The top-secret facility perched in a remote part of the Mojave Desert is known as Camp X. Its a high-walled compound bristling with antennas and satellite dishes, and is the brainchild of James Jesus Angleton, the long-serving CIA Chief of Counterintelligence.
Angleton dispatches his most trusted aide, posing as US Army Lt. Dick Nolan, to Needles, California, to investigate the strange death of the man who disposed of Camp Xs highly-classified refuse. Lt. Nolans initial inquiry indicates that the trash haulers accidental death was actually an elaborate KGB assassination. However, further investigation suggests to Nolan that the mans death was staged to make it look like a Soviet hit.
And then, as the bizarre story of Camp X unfolds, Lt. Nolan begins to suspect that his boss may have succumbed to the demons that often plague the CIA Chief of Counterintelligence - more commonly known as The Paranoid in Chief. The story takes an even darker turn when Nolans wife and daughter disappear from the family home in Falls Church, VA.
This novel is set in the context of that terrible year of assassinations and riots and geopolitical turmoil: 1968.
About the Author
John Knoerle moved to LA in 1977 and did stand-up comedy, opening for the likes of Jay Leno and Robin Williams. John co-founded Sound Concepts, Inc. in1978 where he wrote, produced and voiced radio and TV commercials until 2006.
Knoerle wrote the screenplay for Quiet Fire, which starred Karen Black, and the stage play The He-Man Woman Haters Club, an LA Times Critics Choice. He also worked as a staff writer for Garrison Keillors A Prairie Home Companion.
Knoerle moved to Chicago in 1996 with his wife Judie. His first novel, Crystal Meth Cowboys, was optioned by Fox TV. His second novel, The Violin Player, won the 2003 Mayhaven Award for Fiction. John Knoerles novel, A Pure Double Cross, was the first volume of his American Spy Trilogy. The second volume, A Despicable Profession, was published in 2010. Book Three, The Proxy Assassin, was named one of the best indie books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews.
Beer and Gasoline, Knoerles latest, and probably last, novel was completed and published in 2017.
