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LANCE PRIEST

priest_lance_bk_tpw priest_lance_bk_tpi priest_lance_bk_tpt priest_lance_bk_tpa priest_lance_bk_eem priest_lance_bk_tpc priest_lance_bk_tpp
 
Full Name: Lance Priest
Codename: Preacher
Nationality: American
Organization: CIA
Occupation Agent

Creator: Christopher Metcalf
Time Span: 2011 - 2020

ABOUT THE SERIES

Lance Priest is an agent with the CIA.

According to a blurb on the first recorded adventure, he was a college student, and part-time used car salesman, who came to the attention of the Agency because he was "also a liar, a chameleon, a different person to everyone who meets him". "He lived for moments when he was challenged to create characters and build backstories, traits, wants, needs and desires. Lance was a born liar. Leopards have spots. Fish swim. Lance Priest lies."

The interesting thing about many liars is they cannot tell when they are themselves being deceived. That is most definitely NOT the case with Priest. While lies are second nature to him, recognizing a lie is almost like breathing.

Like when someone is pretending to be someone else. Priest explains that "People aren't born with names. They are given them. They become them. A Jim is named James at birth but ends up a Jim. Michael stays Michael instead of becoming Mike. Elizabeth becomes Lisa or Liz. Either way, you become that name. It's who you are. You carry it with you, wear it. When people like about their name it is easy to tell. It doesn't fit."

"Truth be told, and it wasn't often told by Lance Priest, he'd fibbed and lied and B.S.'d his way through most of his 21 years. A half-day of whoppers and white lies told to others during the Foreign Service Officer oral assessments was nothing. It was at one of these assessments that the interviewer pulled a gun out from somewhere Priest did not see, put it on the table, and then informed the surprised young man that he would "be of no use to your country or anyone for that matter unless you can survive the next 72 hours". Priest might have written it all off as a bizarre prank except for the gun - and the silly grin on the man's face that told Priest the man was keeping a secret. It was one interesting way of being considered for a job not for the Foreign Service but for the CIA.

Training would prove a challenge but when he is put out into the field, he shows just how good his adaptability is and with that, his usefulness.

And then you throw in a lady who will become very close and important to Priest, aka the Preacher, Marta, "a rogue KGB operative who kills almost everyone she meets".

Interesting comment:

"Sometimes songs just start playing in his brain at the most inopportune times."

BOOKS

Number of Books:7
First Appearance:2011
Last Appearance:2020

1 The Perfect Candidate The Perfect Candidate
Written by Christopher Metcalf
Copyright: 2011

To the recruiter in the CIA, Lance Priest was the perfect candidate for what they need: a liar and chameleon who can also kill. The job they have for him, assuming he survives the training, sends him into Iraq to stop the sale of nuclear warheads before Operation Desert Storm. Unfortunately there are several sides to the problem and all would want the Preacher dead.
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2 The Perfect Weapon The Perfect Weapon
Written by Christopher Metcalf
Copyright: 2012

To pull off his latest mission, Lance Priest must somehow locate an unidentified terrorist who is planning a major attack on America. Who he is, where he is, what he is plotting - all unknown. And the Preacher must stop him. He will need all his peculiar skills, and Marta from the KGB, to succeed.
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3 The Perfect Angel The Perfect Angel
Written by Christopher Metcalf
Copyright: 2012

Lance Priest is without the love of his life. Marta is gone and he has nothing to keep him from unleashing his rage. As he begins to 'express' that grief, he is also being used in a CIA power game, one of the players being a mole.
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4 en el Medio en el Medio
Written by Christopher Metcalf
Copyright: 2014

The title is Spanish for 'in the middle' and that is where Lance Priest finds himself. The Preacher has his own unique code of conduct which allows him to lie, cheat, and kill without worry. But he is also a man of his word and when he promises to return a favor, he means it. That is why such a promise to a pilot who helped him takes him now to Ciudad Juarez to rescue a teenager from the cartel here.
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5 The Perfect Instinct: Trieste 48 The Perfect Instinct: Trieste 48
Written by Christopher Metcalf
Copyright: 2017

Several years before, Marta had set up an operation in Trieste. She had placed the young but skilled Elena to run it. Now a two-word message from Elena lets Marta know there is a problem and help is needed. Being quite pregnant, Marta is unable to provide that assistance but her man, Lance Priest, can.
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6 The Perfect Patriot The Perfect Patriot
Written by Christopher Metcalf
Copyright: 2016

Having just welcomed his baby girl into the world, Lance Priest is particularly hit hard when the news of the Oklahoma bombing reaches him because babies dies in the explosion. He wants to do something and so he does in his unique way.
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7 The Perfect Teacher The Perfect Teacher
Written by Christopher Metcalf
Copyright: 2020

When al Qaeda attacks two American embassies in Africa on the same day, killing hundreds, the CIA dispatches Lance Priest to send the message that vengeance will always come. Priest is taking along a trainee to impart all he has learned in the decade he has been doing such work. Back in the States, a serial killer is active inside the Agency and the little pieces of evidence found point to Priest.
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MY COMMENTS

What a fascinatingly different character to throw into the spi-fi fix. I mean, every agent who has ever gone undercover has had to lie and even if not assuming another identity, the lies that are told in just about every series in this compendium speaks to, if not the need for, certainly the use of deception.

But this character is chosen largely because he always lies. It is in his DNA. Most people have to consciously prepare themselves to utter a falsehood to make it believable. Lance Priest would be the exact opposite. He would have to make it a point to speak the truth otherwise a lie would roll off his tongue faster than he could think.

The author does a superb job of letting us know Lance Priest is a lie without trying to sell us on it. To me he makes the character interesting and compelling without once making him likable for his inveterate lies. And he gives us many unique situations where Priest must lie to survive so the man's false behavior is justified.

Great series done in a great way.

GRADE

My Grade: A-

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