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Matt Fulton
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Active Measures: Part I (Active Measures Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Matt Fulton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
In the winter of 1990, as the Soviet empire crumbled, a small Russian special forces team entered the dense forests of West Germany and buried an insurance policy.

In present day Iran, the United States’ most valuable agent uncovers a devastating secret brewing deep beneath the country’s mountainous terrain: In mere months, a faction of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards will successfully assemble a nuclear bomb. As the full might of the American Intelligence Community is mobilized to stop it, the CIA’s new director must confront a web of threats both at home and abroad, from a resentful White House chieftain, to a cunning Israeli spymaster, and the fearsome commander of the Iranian Quds Force.

In Moscow—after an oil trader with ties to the Kremlin is found burned alive in his Geneva home—an aide to Russia’s adored and despotic president is caught between opposing powers. At one side is an eccentric billionaire with lofty dreams of reorienting Russia toward the West, and at the other is the autocratic strongman whose ardent quest for resurgence has brought Russia into a risky, open confrontation with NATO.

In Lebanon, the Syrian civil war that raged for years across the border has reached its bloody climax. Yet in its wake, a new menace comes crawling from the shadows to feast on the remains. A brilliant CIA officer in Beirut, working desperately to penetrate an exhausted Hezbollah, is first to recognize the danger. As she begins calling on deaf ears, it is only a matter of time until the drums of war start beating again in the Middle East—and now with the greatest terrorist the world has ever known leading the charge.

Warping the line between illusion and reality, amid a labyrinth of characters, plots and counter-plots that span the globe—from the halls of the Kremlin and the suburbs of northern Virginia, to the slums of Beirut and the back alleys of Tehran—comes a story of intrigue and betrayal, life and death, setting a collision course toward a firestorm that will consume thousands and blind a superpower.
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  1. Book 1 of 1
    Active Measures Trilogy
  2. Print length
    650 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    June 28, 2016
  5. File size
    2.4 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A sophisticated and masterfully written tale about the dangers of loose nukes, terrorism and espionage." -- Best Thrillers Editors' Pick
"Timely, gripping, and unbelievably authentic, Matt Fulton's debut novel is a powerful tour de force of international intrigue and conspiracy unfolding as the world moves inexorably toward war. To call Active Measures a modern-day Red Storm Rising would somehow fail to do justice to the magnitude of Fulton's dark vision, which breathes fresh, epic life into the genre on a scale not seen since Clancy. Highly recommended." -- Stephen England, best-selling author of the Shadow Warriors series.
"Matt Fulton's novel provides an insider's guide to the inner-sanctum of Washington politics and intelligence agencies. His knowledge of foreign policy issues and spy-craft is superb. Fulton deserves high marks for professionalism and a carefully honed prose style. Active Measures exudes authenticity and a strong sense of place and period." -- Edward Wilson, author of A Very British Ending and The Darkling Spy.

About the Author

Matt Fulton is an independent writer who has spent half of his life working on the Active Measures trilogy. At twelve, he found inspiration in the stories of John le Carré, Graham Greene and Tom Clancy and began slowly developing the key characters that eventually found their way into his own novel. He later attended college in Washington, DC, studying foreign policy and interning with Congress and the British Parliament. Before what would have been his senior year, he decided to drop everything and realize the story that was brewing in his mind for over a decade. He lives in New Jersey.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01HPFZS40
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ H-Hour Productions, LLC; 1st edition (June 28, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 28, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.4 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 650 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

About the author

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Matt Fulton

Matt Fulton

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Matt Fulton is an independent writer and filmmaker with a B.A. in English and Political Science from Rutgers University—Camden. He is the author of the Active Measures series of spy thrillers and The Walk, a one-act play which tells the untold true story of Howard Unruh and America’s first mass shooting. At twelve, he found inspiration in the stories of John le Carré, Graham Greene, Tom Clancy, Cormac McCarthy, and J.R.R. Tolkien and began slowly developing the key characters and central plot that eventually became his debut novel, Active Measures: Part I, released in 2016. Matt has also studied foreign policy in Washington, DC and interned in Congress and the British Parliament. He lives in New Jersey.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
25 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Sean Crowley
    5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal!
    Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    When I read a really good book, it tends to play in my head as a movie, complete with camera angles and movements. This book does this more than any other I've read. Maybe I'm biased, being a filmmaker myself, but it plays on this sweets pot between a script and a more flowery style of writing. It feels primed to be the next HBO series that people are talking about.
    One person found this helpful
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  • RxLxBx
    5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
    Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Matt seems to be one step ahead of the ever changing intricacies of world events. His characters are complex and he has an ability to make you feel as though you were part of the scenes as they take place. Whether it is Washington, Jerusalem, Tehran, Moscow, or Damascus you feel as though you are part of the story. Cant wait for books 2 and 3!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • NMR
    5.0 out of 5 stars A book you'll want to read !
    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Active Measures captured and kept my attention from beginning to end. What an exciting adventure! Looking forward to Parts 2 and 3. What a tribute to the author on his first novel!
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Karel L. Rogers
    1.0 out of 5 stars Boring crap!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I almost never quit reading a book before gettin 1/4 of the way though. This book felt like a right wing training manual or something. It didn't seem to have a story line nor any worthwhile message. Read excerpts before you buy it! It it's your thing, enjoy!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Thrawn95
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tom Clancy meets I Am Pilgrim in a literal milestone of the thriller genre!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2016
    I received an amazon gift copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

    “Active Measures Part 1” by Matt Fulton easily ranks in the top 10 of my favorite thrillers of all time!

    Seamlessly intervening a decade-spanning, multi-layered story of epic proportions with grounded emotional character drama, that is quite unique in the genre and stays with you long after the last page, Matt Fulton sends you on a blistering and tightly-plotted rollercoaster right from the epicenter of political power in Washington D.C. over the slumps of Beirut and the streets of Teheran to the halls of the Kremlin, with twists, thrills and death lurking around every corner!

    The first standout is the author’s meticulous research. In its attention to detail, it rivals that of the late Tom Clancy. No matter if he describes the inner workings of the intelligence community and the Beltway in D.C., English architecture, the complex realities of the Middle East or even the built of a nuclear weapon, it is clear that Fulton went to painstaking lengths to get even the most complex, technical details right and deliver an authentic portrayal of the different organizations, countries and cultures, featured in his story!

    The book’s next big trump is its sheer amount of different plotlines! It touches on many different, very relevant geopolitical topics of today’s time – Iran, Russia, international terrorism – without over simplifying them. There are no easy answers given to comfort readers or push sales. On the contrary; “Active Measures” does the complex, political landscape of the post 9/11 world justice by showing that the many different ethnics and cultures surrounding the Middle East in addition to the fractured semblance of peace between East and West, inevitably foster conflict and chaos in some regions and that, despite the vast resources of the western intelligence and military community, a few sharp-minded conspirators positioned at the right places can be enough to ignite the fuse and drag the world to the abyss.

    But every great story also needs multidimensional, flawed and ultimately likeable characters the reader can root for, and Matt Fulton has created a vast cast of diverse characters, that includes some pretty unique ones, who come with their own share of emotional baggage.

    Finally “Active Measures Part 1” offers one of the most terrific, emotional and shocking scenes, which I have read in the genre so far! Namely two young refugees manipulated into conducting a suicide attack. They are siblings. And the younger one’s heart isn’t into the mission. So he tries to persuade his older brother to abandon the attack. Now in 99% of the conventional thrillers the young boy would probably succeed, leading to the attack failing at the last minute and to the saving of many innocent lives. But here quite the opposite happens… And that really got to me, because this way the ending felt so much more earned and true to the characters and the story as a whole.

    So have I any constructive criticism? Hardly! Some may claim that Fulton’s descriptions are sometimes a little too detailed and while I wouldn’t totally disagree with that, I think that the in-depth descriptions of places, cultures and military tactics only add to the authentic feel of the story. Oh and people who don’t like serialized story-arcs probably won’t appreciate the ending, but they have been fairly warned by the author. After all this is the first part of a trilogy!

    So the bottom line is: If you are into dark, unrelenting thrillers from the likes of Stephen England and JT Patten, if you enjoy the extensive, technical detail of a Tom Clancy novel or if you just loved the epicness of “I Am Pilgrim”, you are going to devour “Active Measures” by Matt Fulton!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • A.L. Bailey
    5.0 out of 5 stars A different but refreshing feel to most other espionage political thrillers
    Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2018
    Active Measures is an ambitious geopolitical novel where history took a recent alternate route, leading to a series of events that will prove catastrophic to world stability. It is a long and dense novel with intricate political, historical and geographical details demonstrating the painstaking research that the author, first time novelist Matt Fulton, put into developing his book.

    Most of the action focuses on the instabilities and insurgents of the Middle East, the corruption of Russia and the questionable activities of the United States’ intelligence agencies. The volumes of information presented on each of these groups leaves no doubt that Fulton is an expert on his subject matters.

    There are some great scenes in this book. The one that most comes to mind is a British military intervention onto a cargo ship operating in the Arabian Sea. The action scene is realistic yet exciting and the reveal of the missile launching system demonstrates how far anti-American factions will go to fight their covert war of global terror.

    The many plot lines and probably too many characters don’t make is easy to make sense of what is transpiring. But if you persevere the central plot is an interesting one, how the CIA reacts when Iran is suspected of building a nuclear weapons facility deep inside their country. I would have liked Fulton to have incorporated the many plotlines into sequences for maybe four or five at the most central characters so I could feel more invested in the human-level stories I felt the book needed, but that is just a personal preference. I suspect this novel will polarise readers, some will absolutely love what Fulton has done with this book and others will find the investment required of them to keep track of what is going on not for them.

    Think Tom Clancy or Terry Hayes in plot complexity, but written in the style of an omnipotent point of view narrative, leaving Active Measures to read more like a series of news articles on unfolding global events than a personal story for any of the main characters. It has a different but refreshing feel to most other espionage political thrillers. A worthy effort for a first-time indie author.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Martin Feldkircher
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent spy novel
    Reviewed in Germany on November 2, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is a great book with many at the beginning seemingly independent plots that start to connect later in the story. It is a great spy novel / thriller; if I had to compare the book, I would say the details of the scenes and plots reminds me a bit about the Alan Furst books...
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  • David Quayle
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    If you like Tom Clancy or Frederick Forsyth you’ll love this. Written by a new novelist, he is one to keep an eye on.
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  • Todd Simpson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Superb
    Reviewed in Australia on September 22, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Simply Superb. If you enjoy spy thrillers, then you will love this book. Matt Fulton has done an exceptional job with this story with his attention to detail, and an intriguing storyline. I enjoyed some of the history of actual events that he has incorporated into the book. A highlight for me is how the story moved around to different countries, and how each part unfolded into quite a riveting plot. The French residents would be horrified if they realised that the Spetsnaz had hid a small Atomic weapon on their doorstep. The GRU wanted an Insurance policy and decided to hide a suit case size bomb in the well of a small cottage close to the French Armoured Brigade near the Rhine. It may have been small, but it would certainly pack a punch if it was needed. Simon Marleau aka Jack Galloway was without doubt CIA’s most valuable asset, as he had a job in Tehran, which was no easy feat. Iran was one of the hardest places for the US to establish Intelligence agents. Jack had managed to have an asset very close to the Ayatollah Khansari, and a Saeed Mofidi being a General was a major coup for America. After what his own country did to his son in prison, you can see why Saeed is prepared to risk his life to pass on Intelligence to Jack. With the US relaxing the sanctions against Iran, they are doing everything they can to find out what the Iranians are doing digging under the mountain near the Ali Gholi Dry Lake. They just are sure if they have started their nuclear program again, and they would really like Saeed and Jack to find out. ISIS made the mistake of targeting Turkey with their terror attacks. They didn’t count on Turkey retaliating with almost the full force of their Armed Services, and going after ISIS in Syria. It didn’t take long for the rebels to either be killed or to flee to other countries. Riad Amyoub the new Syrian President decides to sever ties with Iran, and wants to stop them shipping arms across his country to Hezbollah. A very good book from start to finish, and I’ll certainly be looking for more from this Author in the future.
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