A Very Private Plot: A Blackford Oakes Novel

by William F. Buckley Jr.

Book Overview

An ambitious senator wants to weaken the power of the CIA, perhaps to the point of its elimination. To accomplish his goal, he tries to enlist Blackford Oakes--now retired--into his cause by forcing him to testify before a senate committee about CIA covert activities in 1985.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688127959
• ISBN13: 9780688127954
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A good Oakes novel, entertaining dual story line

While not the best Blackford Oakes novel, it's readable with a moderate amount of suspense -- not necessarily about what will happen (real-life history already contraindicates the potential of the main plot line about Gorbachev), but about why it didn't happen. A nice touch is the decade-wide dual story line with Oakes being called to testify in 1995 about the events of 1986. Characterization in the Soviet story line is a tad light; too many of the characters in the 1986 thread appear interchangeable. But it's a pleasant, fast read in the series.

The Best of the Series

This is probably the best of the Blackford Oakes books and, as another reviewer noted, it's a fitting and excellent finale to a worthy series of spy thrillers involving a credible and well-crafted protagonist. This book revolves around a plot to kill Mikhail Gorbachev when he was the leader of the Soviet Union. Buckley gives us a realistic view of life in Moscow under glasnost. Usually the Oakes books tend to be tempered in their pacing -- as you would expect from Buckley -- but this one has the burner turned up a little higher. Good suspense, good characters, good plot.

Great Book

A worthy finish to the series - makes you sad there won't be more Oakes books. The real events following the completion of the book (late 1993) don't really alter how Buckley painted 1994 and 1995. A great read.