David Compton
Major Works
- The Acolyte ( Oct. 1996)
- Executive Sanction (The Acolyte in paperback, 1998)
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Biography of David Compton
David Compton was born in Atlanta, Georgis, but he lived in
Oxford, Mississippi, for more than three years.
Before becoming a writer, he was a marketing executive
with several Fortune 500 companies. He left his post as
a marketing analyst at Kraft General Foods in Memphis, moved
to Oxford, Mississippi, and received a considerable amount of
money for his debut spy novel, The Acolyte
(Simon & Schuster). The Acolyte, was renamed
Executive Sanction, and sold widely overseas with a
major movie deal signed with Touchstone Picture. He is currently
living in Europe with his family and writing another book.
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A Review
of The Acolyte 
by Nathan Huddleston (SHS)
The Acolyte, an exciting political novel by David Compton, is action packed from beginning to end. The exhilarating plot takes the reader from downtown Atlanta, Georgia, overseas to Germany and everywhere in between. Compton begins the novel by introducing the reader to Greer Whitaker, a campaign manager for a candidate for Representative of Georgia. Soon the plot twists, as it is revealed the ambitious candidate was at one time involved in a money laundering scheme involving off-shore drug dealers. After a stunning defeat, Whitaker decides campaigning is not the occupation for him. He then applies for a job with the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. After countless interviews and meetings in secret rooms, Greer is signed on as a CIA agent. After a short two month crash course in CIA operations, Whitaker is assigned to his first case, a counter-intelligence task to reveal a spy. In order to give Whitaker the leverage and access he needs to complete his assignment but not blow his cover, he is made an aide for the President's best friend, Randall Jenkins. Jenkins serves as the National Security Advisor and is an extremely suspicious character. He feels that he should have more access to top-secret reports flowing into the CIA than the National Intelligence Brief provides. In turn, he assigns Whitaker to read through each report coming into the country, taking notes on each one, and reporting back to him. While studying the reports at length, Greer falls for a young woman by  the name of Kate Mallotte, a CIA analyst. Jenkins suspects that Germany and Japan are preparing to cause an economic war with the United States, and takes Whitaker with him to Germany. While in Germany, Stephanie Becker, Greer's ex-girlfriend, bursts back into his life when she hears he in back in Germany and, while the two of them are together, Randall Jenkins is killed. The reader then discovers that Becker is also a spy, and her colleague Erich Reagor, an ex-Stasi (Ministry of State Security in East Berlin during World War II) colonel, steps into the story. This novel has enough plot twists to cause the reader to suffer from motion sickness, and the conspiracy can become rather confusing at times, due to the fact that Compton does not go into details about the plans of the economic controversy. The tension rises and falls at just the right times, so, even though confused, the reader gets dragged along by the non-stop action. Although the novel is enjoyable, it should be noted that many passages may be objectionable. There are many instances of violence and some sexual encounters as well. If the reader does not find such material offensive, then I recommend this fast-paced novel to anyone anticipating a good read.
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Related Websites
This
site, offered by the University of Mississippi, gives brief
information on the novel.
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Bibliography
Compton, David. The Acolyte. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1996.
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