'The Persian' is a spy thriller written by former CIA analyst David McCloskey

Summary

NPR’s Book of the Day — “The Persian” by David McCloskey

Date: October 15, 2025
Host: Linda Holmes
Guest: David McCloskey (Interviewed by Mary Louise Kelly)
Episode Theme:
A conversation with former CIA analyst-turned-novelist David McCloskey about his newest espionage thriller, “The Persian,” a tightly plotted novel centered on a clandestine war between Israel and Iran. The episode explores the challenge of writing spy fiction that closely mirrors breaking real-world events, the unique authenticity McCloskey brings from his CIA background, and the surprising quirks of the CIA’s publication review process.

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Main Themes and Purpose

• Merging Fact with Fiction:
  McCloskey crafts spy thrillers drawn from real intelligence history and operations, blurring the line between fact and fiction.
• Current Events Overtaking Fiction:
  The episode discusses how the novel’s plot—an Israeli surprise attack on Iran—became reality during the book’s publication, making the narrative feel prophetic.
• Insider Authenticity:
  The conversation sheds light on how McCloskey uses his CIA experience and real tradecraft to inject realism into his characters and plots.
• Navigating CIA Censorship:
  McCloskey reveals what real intelligence details are allowed or redacted by the CIA before publication, highlighting the unpredictability of the process.
• Insight into Mossad's Methods:
  Detailed discussion on how the operational methods of Israel’s Mossad differ significantly from the CIA, challenging spy thriller tropes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Novel’s Prophetic Plot

• McCloskey’s new novel, The Persian, opens with an Israeli surprise attack on Iranian military leaders and a scientist—an event that paralleled real-life developments as the book was going to print.
  • Mary Louise Kelly [01:57]:
    “Your new novel, The Persian, opens with Israel having just launched a surprise attack and they've just assassinated an Iranian military leader and a scientist. When did you come up with this story?”
  • David McCloskey [02:22]:
    “Well, I came up with this story well before the most recent sort of round between Israel and Iran… the book really tries to kind of scrape beneath the kind of overt conflict and get into the heart of the shadow war between Israel and Iran.”

Drawing from Real-World Espionage

• McCloskey’s plots are heavily rooted in actual intelligence incidents, sometimes so much so that he feels like reality needs to be toned down in fiction.
  • David McCloskey [03:20]:
    “The guts of the shadow war, not necessarily the kind of overt military conflict, are really at the heart of this story… the actual news, the actual conflict provides so much fodder for spy novelists…”

The CIA Censorship Process

• As a former CIA analyst, everything McCloskey writes must be reviewed by the CIA Publication Review Board (“the censors”).
• Surprising details get approved, while seemingly harmless ones get redacted.
  • Mary Louise Kelly [04:44, 05:01]:
    “I was surprised at some of the details in here, and I thought, I don't know if he's making this stuff up.”
  • David McCloskey [05:01]:
    “I send every draft through… our publication Review Board. And, you know, I'm oftentimes frankly a little bit surprised at what can get through.”
• Example: The CIA redacted the name of an instant messaging vendor but let details on bomb-making stay.
  • David McCloskey [06:02]:
    “They deleted a reference to an instant messaging program used at the CIA."
  • David McCloskey [06:26]:
    “…then they left in, of course, relatively granular detail on how to construct an improvised explosive device. So it's oftentimes hard for this novelist to know exactly what will be redacted.”

Mossad vs. CIA: Different Tradecraft

• The Persian explores how Mossad operates without the diplomatic cover CIA officers often use, creating unique tradecraft challenges.
  • Book Quote, cited by Mary Louise Kelly [06:46]:
    “Instead, operational teams are cobbled together, surged to where they are needed, then disbanded. When the work is done, the plane is built as it flies.”
  • David McCloskey [07:26]: “Because the Israelis… did not really have an embassy to use, it meant that the types of cover that had to be used to put officers into the location… has always been a bit more exotic in general than the types of cover that the CIA would use.”

Reality Can Be Stranger Than Fiction

• Sometimes, the true stories had to be toned down for plausibility in fiction:
  • David McCloskey [05:01]:
    “At times, I was tempted to tone it down so my editor wouldn't think I was making anything up that's too crazy.”

What’s Next for McCloskey?

• The next novel will test the boundaries of the “special relationship” between the US and UK, set between Washington and London, asking how far allies might go to spy on one another.
  • Mary Louise Kelly [08:37]: “What is the threat of your next novel? …your fictional plots keep coming true.”
  • David McCloskey [08:47]: “It is a story set between Washington and London… putting as much stress on the special relationship between the US and the UK as I could…”

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Memorable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• On shadow wars:

  “The book really tries to kind of scrape beneath the overt conflict and get into the heart of the shadow war between Israel and Iran.”
  — David McCloskey, [02:22]

• On real intelligence as story fodder:

  “The actual news, the actual conflict provides so much fodder for spy novelists kind of seeking to dig around in this terrain…”
  — David McCloskey, [03:20]

• On the weird logic of CIA censors:

  “They deleted a reference to an instant messaging program used at the CIA… but then they left in, of course, relatively granular detail on how to construct an improvised explosive device.”
  — David McCloskey, [06:02, 06:26]

• On Mossad’s operational improvisation:

  “Operational teams are cobbled together, surged to where they are needed, then disbanded. When the work is done, the plane is built as it flies.”
  — Quoted by Mary Louise Kelly, [06:46]

• On differences between Mossad and CIA:

  “You get the sense from interacting with a lot of these Mossad officers that when a problem is identified, a team is sort of put together to then deal with that problem… mirror imaging the CIA onto Mossad just didn't work.”
  — David McCloskey, [07:26]

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

• [01:27] — Introduction: Real-world events colliding with spy fiction
• [02:22] — Inspiration and timing of The Persian’s plot
• [03:20] — Using real-life intelligence incidents as inspiration
• [04:33] — The CIA’s influence on what gets published in novels
• [05:51] — Specific details the CIA censors and allows
• [06:46] — Excerpt and discussion on Mossad’s unique operational methods
• [08:37] — Hints about McCloskey’s next novel and the “special relationship”

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Tone & Language

The episode is conversational, candid, and informed by both journalistic curiosity and insider knowledge. Mary Louise Kelly is sharply inquisitive; McCloskey responds with humor, humility, and vivid specifics, giving listeners an inside look at the real (and sometimes surreal) world behind spy thrillers.

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Summary Takeaway

David McCloskey’s “The Persian” is a spy thriller ripped from real headlines, written by someone who has lived the clandestine life. The episode dives into the tensions between real and invented espionage, the peculiarities of the CIA’s censorship process, and the inventive methods of Mossad—making it a fascinating listen for fans of thrillers, world affairs, and behind-the-scenes stories of the intelligence world.

Transcript

[Linda Holmes]

This is NPR's book of the Day. I'm Linda Holmes. It makes perfect sense that a former CIA analyst would write spy thrillers, and that's what David McCloskey does. His latest is called the Persian, and it focuses on a surprise attack launched by Israel against Iran. And writing it presented a few challenges. He didn't have time to go back and adjust it so that it would be either more or less likely like real recent history. And naturally it had to be reviewed by the real CIA, which gets to decide how much he can say about the spy game and what has to be redacted. McCloskey told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that he doesn't always know exactly what he's going to be allowed to publish, but when he does get to tell the truth about espionage, it's sometimes plenty wild enough to be a novel without much invention at all.

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[Mary Louise Kelly]

A major challenge for writers of espionage fiction is what happens if your plot gets overtaken by events. Like what happens if you write a novel where the villain is Russian and the action's all in Moscow and in the meantime war breaks out with China and that's where everyone's attention is focused. Well, our next guest has the opposite problem. David McCloskey keeps writing Spy thrillers and the plots keep coming true. David, welcome back.

[David McCloskey]

So glad to be back. Thanks for having me.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

I will open by reminding people that in real life, war between Israel and Iran broke out this past summer. In June, Israel launched a surprise attack assassinated Iranian military leaders and scientists. Your new novel, the Persian opens with Israel having just launched a surprise attack and they've just assassinated an Iranian military leader and a scientist. When did you come up with this story?

[David McCloskey]

Well, I came up with this story well before the most recent sort of round between Israel and Iran. And unlike my last novel where I wrote a Russia focused story basically in the middle of Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine, this time I did not have time to go back and change the story. The book has already was already written and being printed during the conflict this summer. But the book really tries to kind of scrape beneath the kind of overt conflict and get into the heart of the shadow war between Israel and Iran.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Well, I was gonna ask you about this because when I last interviewed you, we were talking about one of your previous books, Moscow X, set in Russia. And you were telling me how as you were writing. Yeah. Russia had launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine and you had to redo all. All kinds of things. This time you just had to white knuckle through it and figure it's gonna be what it's gonna be. And this is fiction.

[David McCloskey]

That's right. And I was at least somewhat encouraged this time that, you know, I think the guts of the shadow war, not necessarily the kind of overt military conflict, are really at the heart of this story. And I really did try to take actual chapters from this conflict between Tel Aviv and Tehran and embed them in. In kind of a fictionalized way into the book. So, for example, a few years ago, the Israelis assassinated the head of Iran's nuclear program using a remote operated robotic machine gun. And that, in effect, is the sequence that opens this novel, the Persian. Although, of course, you know, the characters in some of the places have been changed. So this is a case much like Russia, where the actual news, the actual conflict provides so much fodder for spy novelists kind of seeking to dig around in this terrain, all these details, that.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

You couldn't make it up if you tried. You're a former CIA analyst for people who don't know that you were posted at stations across the Middle East. How much of that inside knowledge shows up in this fiction?

[David McCloskey]

A lot of it, I would say. I mean, I dug up characters who are, you know, real intelligence officers, or at least I'm. I'm trying to depict them as authentically as possible.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Well, and CIA censors, I'll call them the Publication Review Board. They're required to review everything you publish. As a former CIA staffer. Right. That's right.

[David McCloskey]

Yeah.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

I was surprised at some of the details that are in here, and I thought, I don't know if he's making this stuff up.

[David McCloskey]

Yeah. You know, I send every draft through the, what we call our publication Review Board. And, you know, I'm oftentimes frankly a little bit surprised at what can get through. But in this case, you know, I think there's so much that's actually in particular on that type of, you know, on this kind of drones or frankly, these types of Intelligence operations that Mossad conducts in this realm of the shadow war. There actually is a lot out there that you can, you know, as a novelist, you can kind of get the bones of the story. And this is where, much like Russia, the reality is almost stranger than fiction. So once you have the bones of that story, it's almost like you don't need to make anything up. It's like the Israelis and the Iranians have already written the bones of an insane spy novel. And frankly, at times, I was tempted to tone it down so my editor wouldn't think I was making anything up. That's too crazy.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Were there any calls that went the other way, a detail you thought was completely innocuous, that the CIA review board was like, delete, delete, delete.

[David McCloskey]

Yeah. So they deleted a reference to an instant messaging program used at the CIA.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Hang on. Are you allowed to tell us this? If they told you, you couldn't publish it.

[David McCloskey]

I'm not going to give you the name of the program. It wasn't that the CIA uses an instant messaging capability. It was the specific name of the vendor.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Right.

[David McCloskey]

That provides that. And they deleted that, presumably because the contract is classified or some such. But then they left in, of course, relatively granular detail on how to construct an improvised explosive device. So it's oftentimes hard for this novelist to know exactly what will be redacted.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

I believe it was chapter 18. And you open it with something fascinating to me. You note that for most of its modern history, Israel has not had diplomatic relations with its near neighbors, which means Mossad, their spy agency, has not been able to operate out of Israeli embassies in the way that the CIA or, say, Britain's MI6 do. And you write, and I'm quoting, instead, operational teams are cobbled together, surged to where they are needed, then disbanded. When the work is done, the plane is built as it flies. Is that true? And if so, how does it impact Mossad tradecraft?

[David McCloskey]

Yeah, it is true. And it was one of the very interesting pieces or sort of tidbits to come out of the conversations I had with Mossad officers while I was researching this book, which is because the Israelis have not typically had or, you know, for much of their history, as that passage says, did not really have an embassy to use. It meant that the types of COVID that had to be used to put officers into the location where they might conduct the operation has always been a bit more exotic in general than the types of COVID that the CIA would use. Where, for much of our history, you'd have someone who works in an embassy who's under diplomatic cover. The Israelis aren't able to do that. So you have different types of COVID And you get the sense from interacting with a lot of these Mossad officers that when a problem is identified, a team is sort of put together to then deal with that problem. And that's a very different kind of mentality, I think, to intelligence work than what I experienced at the CIA. So mirror imaging the CIA onto Mossad just didn't work.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

So what is the threat of your next novel? Have you figured it out? And I guess I ask with some trepidation, given that we noted your fictional plots keep coming true.

[David McCloskey]

Well, trepidation might be well founded in this case, Mary Louise, because it is a story set between Washington and London and it is again set in the very real context of transatlantic relations today. And I started the book with the goal of putting as much stress on the special relationship between the US and the UK As I could and whether the sort of relationship could sour to the point where we're all spying on each other again.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

You have whet my appetite for the next one and given us plenty to chew on in this one. David McCloskey thank you, Mary Louise.

[David McCloskey]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

That's former CIA analyst David McCloskey. His latest espionage thriller is the Persian.

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[Linda Holmes]

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