The dozens of covert operations Irit participated in ended without incident until this one entanglement when she intruded on Noor in her hotel room
She was trained to slip unseen into hotel rooms and secure facilities. Not into another woman’s trust.
Behind the Trigger is a psychological spy thriller about the most intimate instrument in intelligence work: another human being.
Irit is a Mossad field operative – and a wife, and a mother. When an operational mishap puts her face to face with Noor, the strong-willed wife of a Syrian weapons engineer, the Mossad sees an opening. Irit’s role is meant to be brief. Controlled. Temporary.
Until it isn’t.
Irit knows what she is building and why. Noor does not – but Noor is watching, testing, setting conditions of her own. As the line blurs between manipulation and trust, between running an asset and needing her, dark secrets from both women’s lives surface, and the bond built to serve the mission begins to close around them. From Minsk to Damascus, every move tightens it.
When the truth finally comes out, there will be no clean way out – only a choice between bad and worse, and a price either way.
What will remain of the bond between Irit and Noor when one woman’s triumph is the other’s ruin?
Espionage told from the inside – where the asset is a person, trust is the tradecraft, and success is not the same as absolution.
Behind the Trigger was named a finalist for the 2025 award.
Content note: this novel includes references to sexual abuse, with no graphic depictions.
Choose your format
Prefer Kindle or Kindle Unlimited? → Read on Amazon
Yariv Inbar is the pseudonym of an Israeli novelist whose real identity has been banned from publication by the Israeli authorities. With a wealth of experience from many years of serving in sensitive positions within the Israeli intelligence community, Yariv brings a unique authenticity to his writing and still serves as a lieutenant colonel in reserve. In 2016, Yariv burst onto the spy fiction scene with the publication of his novels in Hebrew, which quickly earned bestseller status in Israel and received high praise from critics and readers alike.
