Titan Rain - Introduction
Preface and Acknowledgments
Let me take you behind the scenes.
My thrillers aren’t just fiction. They’re fueled by a lifetime of secrets I wasn’t allowed to share—until now.
For over twenty years, I led a double life. By day, I represented the U.S. government in civil litigation before Israeli courts. But behind that legal exterior, I was operating in the shadows—gathering intelligence for U.S. federal agencies in over thirty countries. Jet-lagged, adrenaline-charged, and always alert, I lived stories that sound fictional. Some were stranger than fiction. Some can never be told.
But five thrillers gave me a way to release the pressure valve. They became my outlet, a fictionalized echo of that high-stakes life. The enemy in those books—what I call the invisible “FOE,” or Forces of Evil—was my way of confronting the very real adversaries I faced out there, in the real world.
The first spark came during a long, tense night in a distant hotel room. I was on assignment. My phone rang. It was my INTERPOL contact:
“You’ve been exposed. Stay put. We’ll extract you in the morning.”
Not exactly a lullaby.
Trapped, wired, and unable to sleep, I opened my laptop. What started as a distraction turned into a manuscript. Triple Identity poured out of me. That single night became the launchpad for the Dan Gordon thriller series. Four more followed, each one drawn from the raw material of close calls, coded meetings, and unspoken truths.
People often ask: “Did that really happen?”
Some reviewers said the books feel “too authentic.”
To that I say: thank you.
Are they true? Let’s just say… fiction can be a clever disguise.
Life lived out of a suitcase—never knowing if I was arriving or departing—gave me enough stories for ten novels. And that’s just the stuff I can talk about. But now it’s time to turn the page. Dan Gordon has retired—glass of Pinot Noir in hand—watching Daniella Gordon his younger sister forges her own trail in a world that once shut the gate on women.
Foreword By David Charney, M.D.
If you know Dan Gordon, the fascinating main character of Haggai Carmon’s espionage thrillers, you will quickly recognize the personality of his younger sister, Daniella, also an intelligence officer. Except Daniella Gordon is even more of a pistol. She can’t stand authority, tactful is absent from her vocabulary, she is impulsive, opinionated, and proactively aggressive to a fault. Her antennae for detecting schemers, liars, and most especially, traitors, is unmatched. Her sensitivity threshold for these types is set very low so she will detect them before anyone else has picked up the faintest scent of betrayal.
After insider spies have been identified, it frequently turns out that their workmates actually did have inklings that a line was being crossed—but they lacked the certainty and courage to go out on a limb and call it out early when it would have helped. Later, they will say: “I always knew something was off with him.” Daniella has none of these problems with hesitation and quickly rises to the task of proving her spy candidate suspicions in Haggai Carmon’s compelling sixth thriller novel, Titan Rain.
Let’s also agree that antennae can be overly sensitive, which is great for detecting subtle clues but occasionally can lead to false positives. No spoilers here, you will have to track Daniella’s story in the pages to follow to see how she comes out regarding her strongly-held suspicions.
My unusual specialty as a psychiatrist has been the psychology of the insider spy. I worked with four caught American spies, including one of the worst of all, Robert Hanssen. I met with each spy in jail for a couple of hours weekly for a whole year. These unique experiences provided me with in-depth opportunities to get a sense of what leads a vetted and trusted intelligence officer to betray his country by crossing the line. Of course, each case is different in its details.
This is what I found to be the key psychology: An intolerable sense of personal failure as privately defined by that person. It’s very much a male psychology, a matter of male pride and ego. No surprise since over 90% of spies are male. Why the last part of my definition, “as privately defined”? You may look over the life story of a spy and think: “Well, before he crossed the line, he really didn’t do that badly. Maybe he wasn’t operating at an A level but he was no worse than a B minus.”
It does not matter what you think, it only matters what he thinks, his own self-appraisal. If he feels he’s been a failure based on his own criteria, he somehow has to manage this unhappy reputation with himself. For the small number who do choose to cross the line, their inner negative reputations can set up pressure to make the misguided choice of how to resolve their personal demons—by crossing the line to becoming a spy.
This is the psychology I found with all four of my spy cases although I’m making it simple here. If you’re interested, you can read my white papers for more details. In intelligence circles, they are fond of explanations of spy motivations summarized by a well-known acronym, MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise and Ego. A bit of a spoiler here, because Compromise is a key motivation for the hidden spy of Titan Rain.
Decades ago, Compromise was a classic vulnerability favored for spy recruitment and many an American was recruited because of the threat of being revealed as a homosexual. Not so in this story. Read on for details particular to the spy in this novel.
These days, Western case officers tend to avoid Compromise in recruiting agents because it’s seen as a brittle and uncertain way to manage and control an agent. Over time, it can break down with unfortunate blow back. Western intelligence officers prefer more subtle and refined recruiting techniques. But our current antagonists on the world stage, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, are not quite so “civilized.” They will be happy to use whatever will work, including thuggish Compromise.
See how this plays out in Haggai Carmon’s powerful and riveting addition to his Daniella Gordon thrillers, Titan Rain.
David L. Charney, MD, is a psychiatrist, Founder and Medical Director of The Roundhouse Square Counseling Center in Alexandria, Virginia, which he considers his day job. Separately, as a long time psychiatric consultant to United States Government intelligence officers, he also became a well-known expert in the psychology of insider spies. For example, he extensively interviewed one of the worst, Robert Hanssen, weekly in jail for a whole year.
Acknowledgments
Behind every covert mission and every published book, there are people whose guidance, patience, and support made all the difference.
Rakeffet, my wife, my law partner, and the unwavering heart of our family. Writing stole time from you and our five children, and my gems – my five grandchildren—time I can never repay. But this book, like all the others, carries the weight of my deepest gratitude and love.
Sarah McKee, former General Counsel of INTERPOL–U.S. National Central Bureau. A brilliant legal mind, sharp editor, and unwavering friend. Sarah, your insight shaped this manuscript—and the ones before it. You are not only an astute lawyer but an excellent reviewer. I am grateful for the special efforts you made, and for your unfailing grace, professionalism and friendship.
David Epstein, my supervisor and mentor for nearly two decades, who knew with immense wisdom and experience when to let me rush forward and when to shorten my leash. He called me a pit bull — I never knew if he meant it as a compliment, because a pit bull finally lets go.
Dr. David Charney, a distinguished psychiatrist, has spent years working closely with the United States Intelligence Community, gaining a rare and profound understanding of what motivates insider spies. His involvement in several high-profile cases has provided him with invaluable, firsthand insights into this complex and often misunderstood issue. I’m deeply grateful for his friendship and for the time he took to read Titan Rain. His thoughtful comments—rooted in a perspective few others possess—meant a great deal to me.
Marc Jaffe, who recently passed away at the remarkable age of 100, was my friend for decades. When we first met, I was just starting out in the stormy world of writing, while Marc was already known as the “head honcho” of publishing—Editor-in-Chief at Bantam Books. Despite our different stages in the journey, and age, Marc was never condescending. He was warm, generous with his time, and always ready with thoughtful guidance. After reading my first thriller, Triple Identity, he told me he loved it—but suggested that for my next book, I consider making the lead character a woman. Well, Marc, my dear friend, I’ve taken your advice to heart. In my sixth thriller, the lead is indeed a woman—just as you envisioned. Thank you for your friendship, your wisdom, and your faith in me. Rest in peace up there on your cloud in heaven.
This novel, although inspired by my work for the U.S government, is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Having said that, I am also thankful to my friends and former colleagues who contributed introductions to my five earlier thrillers, all are retired: “Anonymous” a high ranking Mossad executive, Brigadier General E, Ephraim Sneh, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Andre LeGallo Chief of Station CIA, Teheran during the Islamic Revolution, Jacob Perry, Director of Shaback, Israel’s Internal Security Service
And to those who lent their voices and credibility to the earlier books, thank you for helping ground my fiction in the truth I once lived:
After Defection Games—my fifth thriller and an Amazon bestseller—I stepped away from law to spend more time with family. But the writing bug never let go.
I turned to my other passion: international law. That led to Foreign Judgments in Israel: Recognition and Enforcement, later published in English by Springer. Its success inspired a second legal volume: Remedies in Cross-Border Litigation. Both were introduced by justices of Israel’s Supreme Court.
But eventually, the world of fiction pulled me back in.
The result is Titan Rain—the explosive launch of a bold new series with a fierce female lead who proves that sometimes, women don’t just match the mission—they outclass it. Timely, razor-sharp, and thrillingly relevant, this story couldn’t come at a better moment.
Buckle up.
The ride is just beginning.
Enjoy the thrill.
—Haggai Carmon