Former CIA Officer Pens Spy Thriller

By Mary Ann Barton

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 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.”

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.”

Butler will sign copies of her book on March 24 at 7 p.m. at Lost Boy Cider, 317 Hooffs Run Dr., in Alexandria. Check with Hooray for Books and Lost Boy Cider for ticket information.