perseverance

This novel challenges the cliche that the truth is stranger than fiction. At the very least, it might match some of the non fiction accounts from the first cold war. I enjoyed the characters and the details in this story in a way that the listener might remember if they had ever been to the places written about in this story. Any scratches on this memory that might dull the story are forgiven. It was a great story and the narration was excellent.

The Legend Grows

Another awesome edition of Artemis Aphrodite Proctor and interesting tales of the CIA. The Seventh Floor is another hit! Please keep them coming!

Well detailed thriller

I really enjoyed this spy thriller. The attention to detail was amazing, while managing to not bore us to death. A fine line to walk, and he threaded the needle quite well. I highly recommend.

Wished Wehrlen Had Narrated

Torn between 4 and 5 stars. The plot and story were definitely 5 stars, but the narration was barely 3 stars. The writing itself was 4 stars. For me it's a solid 4.5 star book. I ended up rounding down because of the narrator and Sam. Even though much of the book centers around Procter, I think the audiobook would have been much better with a male narrator.

I liked how the story kept me uncertain about who was the mole. There were some twists (one of which I did not like at all), but readers don't always get the ending they want. I could have done without the whole alligator park as part of this story. It didn't add anything to the story. It just makes Procter stranger than she already was in the previous book. I will say that this is the first book that I've read in this genre that doesn't trash EDM. Personally, this makes me happy.

Not a huge fan of Procter as a character so not sure if I read further in the series. It probably depends on the setting and plot.

Loved it

This guy is getting better with every book. This is my kind of story, & the characters are realistic. I feel like I know them.

Terrific Story ruined by an Just Awful Narrator

I understand that if the protagonist is a woman you'd like to have a woman narrator. I have read/heard many books where this works just fine. But in general men narrators do the range of women's voices much better than women do the range of men's voices. Such was the case here, all of her men sound the same. And all are stilted and in monotone, I guess that's supposed to be "masculine." But the worst by far were Freedman's Russian characters. Just laughable at times embarrasing cringe. If your idea of a Russian accent sounds like Boris Badenov from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show then her narration will fill the bill. Why not just play it straight? We know they are Russians, no need to present their dialog with an accent that's just cartoonishly awful. I felt sorry for McCloskey having had his terrific book saddled with this awful narrator (or with whoever directed the narrators dialog).

This was pretty awesome

This book was pretty awesome. It's in the spirit of a modern day Tinker Tailor. I hate when they change up narrators but the annoyance went away after a few chapters. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Suspenseful and captureing

Loved the story weaving through the world with intensity and realism. Couldn’t stop reading it. Especially Vienna as the spy capital captured a scene…

Excellent Narrator, Wide Variety of Voices

The title says it all... with one little quirk: was he mispronounced (or, more exactly, misread) too many words, from the very easy to the very lazily pronounced "whatever that word was...no one will pick it up." I'm a reader/listener, and I didn't miss any of the erroneous pronunciations. That said, she's a very special, unusually dramatic narrator whose reading I found marvelous...hence the 5 stars. There's a moment in which a principal chacter has a tearful, hysterical meltdown, and our narrator played it out beautifully. Bravo, Madame.

In fiction and non-fiction life is not fair

After chapter 59 I wanted to stop listening to the book and give it a one star thumbs down review. After chapter 60 I was willing to give it a one star. Holy crap this book!!! Deep breath, take a break and rethink my review. I listened to this book again and no it did not deserve a one star. It deserves the highest review mark. Sometimes, as in life, you do not get the ending you want. Afterall, there are real stars in the CIA that represent an ending you did not want. I have a feeling the one star reviews may be from those who are upset/disappointed with the end of a beloved character.
This book brings back Sam from Damascus Station. McCluskey put Sam through so much in two books. In Damascus Station he is almost killed and he doesn’t get the girl. In this book he is kidnapped, tortured, fired and, and …..McCluskey!!
In this book we get to know more about Artimis Proctor, the relentless, badass CIA chief. She is relentless and loyal. I hope in the next book we get to know more about Proctor and Sweet's last conversation and how Proctor was convinced to go back to the CIA. Although it probably didn’t take much convincing.
You don’t find out who the mole is until almost the very end. As we have come to expect from David McCluskey, this is a brilliantly written chest game with many twists, unexpected turns, and bursts of action. Well done, well done.
I miss Andrew Wehelens narration but this book was mostly about Proctor so I got the change. Sharon Freedman was really good.