The Syndicate Spy
Former Alexandria resident Brittany Butler’s debut novel, “The Syndicate Spy,” is a fictional account inspired by her days working in counterterrorism for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Get details on the book party on Eventbrite here.
Although she and her family now live in Charleston, S.C., she plans to launch the book with a party at Lost Boy Cider and books will be provided for the event and for sale at Hooray for Books! It’s not a coincidence that Butler is celebrating the publication of her first book in Alexandria. She and her husband were Old Town Alexandria residents for 15 years. The book is inspired by her days at the CIA.
It’s a career she hadn’t expected. But after an internship at the American Embassy in Paris during her junior year in college, where she helped with some passport fraud cases, she was recruited to work for the agency after graduating with a degree in international affairs from Florida State.
“I’m from a small town in Georgia, I never thought in a million years they’d want me,” she said.
Although she was recruited to be a case officer, “I wasn’t really ready to sign up for that first 10 years abroad,” she said. “I wanted a good work-life balance and a family.”
Photo courtesy of Brittany Butler
Author Brittany Butler
Instead, she became a targeting officer, “identifying jobs [and people] with access to information we needed to support our counterterrorism efforts.”
She worked at the CIA for nine years. “As corny as it sounds, it was a privilege to have that job and be a part of that mission,” she said.
During that time, in between assignments in the Middle East, she got engaged and eventually married. “Whenever I was working in Iraq, that was kind of my first taste of ‘Oh my gosh, I want a relationship, a family, how do I balance that with this work?’ I was able to do it for quite a few years, but it was really taxing on me mentally. You can’t really divorce yourself from the intensity of your work. It’s about knowing your limitations and knowing how much you can handle."
In 2009, after eight CIA officers were killed in Afghanistan, she began to rethink her career. “I knew two of the officers who died in that attack,” Butler said. “It had a huge impact. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, you know, your work is dangerous. Sometimes it takes that happening close to you.”
In 2014, she became a stay-at-home mom. "I knew pretty quickly I needed to do something more,” she said. She began volunteering for Women for Afghan Women, as an advocate for women’s rights in the Middle East. A translator there, who moved to the United States, inspired her to write her book. “I felt like enough stories weren’t being told about the pivotal role women have been playing the last few decades,” she said.
In Charleston, she’s also helping the Afghan refugee population in her community. “I’ve gotten involved with Lutheran Services, on a volunteer basis to resettle Afghan refugees.” The group hosts Afghan women dinners, provides rides to and from work, helps find donated furniture and clothes and helps them get jobs.
Now the mother of three, Butler is working on a second book, a continuation of the story from her first effort and hopes to make it a series.
“The spy thriller genre, there are so many men in it, it’s male dominated,” she said. “My agent said ‘Oh my gosh, publishers love the female perspective and changing the narrative, women spies are not these sexual dominatrixes.’ We use our trade craft.”
Butler will sign copies of her book on March 24 at 6 p.m. at Lost Boy Cider, 317 Hooffs Run Dr., in Alexandria. Check with EventBrite, Hooray for Books and Lost Boy Cider for ticket information.
