The Paladin is about a daring, high-tech CIA operation that goes wrong and is disavowed by the higher authorities while the agent involved, who has been sacrificed, sets out for revenge. CIA operations officer Michael Dunne is being tasked with infiltrating an Italian news organisation that smells like a front for an enemy intelligence service. Headed by an American journalist, the self-styled bandits run a cyber operation unlike anything the CIA has seen before. Fast, slick, and indiscriminate, the group steals secrets from everywhere and anyone, and exploits them in ways the CIA cannot stop.
Dunne knows it’s illegal to run a covert op on an American citizen or journalist, but he has never refused an assignment given to him. Also his boss has assured his protection. Soon after Dunne infiltrates the organisation, however, his cover is blown.
When news of the operation breaks and someone leaks that Dunne had an extramarital affair while on the job, the CIA leaves him to take the fall.
Now a year later, fresh out of jail, Dunne sets out to hunt down and take vengeance on the people who destroyed his life. At the same time, Dunne is also trying to put the shards of his life back together. Waiting for him is a letter from someone who calls himself The Paladin, who promises to give him information about who was responsible for what happened to him, which just might provide him with an opportunity to get revenge.
The path to sorting things out takes Dunne hopping from Pittsburgh to Europe and Asia, and then back to New York, along with some encounters with the rich, famous and powerful. All of this leads to a countdown on a Monday morning where either chaos or revenge will take place, and where both may be delivered in a heart-stopping finale.
There is plenty of suspense and Ignatius achieves this with a minimum of explosions and violence, choosing instead to keep the plot clock ticking quietly throughout the book. This is one of those rare novels that you will want to read twice - the first time for enjoyment, and the second, to take note of how Ignatius does what he does so well.
