ZACHARY MANNHEIM

Full Name:	Zachary Mannheim
Nationality:	American
Organization:	CIA
Occupation	Spymaster

Creator:	John Hayden
Time Span:	2021 - 2023

ABOUT THE SERIES

Zachary Mannheim is an agent with the CIA.

More specifically he is a spy-hunter for the Agency and even more so, he is Langley's chief spy-hunter. His title when we first meet him is the Chief of CIA'a Counter Intelligence Center and it is his job to lead the team to catch those trying to spy on America, or worse. And as such it is his responsibility, as we find in that first adventure, to deal with a lot of politicians who have their own agendas which may or may not have America's security in mind. And we will find as the series progresses, there are some very powerful people inside the CIA who have their personal interests as well and will find themselves in conflict with Mannheim and his people. Mannheim will not always win against such people.

That is to say that during the flow of these adventures, Mannheim will find his career taking a downward trajectory for a time because of his reticence to be, as a newly appointed Director will put it, "a team player". Mannheim, it is pointed out, despises informality and he abhors chicanery even more. Since he will find too much of the first and far too much of the latter and he will balk when ordered to ignore with both, he will get demoted and be pushed out.

Mannheim, though, being extremely capable in his work and his work ethic, will find a way to succeed over time.

Good Lines:
- "A black mood lets suspicions grow from their own seeds."
- "Undercover is a place where lies are a convenience, where lies get tangled with other lies, and where lies steal hope and make killing easier".

BOOKS

Number of Books:	6
First Appearance:	2021
Last Appearance:	2024


1			No Man's Mercy ... No God's Forgiveness Written by John Hayden Copyright: 2021 "Gunther Probst, CIA Field Director, is found, throat cut, in a saltwater marsh on Cape Cod. Russia's spies have begun to assassinate CIA's best operatives! Raissa Ribeiro, ex-CIA assassin, ex-supermodel, retired after being burned alive, is an obvious suspect. On the run, Raissa provides limited evidence to Zachary Mannheim, CIA's Chief Spy-Hunter. Mannheim cannot convince a Congressional Committee or the Agency's Director of the Kremlin's most secret conspiracy. Tasked with the worst kind of cover-up, Mannheim must juggle too many interests, too many secrets...including his own."

2			Photographs Of Emily Written by John Hayden Copyright: 2022 "Iraj Rashidi, an Iranian nuclear physicist, agrees to defect to the United States. Exfiltrating Rashidi from Iran to CIA’s Langley HQ is a high-risk operation with countless moving parts. CIA’s newly appointed Director, Ted Granholm, bets his career on the success of Operation BusStop which depends on Rashidi escaping Iran alive and proving the value of the scientist’s stolen Intel."

3			The Last Choirboy Written by John Hayden Copyright: 2022 "Zachary Mannheim has settled into enforced retirement after the taking the blame for political fallout from Russia’s successful assassination of CIA Director Ted Granholm, the fiasco associated with an Iranian physicist’s attempt to betray Iran’s nuclear development program to CIA, and the bloody embarrassment made for TV trade of prisoners on the Bridge of Spies in Berlin."

4			A Spy's Burden Of Lies Written by John Hayden Copyright: 2022 "Russia's war with Ukraine dominates the region. Zachary Mannheim, former Director of Counterintelligence at CIA, is COO of Michani Bank. Congressman Emile Wright and Jedediah Sewell, Director of CIA, twist Mannheim’s arm to investigate the presence of Yusef Schwartz, the Bank’s co-owner, in Ukraine, Iraq, and Lebanon. Sewell’s true intent is much darker: Remove Yusef by any means necessary. For Zachary there are a thousand reasons to refuse the assignment. Yet to say no is all but impossible."

5			What Spies Fail To See Written by John Hayden Copyright: 2023 "War in Ukraine is taking its toll on the world. Among US concerns is Russia’s piracy of grain ships. Unit23 of Congress is assigned to deny Russia’s Fleet further success, intending to block Sevastopol Harbor with oceangoing ships scheduled for salvage. Russia’s warships will become sitting ducks for inventive marauders of Ukraine’s Navy. Turkish Presidential politics and Naval jealousies are hurdles to cross. Russia’s SVR spies are prepared to subvert Unit23 at any cost. A bookmaker’s hardened nerves and a liar’s practiced deceit are Zachary Mannheim’s tools as he savors realities in the Black Sea’s region. In a bloody standoff between Russian troops, Ukrainian soldiers, and a Russian General, Zachary must solve a deadly thicket where all will die as losers."

6			A Last Prophecy Written by John Hayden Copyright: 2024 Zachary Mannheim has made another major career change and now works as COO for Michani Bank as well as heading the House of Representative's Intelligence Committee's Unit 23. When Mannheim is sailing off Nantucket when he answers a distress call from a sloop shot up by a fishing trawler likely under the command of the Chinese government. Matters greatly escalate from there.

MY COMMENTS

The writing style of author John Hayden definitely needs some acclimatizing. The flow of the action can get confusing unless one pays extremely close attention so casual reading will not suffice - you need to stay alert to every word as pellets are dropped which are vital later one.

Tack on the fact that the same prose will not sugar coat any duplicitousness and there is in each adventure a lot of it. I would not want to have to live in Mannheim's world and, as we will see over time, neither does he sometimes. Hunting spies is hard work. When some of those spies are in-house, it is even harder and far less appreciated.

GRADE

My Grade: B

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