Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Code Name: Liberty
AUTHOR: Marshall Thornton
PUBLISHER: Kenmore Books
LENGTH: 350 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 28, 2019
BLURB:
In the summer of 1980, the news is full of the upcoming election and the hostage crisis in Iran but Patrick Henry Burke is not paying any attention. He’s met a Persian prince and his head is full of romance.
All of that changes though when a sexy CIA agent approaches him and asks that he spy on the prince and his father. They’re attempting to prevent the hostages from being released to guarantee Carter won’t win the presidency in hopes that the Reagan administration will be grateful enough to assist the prince’s father in becoming the new Shah of Iran.
As Patrick gathers information about an impending illegal weapons deal, he struggles to understand who might be lying to him and who might be telling the truth.
REVIEW:
Patrick is a young gay guy who has made some mistakes. His mistakes have led him to a shared garden level apartment with his fellow server Wendi and a not great job at a fancy French hotel restaurant. He doesn’t get the good shifts, doesn’t make much money, doesn’t have a phone, but he is living his own life. He meets David at a dance club once night and he’s smitten. David is good looking and is a prince to boot! As Patrick gets more involved with David, he realizes that David will never stay with him – he’s a prince and he’ll have to do his duty and Patrick will get hurt in the end.
Meanwhile, he’s approached by a agent who wants Patrick to spy on David and his father, the exiled former ruling family’s heir. The agent convinces Patrick that he must do his patriotic duty and spy on his boyfriend and father because the fate of the country depends on it. He plays on Patrick’s sympathies as he tells him this will get the hostages released from Iran where they’ve now been held captive for almost a year. Patrick is torn, but darn it, he is a descendant of Patrick Henry and he has to do the right thing for his country.
But the longer this spying goes on, the stranger things become. Patrick isn’t sure who is lying and who is telling the truth. He’s way over his head and he isn’t sure of anything or anyone or what it is he’s really trying to accomplish. And maybe there is real danger and it might be coming for him. He finds unlikely allies and surprising help from where he least expects it.
So in full disclosure, I should say that I studied history in college – but I actually lived this history when I was in college. I graduated from High School in 1980, so this was reality. I honestly thought I wouldn’t live this long because I was sure those idiot politicians were gong to screw it up and we would all go out with the bomb. I can honestly see how Patrick would be sucked into this plan. I wasn’t too sympathetic to Patrick at the beginning of the story because he really didn’t seem to be paying attention to what was going on with him – but reconsidering as the story moved forward, I think his motivations were more about him leading his life as a young gay man with the first real freedom of his life. He meets a guy and he’s really interested – he’s never had a boyfriend before – and he’s kind of over his head pretty quickly. David is caught between what he wants and what is expected of him but he does seem to really love Patrick. The last third of this book was my favorite part. Honestly, the first half rather dragged a bit for me which affected my rating. Even though the set up is necessary to the plot and certainly to the twist and turns at the end, I would have enjoyed a little more action in the first half. As usual, Marshall Thornton spins a good mystery and there are some shocking and heartbreaking moments as well. Recommended particularly for history, cloak and dagger mystery and conspiracy theory fans.
RATING: 
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