Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine’s Picks
Best Espionage Fiction of 2023
by George Easter, Steele Curry and Jeff Popple
In assessing the “best” of the year lists that have come out so far, we determined that one of the areas of fiction that gets short shrift in these lists is spy/espionage fiction, so we determined to use our decades of reading and reviewing experience in this area to come up with the following list. 2023 is a great year for the publication of excellent spy fiction. If you are a fan of this type of entertainment, you are in for some real treats. Enjoy. George, Jeff and Steele
Best Espionage Novels
THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (U.K. only)
THE SECRET HOURS, Mick Herron
MOSCOW EXILE, John Lawton
THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW, I. S. Berry
BEIRUT STATION, Paul Vidich
KENNEDY 35, Charles Cumming
Honorable Mention
TRAITOR, Ava Glass
MOSCOW X, David McCloskey
THE COLLECTOR, Daniel Silva
BLACK WOLF, Kathleen Kent
THE SPY COAST, Tess Gerritsen
THE HELSINKI AFFAIR, Anna Pitoniak
THE YEAR OF THE LOCUST, Terry Hayes (2024 title in U.S.)
SECOND SHOT, Cindy Dees
CHAMELEON, Remi Adeleke
RED LONDON, Alma Katsu
THE MAN IN THE CORDUROY SUIT, James Wolff
WHITE FOX, Owen Matthews
THE PARTISAN, Patrick Worrall
For more details about these spy novels, see plot descriptions and some reviews below.
Best Espionage Novels
THE SCARLET PAPERS
by Matthew Richardson
Michael Joseph, in U.K., £14.99, May, 2023;
in U.S., Penguin trade paper, $16.99, May 28, 2024
The Sunday Times Best Thriller of 2023
VIENNA, 1946: A brilliant German scientist snatched from the ruins of Nazi Europe.
MOSCOW, 1964: A US diplomat caught in a clandestine love affair as the Cold War rages.
RIGA, 1992: A Russian archivist selling secrets that will change the twentieth century forever.
LONDON, THE PRESENT DAY: A British academic on the run with the chance to solve one of history’s greatest mysteries.
Their stories, their lives, and the fate of the world are bound by a single manuscript. A document feared and whispered about in capitals across the globe. In its pages, history will be rewritten. It is only ever known as.
Steele Curry’s Thoughts: In my assessment, The Scarlet Papers ranks as one of the finest spy novels written in the past 50 years. It’s historically authentic, the characterization is brilliant, the plot is crammed with snakes and ladders, the settings are bang on. A female double agent was positioned close to the top of the British Secret Service throughout the Cold War and earlier. She retired 20 years ago to live a solitary life. No one knew her true identity until she decided to recruit an English espionage historian to help her reveal some covert post-WW II British intelligence operations that would severely damage the reputation of the Secret Service and England itself. There are some powerful forces prepared to do anything to prevent this from happening. This story has spies, assassins and traitors everywhere – the CIA, Mossad, the Russians, all branches of the British intelligence establishment. I loved every word.
Jeff Popple’s Thoughts: This is a very clever thriller, that impresses with the breadth of its story and the intricacy of its plot. Careful reading is rewarded, as the story twists and turns its way through a maze of double dealing and shifting alliances that all seem to reach back to Scarlet’s initial recruitment for British Intelligence of a German scientist in 1946. The plot is captivating, and the historical detail is convincing and neatly woven into the story. At over 570 pages, it is on the long side, possibly too long, but I was never bored by the story or tempted to skip over pages. The writing is smooth, and the frequent twists and surprises continue all the way to the final pages. The modern story provides some good chicanery by British Intelligence, and moments of suspense and action, but it is the historical elements, and references to real life events, that really gripped my attention. An outstanding achievement.
THE SECRET HOURS
by Mick Herron
Soho Crime, $27.95, September, 2023
Rating: A
[Reviewed by George Easter]
There are three plot lines in THE SECRET HOURS, two in present-day England and one in early 1990’s Berlin.
It all starts with the opening scenes which depict the attempt to kidnap or kill a retired asset of the secret service named Max. Although Max has been living a life of quiet solitude in a rural setting, he has maintained his vigilance and is able to escape the clutches of his attackers. But questions remain in his mind: Who sent them and why?
The scene shifts to an enquiry entitled Monochrome, which was launched at the behest of a vengeful Prime Minister to investigate the “historical overreaching” of the British secret service. Two civil servants (Griselda and Malcolm) are seconded to this project along with a committee of bigwigs, but they soon find that they don’t have the power implied by their mandate and their efforts are thwarted at every turn by MI5’s formidable First Desk.
An old MI5 case file is anonymously dropped in Malcolm’s shopping cart and the Monochrome committee decides to take a closer look at the file.
Through the testimony of one of the operatives in Berlin at the time, Alison Dean, one is given a vivid picture of the goings-on at Berlin Station in the early 1990s and its driving force Brinsley Miles.
THE SECRET HOURS is billed as a standalone, but those of you who have read the Slow Horses series will soon recognize settings and characters from the Slow Horses’ world. I would categorize this fine novel as a spin-off, not a standalone. Three characters in particular (one that is never identified by name and the other two going by different names than we are used to) are easily identified by the fans of the Slough House novels.
All of Mick’s books start slow for me and gradually build with surprising revelations until I reach my inevitable “Wow” exclamation as I turn the last page. His witty and sarcastic prose and dialogue continue to delight me at every turn. He is a master in his prime.
THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW
by I. S. Berry
Atria Books; $28.00, May
Rating: A
[Reviewed by George Easter]
Set during the Arab Spring era with protests against the monarchy, America’s presence in Bahrain is tenuous and there are suspicions that Iran is funding or arming the dissidents. Junaid, a poet, has been imprisoned and tortured on the grounds that he secretly leads the rebellion. CIA spook Shane Collins has a cover as a low-level diplomat and his informant, Rashid may or may not be a double agent. The young, upcoming station chief, Whitney Mitchell, is a thorn in Collins’ side. Collins is having a desultory affair with the wife of a colleague. But that quickly ends when Collins falls under the spell of Almaisa, a local artist. Then quite quickly the complications in his life begin to spin out of control.
The structure of THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW is different from a lot of the thriller fiction that we like to read. It is not necessarily fast-paced until near the end of the novel and the reader is often wondering where the story line is going. The main character is not particularly likeable. The prose is beautifully rendered and the ending quite shocking. Many of the questions I had at the beginning of my reading were satisfactorily answered by the end. When I finished the book I knew I had read something special and that it was a story that would stay with me for quite some time. This is a book that requires some perseverance for the various strands of the story to coalesce. But the payoff is worth the wait. THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW should be in the running for Best First Novel consideration when awards time comes around.
BEIRUT STATION
by Paul Vidich
Pegasus Crime, $27.95, October
Lebanon, 2006. The Israel-Hezbollah war is tearing Beirut apart: bombs are raining down, residents are scrambling to evacuate, and the country is on the brink of chaos.
In the midst of this turmoil, the CIA and Mossad are targeting a reclusive Hezbollah terrorist, Najib Qassem. Najib is believed to be planning the assassination of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is coming to Beirut in ten days to broker a cease-fire. The spy agencies are running out of time to eliminate the threat.
They turn to a young Lebanese-American CIA agent. Analise comes up with the perfect plan: she has befriended Qassem’s grandson as his English tutor, and will use this friendship to locate the terrorist and take him out. As the plan is put into action, though, Analise begins to suspect that Mossad has a motive of its own: exploiting the war’s chaos to eliminate a generation of Lebanese political leaders.
She alerts the agency but their response is for her to drop it. Analise is now the target and there is no one she can trust: not the CIA, not Mossad, and not the Lebanese government. And the one person she might have to trust—a reporter for the New York Times—might not be who he says he is…
KENNEDY 35
by Charles Cumming
Mysterious Press, $27.95, November
Box 88 /Lachlan Kite #3
Rating: A-
[Review by George Easter]
For those yet to read a Box 88 thriller, some explanation is in order. Box 88 is an off-the-books, top secret organization formed by powerful interests in Britain and America to do intelligence work that the formal agencies like the CIA and MI6 could not be seen doing.
The story opens with Lachlan Kite, the head of Box 88, visiting his estranged wife and newborn daughter in Sweden – in hopes of mending his marriage relationship and spending time with his new baby. But his visit is interrupted by a message from an old school friend, Eric Appiah, who wants Kite to come to Senegal and meet with him on an urgent matter.
One of the problems with the Kite marriage is that he doesn’t share enough about his work with his wife and so he tries to correct that by telling her about his history with Eric Appiah, which takes him back to 1995. Kite and his then girlfriend Martha Raines go to Senegal to play a role in a plan to kidnap Augustin Bagaza, who was one of those responsible for the genocide that occurred in Rwanda. Through no fault of Kite, the mission goes horribly wrong.
Back in the present Kite arrives in Senegal and is informed by Appiah that there is an American investigative journalist who is about to publish the story of the botched operation in 1995. Is the reporter aware of Box 88 and is its existence threatened by the reporter’s story? These are questions that Kite must quickly find answers to.
Once back in the U.K., Kite comes up with a plan to thwart the threat posed by the reporter. But he quickly finds that there are now additional elements in play that further complicate his mission.
MOSCOW EXILE
by John Lawton
Atlantic Monthly Press, $28.00, April, 2003
In MOSCOW EXILE, John Lawton departs from his usual stomping grounds of England and Germany to jump across the Atlantic to Washington, D.C., in the fragile postwar period where the Red Scare is growing noisier every day.
Charlotte is a British expatriate who has recently settled in the nation’s capital with her second husband, a man who looks intriguingly like Clark Gable, but her enviable dinner parties and soirées aren’t the only things she is planning. Meanwhile, Charlie Leigh-Hunt has been posted to Washington as a replacement for Guy Burgess, last seen disappearing around the corner and into the Soviet Union. Charlie is soon shocked to cross paths with Charlotte, an old flame of his, who, thanks to all her gossipy parties, has a packed pocketbook full of secrets she is eager to share.
Two decades or so later, in 1969, Joe Wilderness is stuck on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, held captive by the KGB, a chip in a game way above his pay grade—but his old friends Frank and Eddie are going to try to spring him out of the toughest prison in the world. All roads lead back to Berlin, and to the famous Bridge of Spies.
Jeff Popple’s Thoughts: MOSCOW EXILE is an intricately plotted spy novel, that gracefully winds its way through various machinations and surprises to an unexpected conclusion. Close attention to the story is required, and well rewarded, and fans of the series will benefit from prior knowledge about the various characters and their back stories. There is not a lot of action in the opening stages, but Lawton’s stylish prose and his ability to limn a compelling sense of place and time drags the reader happily along. Good intelligent spy fiction.
Honorable Mention
THE TRAITOR
by Ava Glass
Bantam, $16.99, September, 2023
Emma Makepeace #2
Rating: A-
[Reviewed by George Easter]
When an MI6 operative is found murdered in his apartment, Emma Makepeace and her boss Ripley are called in to figure out the intelligence ramifications, if any, to this murder. It doesn’t take them long to figure out that the dead spy had been investigating two Russian oligarchs suspected of selling illegal chemical weapons to rogue nation states. One of these oligarchs is currently traveling on his superyacht and Emma is tasked with going undercover as a yacht employee so as to discover the oligarch’s plans. Visiting places like the Côte d’Azur and Monaco is nice kind of work if it weren’t for the danger involved.
When the oligarch hires her, it is clear that he is very suspicious. He confiscates her cell phone thereby cutting off her means of communicating with her handler Ripley. And the oligarch’s henchman keeps a sharp eye on her. But Emma is nothing if not courageous and resourceful, so she perseveres.
As Emma’s work reveals secrets she’d be safer not knowing, the danger ratchets up. Is there a mole within MI6? If so, can Emma find out who it is before it is too late.
This is a story that should have universal appeal – a brave and intelligent protagonist pitted against seemingly insurmountable odds. What’s not to like?
MOSCOW X
by David McCloskey
Norton, $29.99, October, 2023
CIA officers Sia and Max enter Russia under commercial cover to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London law firm that conceals the wealth of the superrich. Max’s family business in Mexico – a CIA front since the 1960s – is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple to target Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife, Anna, who – unbeknownst to CIA – is a Russian intelligence officer under deep cover at the bank. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max’s only hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own. Careening between the horse ranch in northern Mexico, the corridors of Langley, and the dark opulence of Putin’s Russia, Moscow X is both a gripping thriller of modern espionage and a raw, unsparing commentary on the nature of truth, loyalty, and vengeance amid the shadow war between the United States and Russia.
THE COLLECTOR
by Daniel Silva
HarperCollins, $32.00, July
Gabriel Allon #23
Rating: A-
[Reviewed by George Easter]
Gabriel Allon has worn two hats for most of his adult life. One is that of an Israeli assassin/spy and the other as a gifted painter/art restorer. He has retired as head of Israeli intelligence and is now living a peaceful and rewarding life in Venice with his wife and two young children.
But a visit from General Cesare Ferrari, the commander of the Italian Art Squad, puts a temporary “pause” to all of that. Allon is gently blackmailed into finding the world’s most valuable stolen painting – The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, which was stolen in 1990 from the Gardner Museum.
While on this quest, his path crosses with that of a beautiful young Dutch woman named Ingrid Johansen, who just so happens to be a world-class thief. Ingrid is also an eco activist and gives away most of her ill-gotten gains to environmental causes she supports. Allon enlists Ingrid’s help and his intuitive trust in her skills and instincts proves prescient.
Allon discovers that the Vermeer painting has changed hands as part of a secret transaction involving the Russians to obtain an unfinished nuclear weapon built in South Africa many years ago. Apparently the Russians intend to use the nuclear weapon as part of a false flag operation to blame the Ukranians for setting it off. That will give Putin a “valid” excuse to respond with Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
So, suddenly Allon finds himself in the midst of a highly dangerous international crisis. To deal with it, he gathers his former team together to defuse the situation in classic Allon style.
I’ve always enjoyed a good art mystery and a good spy thriller so you can imagine that I was delighted with THE COLLECTOR. For me, the introduction of the fascinating character of Ingrid Johansen was the highlight of the novel. She is a natural scene-stealer and I expect her to re-appear in future Silva novels. There is a bit of Silva formula to the novel (a carefully orchestrated sting on a powerful and wealthy antagonist), but it didn’t detract from what is one of Daniel Silva’s best thrillers.
BLACK WOLF
by Kathleen Kent
Mulholland Books, $29.00, February
Rating: A-
[Reviewed by George Easter]
Melvina Donleavy has a special talent that only a handful of people know about. She is a “super recognizer” – she never forgets a face. So the CIA sends her on a mission to Bylorussia posing as a lowly secretary to a trade delegation. The delegation’s real objective is to see if Iran is trying to buy nuclear materials and Melvina (Mel) has memorized the faces of all known Iranian nuclear scientists and top officials.
The time is 1990 just as the Soviet Union is dissolving. One of its satellites, Bylorussia, is considering independence, but the KGB is still active and powerful there, especially the head of the KGB known as the “Black Wolf.”
A major subplot is the presence of a serial killer who is preying on the young women of Minsk.
Mel is trying to blend into the background but, unfortunately, she catches the eyes of the Black Wolf and also the serial killer. Danger abounds.
Even though there is lurking danger throughout BLACK WOLF, the pacing of the novel is quite slow until the very end. So I would not categorize this as more of a spy novel than a thriller. Nevertheless, it is an excellent spy novel. The characters are fully fleshed out and the plot is highly engaging. I suspect that this is not the last that we will see of Melvina Donleavy and that’s a good thing.
THE SPY COAST
by Tess Gerritsen
Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, November, 2023
Maggie Bird #1
Rating: B+
[Reviewed by George Easter]
Veteran mystery writer Tess Gerritsen is trying something new – a spy thriller.
A handful of former CIA spies have chosen the seaside village of Purity, Maine to find peace in retirement. This includes Maggie Bird who lives on her chicken farm and has little contact with the locals, except for her former colleagues and the girl who lives next door.
One day Maggie comes home and finds an intruder named Bianca in her kitchen. Bianca proceeds to tell Maggie that a former colleague, Diana Ward, has disappeared and that CIA files regarding a mission called Operation Cyrano have been hacked. Maggie’s help in finding Diana Ward is solicited and quickly refused.
That night Bianca’s body is dumped on Maggie’s driveway while Maggie is away meeting with her former CIA colleagues.
Purity Police Chief Jo Thibodeau checks out Maggie’s alibi but digs into her background because she senses something is “off” with her. Chief Thibodeau is also puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information.
It isn’t long before someone tries to shoot Maggie with a rifle from long distance. The attempt is unsuccessful, but it does bring the other four former agents into fray. And it isn’t too long before they are way ahead of Chief Thibodeau’s investigation.
The reader is privy to frequent flashbacks to the young Maggie Bird and those flashbacks culminate in a description of what happened to everyone involved in Operation Cyrano.
A pleasant read that I’m told will be followed by a sequel. I understand that Tess Gerritsen got the idea for this novel when she found out that there was an inordinate number of retired spies living in rural Maine, the state of her long-time residence.
THE HELSINKI AFFAIR
by Anna Pitoniak
Simon & Schuster, $27.99, November
Rating: A-
[Reviewed by George Easter]
Some might feel that being a CIA agent with a posting in Rome, Italy would be a cushy assignment, but not Amanda Cole. She feels like her talents are wasted here with mundane tasks. But one hot summer afternoon that all changes when in walks a low-level Russian bureaucrat. He has overheard plans for the imminent assassination of a U.S. Senator visiting Cairo. After an extensive interrogation, Amanda comes to believe what he says is true. But trying to convince her Rome Bureau chief proves futile and the information is not passed up the line. Sure enough, the Senator is assassinated and Amanda soon finds herself in the position of the new Rome Bureau chief with the assignment of “running” the Russian operative.
A parallel story line involves Amanda’s father Charlie, who is a burned out CIA agent with a secret past that he sorely regrets and wants to make amends for. Through flashbacks, we see what a disastrous posting in Helsinki turns out to be for Charlie – both personally and professionally.
Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA agent, following in the footsteps of her father, Charlie. But Amanda’s posting in Rome is a sleepy one. She’s listless and looking for action when, on a hot summer day, it walks right through the door of her office. A lowly Russian operative is desperate, begging to speak to her. He tells her that a US Senator is about to be assassinated on an overseas trip to Cairo. Amanda believes he’s telling the truth, but her superiors do not, and they determine that the best course of action is no action at all.
The two plot lines eventually merge at an exciting climax to THE HELSINKI AFFAIR. Anna Pitoniak is an intelligent and talented writer and one I’m sure we’ll see a lot of in the years to come.
THE YEAR OF THE LOCUST
by Terry Hayes
Bantam, £22.00, November, 2023; in U.S., Atria/Emily Bester, $32.00, February, 2024
If, like Kane, you’re a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA, then boundaries have no meaning. Your function is to go in, do whatever is required, and get out again—by whatever means necessary. You know when to run, when to hide—and when to shoot.
But some places don’t play by the rules. Some places are too dangerous, even for a man of Kane’s experience. The badlands where the borders of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan meet are such a place—a place where violence is the only way to survive.
Kane travels there to exfiltrate a man with vital information for the safety of the West—but instead he meets an adversary who will take the world to the brink of extinction. A frightening, clever, vicious man with blood on his hands and vengeance in his heart.
SECOND SHOT
by Cindy Dees
Kensington, $27.00, May
Helen Warwick #1
Rating: A-
[Reviewed by George Easter]
Helen Warwick is a 55-year-old mother of three adult children who has recently been forcibly retired as a CIA assassin. Absent from her children’s lives for much of her career, she is now trying to mend relationships, but that is proving somewhat difficult to do.
One night, as she is pet-sitting her son Peter’s new puppy at his house, she comes under attack from armed men and barely escapes with her life. Who were these men and why was the house targeted? Were they after Peter or his boyfriend Liang who works for the NSA? Or has Helen’s past come back to bite her?
Helen begins to investigate but is hampered by the limitations of her age and her lack of recent physical training. Acton heroines aren’t generally 55 years old. But she’s still a dead-eye markswoman and fortunately the enemies she comes up against seriously underestimate what she can still do.
SECOND SHOT is full of exciting and dangerous twists and turns. For me it was such a fun read! Cindy Dees has a clear and pleasing writing style. This gets my vote for most entertaining thriller of the year. If you liked Deanna Raybourn’s KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE, you’ll love this one.
CHAMELEON
by Remi Adeleke
Morrow, $30.00, July, 2023
Kali Kent #1
Rating: A-
[Reviewed by George Easter]
Have you ever heard of Black Box? No, neither had I, nor has anyone outside of a few governmental insiders. It is a secret CIA special operations branch, comprised of highly skilled agents who perform in a number of specialized ways. There are the chameleons who are artists at disguise and can act in many different roles. Then there are the ghosts who are skilled in surveillance and deception. Wind operatives are the transportation experts and aberration agents are sent into deep cover – sometimes for years at a time.
When former South African commando Lucas Van Groot begins kidnapping wealthy hostages all over the world, Black Box is asked to step in. It appears that Van Groot is not only interested in the ransom money, but in influencing worldwide stock markets.
Heading up the hunt for Van Groot is Kali Kent, a Nigerian-born Chameleon who seems to possess every skill necessary to perform such a job. He is surrounded by equally impressive colleagues.
This debut thriller is written with the aplomb of a veteran writer. The former Navy SEAL is especially good with his action scenes. A welcome addition for fans of Jack Carr, Mark Greaney and Nick Petrie.
RED LONDON
by Alma Katsu
Putnam, $28.00, March, 2023
After her role in taking down a well-placed mole inside the CIA, Agent Lyndsey Duncan arrives in London fully focused on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. That is until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, personally calls for her help.
Following a suspicious attack on Russian oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg’s property in a tony part of London, Davis needs Lyndsey to cozy up to the billionaire’s aristocratic British wife, Emily Rotenberg. Fortunately for Lyndsey, there’s little to dissuade Emily from taking in a much-needed confidante. Even being one of the richest women in the world is no guarantee of happiness. But before Lyndsey can cover much ground with her newfound friend, the CIA unveils a perturbing connection between Mikhail and Russia’s geoplitical past, one that could upend the world order and jeopardize Lyndsey’s longtime allegiance to the Agency.
THE MAN IN THE CORDUROY SUIT
by James Wolff
Bitter Lemon Press, $15.95, June, 2023
The story of an internal investigation into the past of a British spy suspected of having been turned by Russian agents. British intelligence is in a state of panic. Cracks are appearing, or so a run of disciplinary cases would suggest. To cap it all, Willa Karlsson, a retired secret services officer collapses, the victim of what looks like a Russian poisoning.
Leonard Flood is ordered to investigate – and quickly. Notorious for his sharp elbows and blunt manner, Leonard’s only objective is to get the job done, whatever the cost. When Leonard discovers that he is also a suspect in the investigation and that Willa’s story is less a story of betrayal than one of friendship and a deep sense of duty, he must decide whether to hand her to her masters or to help her to escape.
The third in the espionage trilogy The Discipline Files, after the acclaimed debut Beside the Syrian Sea, and its follow-on novel How to Betray Your Country.
Written by an insider: James Wolff was a British intelligence officer for over ten years before leaving to write spy fiction.
Against the backdrop of increasing Russian spying and interference (including assassination) in the UK, this novel explores themes of loyalty and betrayal in modern intelligence work, threatened from the inside by whistle-blowers, serial leakers and Robin Hood hackers. A taut thriller about the thin line between following your conscience and following orders. A fascinating conundrum we have been struggling with for decades. Edward Snowden, hero or traitor?
WHITE FOX
by Owen Matthews
Doubleday, $28.00, March, 2023
1963. In a desolate Russian penal colony, the radio blares the news of President Kennedy’s death. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin’s new post as director of a gulag camp in the middle of a frozen tundra is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced agents, like Vasin, are sent to disappear and die quietly. But when tensions in the camp mount and a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin finds himself on the run with a mysterious prisoner holding the most dangerous secret in the world: who ordered the murder of President Kennedy.
In a breathless chase that leads them throughout the Soviet Union, from the barren Siberian wastelands, to the stunning halls of the Catherine Palace, and into the gritty streets of Leningrad and Moscow, Vasin must stay one step ahead of the deadliest spy and police organizations in the world, and keep the most wanted man in Russia alive. The journey will push Vasin’s loyalty, morality, and patriotism to the limit, until he faces the ultimate choice: fall in line, or die fighting the system.
THE PARTISAN
by Patrick Worrall
Union Square, $17.99, April, 2023
Summer 1961: The brutal Cold War between East and West is becoming ever more perilous. Two young prodigies from either side of the Iron Curtain, Yulia and Michael, meet at a chess tournament in London. They don’t know it, but they’re about to compete in the deadliest game ever played. Shadowing them is Greta, a ruthless Lithuanian resistance fighter who is hunting down some of the most dangerous men in the world. Men who are also on the radar of Vassily, perhaps the USSR’s greatest spymaster. A man of cunning and influence, Vassily is Yulia’s minder during her visit to the West, but even he could not foresee the consequences of her meeting Michael. When the world is accelerating towards an inevitable and catastrophic conflict, what can just four people do to prevent it?
Jeff Popple’s Thoughts: The plot of THE PARTISAN is quite complex, and some patience is needed in the early stages, but Worrall steadily and skilfully knits his various strands into a compelling whole that comes together in a series of stunning finales in Spain, London and Sweden. The second half of the book is particularly suspenseful, as the twin storylines in 1961 and 1944 reach their violent conclusions and Worrall offers some unexpected final twists.
Overall, THE PARTISAN impresses with the breadth of its scope and its seemingly accurate depiction of the various historical events that it covers. There is also a great deal of poignancy and sadness in Worrall’s portrayal of the horrors of war and the brutality of the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. A very engaging read, with a good set of credible characters. An impressive debut.