Great Read!!

Karen Cleveland has written a mystery novel that keeps you guessing through out the book.
I hope she follows up this book with a next one.
Her readers will want to know more about her main character, Vivian Miller. Plus, we would love to see what happens to Omar.
Congratulations on her choice of narrator, Mia Barron. Perfect voice for this novel!

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Taut from beginning to end

The tension never lets up in this thriller. I would have liked it more if the heroine had been more of a heroine and less of a victim. The narrator was very good.

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Quick and engaging plot

I really enjoyed the what-if plot.
I would be hard pressed to believe that's how things would have turned out in the end. I was glad for the last little doubt inserted into the story.

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Not super intelligent CIA intelligence operatives, in my humble opinion.

I found Need to Know an unputdownable listen in spite of that. I found myself answering Vivian back most of the way through the book. What I mean is that she constantly questions herself, her decisions, can she believe her husband or trust what he tells her. Without spoiling the book its hard to review it, but I found myself voicing my dislike of her naivite constantly, to the point that I was yelling and thinking how is she believing this stuff at all? I have to admit to the fact that the situation she found herself in, a totally life-changing, nerve-wracking one would seem impossible to anyone. What I did not understand about it was how she didn't just immediately assume that any or all of the people on her team, who had access and security clearance like hers, would find the damning information just as she had. But her greatest fear, at first, was that someone would see what she was up to by sneaking up on her while she worked at her desk, and bam! that would be it. However I may be being too hard on Vivian, because I really liked her character, being a CIA analyst, Russian division, the most serious, and at the same time, with the help of her husband Matt (who is a piece of work and the reason for her dilemma) raising 4 young children. Both of them, you will see as the story progresses are truly loving and devoted to their kids. Two of them a boy, just starting Kintergarden,and a girl still a toddler and the other two are twin boys, only about a little over a year. Both Viv and her husband work, but work very well in tandem every morning; getting them all up, dressed, and fed, as well as themselves. Then three Viv drops at daycare, and Matt drops Luke, the oldest, at the school bus. At night they have dinner together, then Matt and Viv work together to get the kids bathed, in PJs, stories read, and tucked in bed. I loved hearing Viv describing her children, its not work to her, she loves every minute with them and also with Matt, her husband.
The book for me was a fast listen, because it was not overly wordy, the author keeps the story pretty much straightforward, and does not go very deep into the espionage stuff. Only as much as is necessary to tell the story and the story is about a family, a happy family, firm in their belief that all is fine with the world, until suddenly it isn't.

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Mr. and Mrs. Smith -- Not

Arrrggh...Can we talk? We've come so far lately. And then, along comes supposedly intelligent Vivian Miller, *dedicated CIA counterintelligence analyst,* Mother of the Year, and possibly the worst thing to ever happen concerning our female representatives in the Intelligence Community. Authors love to give us beautiful, supposedly smart women that make incredibly dumb decisions, I get it--movie producers are probably thumbing through their index cards of beautiful sexy leading ladies as I write this. I know most of you will like this one; I liked it -- a little bit. But, every now and then I have to kick myself while reading, and Need to Know gave me that opportunity, to exercise my acrobatic moves while reading.

I'm not going to nitpick and lambast, and don't mean to dissuade anyone interested in this book because I was mindlessly entertained, while I pulled my hair out. I did stick it out through to the finish, which I don't do if I am offended or absolutely hate a book. However, I won't be picking up the obvious sequel (and Jason Matthews need not worry about any competition). Let me stress, it moved along well, kept me wondering, and would probably be a decent TV movie. Though most of the dialogue is Vivian's emotional distress, the crux of the story comes down to what we would do for our children -- or what impossible extremes we would face to keep our vision of a loving happy family together, especially when that ideology conflicts with the ideology of our profession.

The problem is the implausibilities far far outweigh the plausibilities, and you end up wondering how anyone that missed so many red flags at home got passed the first job interview with the CIA. It's difficult to explain my ire without giving away the major spoiler. Let's just say that if the Russian Provocateur had been a snake, Vivian would have died from venom and the Miller children would be without a mother.

The plot is flimsy, the details very vague and improbable, and the bulk of the book undermines Vivian's validity (as well as the security of our nation). If you are looking for a good spy thriller, a smart novel of espionage on the homefront, pass. If you want a book about a troubled marriage, sit down with Vivian, and a box of Kleenex.

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Boring

Had potential at first but then moved excruciatingly slow and unfortunately had an irritating narrator.

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Complete waste of time

I could barely wait to finish this book before writing a review. My head hurts from rolling my eyes so much. It’s early in the year but this one is setting the bar high for worst book of the year. It was beyond patronizing and predictable with a main character so unbelievable as a competent CIA analyst as to rate being a fantasy book. Can I be more clear that I absolutely hated this book! If you like romance suspense such as a Lifetime or Hallmark movie type you might get through this book with a little less hate than I did but you’ll still feel like this author had no concept of how the CIA or FBI or for that matter any government agency works. The female lead character was possibly the dumbest character I’ve read to date to even have a job much less one as an
analyst. Complete waste of time.

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Not a spy novel

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Women who are struggling trying to have it all. This book is a long rumination on the conflict that many women face between having a career and being a mother. The espionage part of the story is preposterous and frankly just background - it could have been anything that caused the conflict.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Going back to Greg Hurwitz since his next installment in the Orphan X series just came out.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

It wasn't the narrator's fault. She was very good and I liked when the sound of the Midwest came out in her voice. But she is taking the fall for me hating the main character - because she embodied it really well!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Need to Know?

Every time the main character whines about being confused about what is happening and what she should do. Nothing confusing about this. Your husband is a Russian spy, you are a CIA agent. Duh. Plus there are about 5 endings. Pick one.

Any additional comments?

If our CIA analysts are really this naïve we are in seriously big trouble.

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Great Story, Great Writing, Not Predictable, Intrigue, WOW

Its almost 3:00 a.m. and i couldn't stop listening until i reached the end! Now I'm Speechless over the ending although I had some suspicions but never quite this scenario!?. Karen Cleveland has written a real winner with NEED TO KNOW! It's even more chilling considering everything going on in the news with Russian intelligence reaching into every aspect of American life! This is the best fiction book I've read all year! I hope the author writes a sequel and that a movie is made asap!! I even have the characters cast to in the movie version. You will not regret buying and reading this book! I wish i could give it 10 stars!!!

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If this were a handheld book it would be a page turner!

Great tale! Plenty of suspense & mental conflict. Fun to listen to! Surprise it’s a O’Henry ending.

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