Opening Sentence of the Day: A Very Private Plot

"Senator Hugh Blanton addressed the problem as an Old Testament prophet might have done."

-- A Very Private Plot by William F. Buckley, Jr.

It is 1995 and Senator Blanton is trying to pass a bill outlawing covert government action. His most popular argument is that a botched covert CIA operation in the mid-1980s almost triggered a Soviet first strike. Only two people in America know the truth -- CIA master-spy Blackford Oakes and former President Ronald Reagan -- and neither are talking.

This is the tenth (of 11) Blackford Oakes novels Buckley wrote. I read the first eight books years ago, skipped the ninth book by mistake, and picked this up on a whim. They are all intelligent, elegant spy novels that span the Cold War. I will definitely finish the two I have left, but I have half a mind to go back and read all of them again.