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The Moscow Club
Beyond the headlines of tomorrow...In a Soviet capital brought to its knees by a wave of terrorist bombings and assassinations, a secret group - outraged by the new liberalism - plots a violent overthrow of the government...From the innermost circles of American Intelligence, across the treacherous emigre enclaves of Europe, and into the cloistered halls of the Kremlin, "The Moscow Club" is a devastating fictional account of the hidden power struggles which could change the world order forever..."Well researched and gripping...worthy of Frederick Forsyth at his best." - "Sunday Express". "One of the best plotted, best written and most believable novels yet written about political conspiracy." - Nelson de Mille.
Paperback
First published February 1, 1991
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About the author
Joseph Finder
70 books2,668 followersJoseph Finder is the author of the forthcoming novel JUDGMENT and fourteen other novels, many of them New York Times bestsellers, published in 35 countries around the world. His book HIGH CRIMES was adapted into a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd; PARANOIA was made into the Harrison Ford/Gary Oldman film.
He was born in Chicago, lived in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Washington State, and upstate New York. His novels have won numerous awards, including the Strand Critics award, the Barry Award, and the International Thriller Writers’ Thriller Award for best novel. His first novel, THE MOSCOW CLUB, was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the 10 best spy novels of all time.
He lives with his wife in Boston and Cape Cod, where he roots for the Red Sox and mourns his Golden Retriever rescue dog, Mia. He’s currently trying to convince his wife to get another dog.
He was born in Chicago, lived in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Washington State, and upstate New York. His novels have won numerous awards, including the Strand Critics award, the Barry Award, and the International Thriller Writers’ Thriller Award for best novel. His first novel, THE MOSCOW CLUB, was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the 10 best spy novels of all time.
He lives with his wife in Boston and Cape Cod, where he roots for the Red Sox and mourns his Golden Retriever rescue dog, Mia. He’s currently trying to convince his wife to get another dog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
March 13, 2013
I had high hopes for The Moscow Club. An espionage novel written by an ex-intelligence professional, set during a fascinating point in recent history (1991, the twilight of the Soviet Union)…I was looking forward to a intelligent, reality-based thriller, maybe with some intelligence-community inside baseball thrown in for good measure.
Oh, well.
The premise isn’t bad: an intelligence analyst stumbles across what appears to be a developing plot by Kremlin insiders to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev in a coup. If you’re of a certain age, you may remember that such a thing actually happened briefly in the last days of the USSR. Had Finder just gone with the general reality of the period and populated his novel with characters drawn from the basket of vipers who actually made up the Politburo and the rest of the Soviet top leadership at the time, and had given us a flavor of the rising chaos and disintegration within the USSR, he’d have had enough material for several high-wire thrillers.
Instead, he falls back on a creaky old trope: the Global Cabal of Powerful Men who are omniscient and omnipotent (stop me if you’ve heard this story before), can kill anyone with total impunity, can suborn resources from their respective governments without any repercussions, and have somehow despite the breadth and scope of their organization managed to keep a web of secrets for forty-plus years.
Yes, it’s SPECTRE (or KAOS) all over again.
Our Hero, of course, manages to continually escape the Cabal’s clutches, even though it kills everyone he looks at twice (not a spoiler; you’ve read this story before) and essentially turns the entire Western world against him. There’s also the requisite beautiful-estranged-wife-he-still-loves, long-buried family secrets, a secret CIA splinter group, and a second Cabal of Powerful Men that shows up late in the story to help move the plot around some more. No Rosa Klebb or giant henchman with metal teeth in this one, but that’s about the only furniture missing from this well-used set.
Don’t get me wrong – the book is competently written (Finder’s constant head-hopping probably bugs me more as a writer than as a reader), the cast members hit their marks consistently, the settings are well-rendered, the sex scenes aren’t egregious, and the action is well-staged. It’ll make a fine action movie sometime. If you come into this with the right expectations and are just looking for a way to pass that transcontinental flight, you’ll be fine.
Perhaps the cardinal sin here is that despite the silliness, The Moscow Club takes itself very seriously. Brett Battles’ Sick uses nearly all these same tropes but has the sense to have its hero wink at the stock goings-on. Here, after Our Hero’s fifth or sixth hair’s-breadth escape in the first half of the book, I stopped believing in most of what was happening on the page.
I’ll admit it: based on its pedigree, I came to The Moscow Club expecting LeCarre or McCarry and instead got a standard global-conspiracy thriller. As such, it’s my fault I was disappointed. It could have been so much more.
If it’s a global-conspiracy thriller you seek, The Moscow Club is one of the smarter ones around. It’ll give you a few hours of thrills and spills. Don’t expect to be surprised by much of what happens, though, and don’t expect to learn much about real espionage.
Oh, well.
The premise isn’t bad: an intelligence analyst stumbles across what appears to be a developing plot by Kremlin insiders to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev in a coup. If you’re of a certain age, you may remember that such a thing actually happened briefly in the last days of the USSR. Had Finder just gone with the general reality of the period and populated his novel with characters drawn from the basket of vipers who actually made up the Politburo and the rest of the Soviet top leadership at the time, and had given us a flavor of the rising chaos and disintegration within the USSR, he’d have had enough material for several high-wire thrillers.
Instead, he falls back on a creaky old trope: the Global Cabal of Powerful Men who are omniscient and omnipotent (stop me if you’ve heard this story before), can kill anyone with total impunity, can suborn resources from their respective governments without any repercussions, and have somehow despite the breadth and scope of their organization managed to keep a web of secrets for forty-plus years.
Yes, it’s SPECTRE (or KAOS) all over again.
Our Hero, of course, manages to continually escape the Cabal’s clutches, even though it kills everyone he looks at twice (not a spoiler; you’ve read this story before) and essentially turns the entire Western world against him. There’s also the requisite beautiful-estranged-wife-he-still-loves, long-buried family secrets, a secret CIA splinter group, and a second Cabal of Powerful Men that shows up late in the story to help move the plot around some more. No Rosa Klebb or giant henchman with metal teeth in this one, but that’s about the only furniture missing from this well-used set.
Don’t get me wrong – the book is competently written (Finder’s constant head-hopping probably bugs me more as a writer than as a reader), the cast members hit their marks consistently, the settings are well-rendered, the sex scenes aren’t egregious, and the action is well-staged. It’ll make a fine action movie sometime. If you come into this with the right expectations and are just looking for a way to pass that transcontinental flight, you’ll be fine.
Perhaps the cardinal sin here is that despite the silliness, The Moscow Club takes itself very seriously. Brett Battles’ Sick uses nearly all these same tropes but has the sense to have its hero wink at the stock goings-on. Here, after Our Hero’s fifth or sixth hair’s-breadth escape in the first half of the book, I stopped believing in most of what was happening on the page.
I’ll admit it: based on its pedigree, I came to The Moscow Club expecting LeCarre or McCarry and instead got a standard global-conspiracy thriller. As such, it’s my fault I was disappointed. It could have been so much more.
If it’s a global-conspiracy thriller you seek, The Moscow Club is one of the smarter ones around. It’ll give you a few hours of thrills and spills. Don’t expect to be surprised by much of what happens, though, and don’t expect to learn much about real espionage.
September 30, 2024
Long but prophetic.
One of the original, and best, US-Russia thrillers, the award-winning debut by Joseph Finder, a master of thriller genre.
Action-packed.
Highly recommended.
One of the original, and best, US-Russia thrillers, the award-winning debut by Joseph Finder, a master of thriller genre.
Action-packed.
Highly recommended.
April 6, 2017
Looking for a spy thriller that might keep you up at night?
If you suspend disbelief, as science fiction writers ask you to do, you may enjoy this intricately plotted thriller from one of America’s best contemporary novelists of suspense. For starters, you’ll need to imagine a brilliant young CIA analyst with a near-eidetic memory who is also, though untrained, accomplished in hand-to-hand combat, picking locks, and repairing cars. Oh, and he’s devilishly handsome to boot and is married to a rising young network TV reporter who is, of course, drop-dead gorgeous. And though both are Americans, they speak fluent Russian (admittedly, hers is a little better than his).
But wait, there’s more. First, there’s a super-secret arm of the CIA that operates out of a townhouse in Manhattan (like the one where Robert Redford worked in the film “Three Days of the Condor,” which had been released more than a decade previously) — plus a super-secret cabal within the most senior reaches of the US government that will go to any lengths to preserve the secrecy of a nefarious espionage plot they’d hatched in 1950. Second, within the Soviet Union — the book is set in 1989 and was published in 1991 — there are two (count ‘em: two) super-secret organizations within the most senior level of the Soviet government, both of them involving the KGB but working at cross-purposes.
If you can live with all that, you’ll love The Moscow Club. Abundant absurdities aside, I did. The suspense is nerve-wracking.
Joseph Finder is one of my favorite thriller writers. The Moscow Club, published in 1991, was his first novel (and it shows). He’s written ten since then. Of those, I’ve read Vanished, which I found disappointing; Suspicion, Finder’s most recent — and, to my mind, best — thriller to date; plus Buried Secrets, High Crimes, and The Zero Hour, all of them excellent recent works.
If you suspend disbelief, as science fiction writers ask you to do, you may enjoy this intricately plotted thriller from one of America’s best contemporary novelists of suspense. For starters, you’ll need to imagine a brilliant young CIA analyst with a near-eidetic memory who is also, though untrained, accomplished in hand-to-hand combat, picking locks, and repairing cars. Oh, and he’s devilishly handsome to boot and is married to a rising young network TV reporter who is, of course, drop-dead gorgeous. And though both are Americans, they speak fluent Russian (admittedly, hers is a little better than his).
But wait, there’s more. First, there’s a super-secret arm of the CIA that operates out of a townhouse in Manhattan (like the one where Robert Redford worked in the film “Three Days of the Condor,” which had been released more than a decade previously) — plus a super-secret cabal within the most senior reaches of the US government that will go to any lengths to preserve the secrecy of a nefarious espionage plot they’d hatched in 1950. Second, within the Soviet Union — the book is set in 1989 and was published in 1991 — there are two (count ‘em: two) super-secret organizations within the most senior level of the Soviet government, both of them involving the KGB but working at cross-purposes.
If you can live with all that, you’ll love The Moscow Club. Abundant absurdities aside, I did. The suspense is nerve-wracking.
Joseph Finder is one of my favorite thriller writers. The Moscow Club, published in 1991, was his first novel (and it shows). He’s written ten since then. Of those, I’ve read Vanished, which I found disappointing; Suspicion, Finder’s most recent — and, to my mind, best — thriller to date; plus Buried Secrets, High Crimes, and The Zero Hour, all of them excellent recent works.
October 31, 2025
Libro de espías que transcurre en la época de la "perestroika", bien pensado pero mal resuelto. Es una mezcla de novela clásica de espías con retazos de "Misión imposible", y la mixtura no sale bien. Creo que aunque libro no tiene por qué ser creíble, al menos debe parecerlo, y aquí esta premisa falla estrepitosamente.
February 1, 2013
This book is a top-notch government / spy thriller. Moscow Club has all of the things I love about these books, grounded setting, characters fighting for their lives, and an outlook for the protagonist so bleak that there's no possible way he's going to make it through. I feel smarter having read it, knowing the amount of research that went into it.
My recommendation: if you're reading the re-released version of the book, don't read the introduction until after you've finished the book. While the intro isn't exactly a spoiler, the impact of Joseph Finder's prescience seems greater when you go back and get the historical details.
My recommendation: if you're reading the re-released version of the book, don't read the introduction until after you've finished the book. While the intro isn't exactly a spoiler, the impact of Joseph Finder's prescience seems greater when you go back and get the historical details.
September 27, 2020
Such an exceptional debut! Joseph Finder displays his knowledge and intelligence with a multi-layered plot, and even with multiple characters, the book is as easy to follow as it is to enjoy!
November 18, 2020
Another page turner from Joseph Finder! I probably would have gotten more out of it if I had been more familiar with Russian history. I did like the several plot twists and “trust no one” theme that permeated the book.
April 29, 2025
Too much going on. Not enough stuff tying it all together.
September 11, 2025
It was an entertaining read but it had just too many assumptions, easy solutions, and implausibilities. And the ending seemed almost as if he'd suddenly decided he needed to end the story with they way it fell into place. I considered 3 stars because the style is good and it flows well. But, so many things were just too convenient that I couldn't give it 3 stars.
February 3, 2015
A very interesting thriller, built on historical facts that we know about Stalin, Lenin, and the US president's visit to Moscow to meet with Gorbachev in 1981/2.
Obviously the political undercurrents are invented and make up the thriller, which is on the general lines of a 'Bourne Legacy' thriller. Our hero has to undergo many dangers and escapes and many political and quasi-political characters are devised for the story.
It really is a page turner; not the most complicated of plots but satisfyingly devious. It spans several states in the USA, thence Canada, France and Russia. The undercurrent, highly powerful, political characters are of course very powerful (they usually are) and of course willing to kill off whoever gets in their way.
Well worth a read, and recommended.
Right now on another of his books, 'High Crimes', quite different in subject and which also offers some great forebodings...
Obviously the political undercurrents are invented and make up the thriller, which is on the general lines of a 'Bourne Legacy' thriller. Our hero has to undergo many dangers and escapes and many political and quasi-political characters are devised for the story.
It really is a page turner; not the most complicated of plots but satisfyingly devious. It spans several states in the USA, thence Canada, France and Russia. The undercurrent, highly powerful, political characters are of course very powerful (they usually are) and of course willing to kill off whoever gets in their way.
Well worth a read, and recommended.
Right now on another of his books, 'High Crimes', quite different in subject and which also offers some great forebodings...
October 7, 2020
This is where the Finder legacy began! An Everyman accomplishes amazing things without the aid of modern technology to thwart and international plot to destroy the US and Russia simultaneously. Finder takes the reader on a taut journey all around the world, keeping us on the edge of our seat dropping delicious nuggets of information along the way, saving the biggest nugget until the very end! A breathless, exhausting and totally thrilling and satisfying read!
May 13, 2023
It wasn't exactly the typical espionage novel but was definitely intense enough to keep me engaged. The only problem was the plot involved too many people (which was confusing sometimes) and the book was long. Overall an enjoyable old-school political/spy thriller. Typical style and writing from the late 80s early 90s era. Learned something about recent history of Russia/U.S.S.R which was unexpected.
September 4, 2010
I am loving this book!!! I heard the author on the radio talking about another book he wrote. I found this one at my favorite used bookstore, and it is great! I can't begin to say how much I enjoy reading about a world with no cell phones, no internet, and marginal airport security! If you are under 40, I recommend it for that reason alone!
April 30, 2013
Great book. Exactly what you would expect from Mr. Finder.
June 24, 2019
I didn’t really enjoy this book. I liked some of the characters, but didn’t really connect with them. I actually lost interest halfway through and was happy when it was over.
July 17, 2019
My my my just wrap up all those loose ends already!! By the time the end was revealed I didn’t care!! Took too long & went around the long scenic route.
June 1, 2014
A superb spy novel. In the class of LeCarre and his ilk.
July 21, 2014
546 pages of government conspiracy between the CIA and KGB... Very interesting. Loved it!
January 15, 2021
A strong debut thriller by an author I recently became aware of who has a long reputation for quality writing. Proof once again that it's difficult to keep up on all the better writers in the world, even those in this author's chosen genre.
"The Moscow Club" is a post-Cold War thriller that takes place in the early '90s, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union began to disintegrate. The story is full of intrigue, spies, double agents, the real, hidden power behind the nominal leaders of both the US and the USSR.
Finder competently describes 1990s Moscow and the Soviet political structure along with the tension between the US and Soviets and the stakes at that time. The plot is quite intricate, but the pace never flags from full speed ahead.
The protagonists, Charlie and Charlotte Stone (didn't think it was a good idea for their names to be that similar) get involved with all this US-Russian spy business when Charlie learns that his father was set up by Charlie's godfather, Winthrop Latham, to take the fall for being a spy back in the Joe McCarthy era of the 1950s.
Charlie Stone ends up running for his life as he unravels the deception and someone tries to kill him on several occasions.
As sometimes happens in intricately plotted novels, the cast of characters gets long. And with half the characters being Russian, keeping track of names, ranks, and positions in government gets tricky and confusing.
If you enjoy classic Cold War spy novels, "The Moscow Club" works because of its timing--just after the fall of the Soviet Union, and because of its unique premise of a secret group (The Moscow Club) planning to overthrow the Soviet leaders and re-establish (in their minds) Russia as a world power
"The Moscow Club" is a post-Cold War thriller that takes place in the early '90s, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union began to disintegrate. The story is full of intrigue, spies, double agents, the real, hidden power behind the nominal leaders of both the US and the USSR.
Finder competently describes 1990s Moscow and the Soviet political structure along with the tension between the US and Soviets and the stakes at that time. The plot is quite intricate, but the pace never flags from full speed ahead.
The protagonists, Charlie and Charlotte Stone (didn't think it was a good idea for their names to be that similar) get involved with all this US-Russian spy business when Charlie learns that his father was set up by Charlie's godfather, Winthrop Latham, to take the fall for being a spy back in the Joe McCarthy era of the 1950s.
Charlie Stone ends up running for his life as he unravels the deception and someone tries to kill him on several occasions.
As sometimes happens in intricately plotted novels, the cast of characters gets long. And with half the characters being Russian, keeping track of names, ranks, and positions in government gets tricky and confusing.
If you enjoy classic Cold War spy novels, "The Moscow Club" works because of its timing--just after the fall of the Soviet Union, and because of its unique premise of a secret group (The Moscow Club) planning to overthrow the Soviet leaders and re-establish (in their minds) Russia as a world power
February 26, 2018
It’s odd sometimes how you end up reading a book. On a recent flight, my seatmate and I were both reading books, which of course led to a conversation. Turns out he was a long-time friend of Joseph Finder and was also a fan of his writing. That brought back memories of hearing Finder on a panel discussion at a Crime Bake conference I had attended – and how I found him both instructive and interesting. So, I searched my collection and lo and behold here was this book I had never read.
The introduction almost stopped me – I have zero interest in political history and was disinclined to read a book that was actually a harbinger of actual events to come. But I read on. And, a few pages into the first chapter, I was hooked. To me, that’s a great writer.
The story was fast-paced - Chapter 28 had me so immersed that when I finished it, I realized my heart was racing and I was breathing fast – as if I had been the one being chased.
At the same time there was enough historical detail to put the story in context – but not too much.
Overall, an enthralling read – and highly recommended.
The introduction almost stopped me – I have zero interest in political history and was disinclined to read a book that was actually a harbinger of actual events to come. But I read on. And, a few pages into the first chapter, I was hooked. To me, that’s a great writer.
The story was fast-paced - Chapter 28 had me so immersed that when I finished it, I realized my heart was racing and I was breathing fast – as if I had been the one being chased.
At the same time there was enough historical detail to put the story in context – but not too much.
Overall, an enthralling read – and highly recommended.
December 20, 2021
Billed by some as “the best spy novel of all time”, this novel is certainly packed with intrigue, action, and a curious puzzle. Mr. Finder’s other novels have also found good fans and several movie adaptations. This one could certainly make for an exciting movie. For my tastes, the action was really a bit TOO much, bordering on implausibility, as was the premise for the entire novel.
Other than in the twisted minds grasping for power in the book, most people and history would show that a single document or revelation of a political icon’s variance from expected normalcy is not really sufficient to cause global upheaval, much less all-out war. It does portray the concept of power run amuck and the fact that no one is “untouchable” if enough effort and resources are available. But that should be commonplace in today’s understanding of both politics and violence.
Overall, it was still quite entertaining and well written, but also too long for the amount of high-tension action portrayed in every chapter. A final “reveal” at the end fit well, but was really unnecessary except for the additional onion layer it could add to the character’s histories.
Other than in the twisted minds grasping for power in the book, most people and history would show that a single document or revelation of a political icon’s variance from expected normalcy is not really sufficient to cause global upheaval, much less all-out war. It does portray the concept of power run amuck and the fact that no one is “untouchable” if enough effort and resources are available. But that should be commonplace in today’s understanding of both politics and violence.
Overall, it was still quite entertaining and well written, but also too long for the amount of high-tension action portrayed in every chapter. A final “reveal” at the end fit well, but was really unnecessary except for the additional onion layer it could add to the character’s histories.
January 21, 2025
My Thoughts:
My Positives:
- The history lessons were interesting, I don't know how much of it was true but still intriguing.
- The love story of Charlie and Paula was great, I love the story of a spouse leaving, and the other spouse finds love with an old friend.
- Paula was my favorite character in the book. I loved her ride or die attitude.
- The spy aspects of this thriller were fun, not the biggest spy fan, but it felt very Mission Impossible.
My Negatives:
- I wasn't the biggest fan of Charlotte, and I didn't understand why Charlie wanted her back after she cheated on him.
- Paula should have been the end goal for Charlie.
- Hated Paula dying, my favorite character dies, and it was not needed, except to take away the only other option for Charlie besides Charlotte.
Final Thoughts:
This was one book I didn't know how I'd feel, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
My Current Joseph Finder Ranking.
1. (1991) The Moscow Club
My Positives:
- The history lessons were interesting, I don't know how much of it was true but still intriguing.
- The love story of Charlie and Paula was great, I love the story of a spouse leaving, and the other spouse finds love with an old friend.
- Paula was my favorite character in the book. I loved her ride or die attitude.
- The spy aspects of this thriller were fun, not the biggest spy fan, but it felt very Mission Impossible.
My Negatives:
- I wasn't the biggest fan of Charlotte, and I didn't understand why Charlie wanted her back after she cheated on him.
- Paula should have been the end goal for Charlie.
- Hated Paula dying, my favorite character dies, and it was not needed, except to take away the only other option for Charlie besides Charlotte.
Final Thoughts:
This was one book I didn't know how I'd feel, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
My Current Joseph Finder Ranking.
1. (1991) The Moscow Club
February 19, 2022
One of the first Finder books, and apparently written as fiction only to find that some of it was just about prescient.
Charlie Stone has led quite the life. Scholar of Russian history, works for the government, godfather is a famour figure, Dad was also something of a famous figure but for an apparently less than stellar reason, having done prison time.
His wife Charlotte - a star on her own, working as a TV news personality specializing in Russian news, living apart from Charlie.
Something's going on, bad guys, moles, ultra secret Russian groups, ultra secret US groups. Who's good, who's bad, who can Charlie trust? Is there an overthrow of the Russian government in the works? What's with all these bombings in Russia? What's the real storyb behind Charlie's dad's imprisonment?
Charlie Stone has led quite the life. Scholar of Russian history, works for the government, godfather is a famour figure, Dad was also something of a famous figure but for an apparently less than stellar reason, having done prison time.
His wife Charlotte - a star on her own, working as a TV news personality specializing in Russian news, living apart from Charlie.
Something's going on, bad guys, moles, ultra secret Russian groups, ultra secret US groups. Who's good, who's bad, who can Charlie trust? Is there an overthrow of the Russian government in the works? What's with all these bombings in Russia? What's the real storyb behind Charlie's dad's imprisonment?
March 19, 2019
A good spy novel, though this is not my favorite genre. Charles Stone works for the C.I.A., as did his father. His father was falsely accused of passing secrets to the Russians during the Cold War. Charles stumbles across a lead that might clear his father, and he begins to follow it. Meanwhile there's a group of Russians who want to overthrow Gorbachev and a group of Americans who want to help. So many secrets. Everyone thinks they know it all, but no one knows it all except Charles and rarely are things exactly what they seem to be.
Lots of chases, dead bodies pile up, and an assassination plot comes down to the wire.
Lots of chases, dead bodies pile up, and an assassination plot comes down to the wire.
February 20, 2025
I've been trying to find a copy I could borrow for a long time. Finally found through Interlibrary Loan service. While it was a fairly good read and worth the effort, it was a little too long (546 pages) and at times seemed to get me bogged down. It was also somewhat relevant to what is going on in our world today as it is noted in this book written 34 years ago that Ukraine was very important to the USSR and/or Russia and that Russia would never let me become a separate state/government. I would have probably given this book 3.5 stars if that was possible, but mainly for some unrelated side trips the writer took and the overall length of the book.
October 18, 2020
I saw this great book as kind of crossover between The day of the Condor and the Archangel. Day of the condor because of the willingness of the secret services when ever CIA or KGB to kill their own to be able to achieve " the greater purposes " and Archangel book because of all those huge amount of information about Lenin, Stalin and Lavrentij Berya. It was great suspense novel with ingenious plot. from the page of 250 true page turner.
In one day I red about 200 - 250 pages of this great spy versus spy book.
In one day I red about 200 - 250 pages of this great spy versus spy book.
November 30, 2020
2.5 stars
Cold war espionage conspiracy yarn where the 'hero' selfishly causes the death of friends and family. The protagonist, an analyst with no field training, suddenly becomes a master of tradecraft, able to evade an international manhunt. Too many 'it just happens to' coincidences at exactly when needed (learned to pick a lock, getting a gun through airport x-ray, etc.) keep a complex and intricate plot from being believable. Repeated recapitulations of the plight were off-putting. Near constant action and enough thrills to delight comic-book hero fans.
Cold war espionage conspiracy yarn where the 'hero' selfishly causes the death of friends and family. The protagonist, an analyst with no field training, suddenly becomes a master of tradecraft, able to evade an international manhunt. Too many 'it just happens to' coincidences at exactly when needed (learned to pick a lock, getting a gun through airport x-ray, etc.) keep a complex and intricate plot from being believable. Repeated recapitulations of the plight were off-putting. Near constant action and enough thrills to delight comic-book hero fans.
May 7, 2021
Listened to the audiobook of this and the narration was very good. The protagonist is a national security employee who has to unravel a deep conspiracy that spans both sides of the Cold War. The plot was interesting but strains suspension of disbelief, especially given the fact that the protagonist has about a million hairs-breadth escapes. I did like it as I have a weakness for Cold War espionage stories. I rate it as third tier behind the master Le Carre, and other very good writers like Deighton. Still an enjoyable read. I think this was the author's first outing so he may improve.
December 31, 2021
The initial thought that comes to my mind after finishing this book is that in books like these, one must keep a seperate book of own noting important events in order to get the full gist of every statement at the time of first reading. The story has many archs associated with it and the writer, although sometimes unsuccessfully, tries to keep the reader at the same pace. CIA, KGB, politics, revenge, etc are the central themes of the book. It certainly inspires interest while increasing your history and intelligence knowledge. It's riveting, beautifully and sometimes, a " Messterpiece"
December 7, 2025
Phew! I listened to this thriller! I struggled for a bunch of the first half trying to keep track of all the characters. By the end I was hooked! To contemplate all the intricacies of both sides of the spy world between Russia and the US is mind boggling. I am pretty sure my anxiety about the safety of our world has now been ramped up when we now have all the AI technology to overlay all this. It makes the war in Ukraine that much more unsettling too. Sigh. I admire all the men and women who sacrifice their lives for our world’s safety.
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