Argylle

by Elly Conway, Verónica Canales Medina (Translator), Laura Rins Calahorra (Translator)

La novela de la protagonista de una de las películas más esperadas del añ ARGYLLE.

Un espectacular thriller de espías, acción y aventura.

Elly Conway, Bryce Dallas Howard en el filme, es la autora de la novela que inspira la película dirigida por Matthew Vaughn y con un elenco espectacular que reúne a Henry Cavill, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena y Dua Lupa.

Christopher Clay tuvo una infancia difícil. Nacido en Rusia y abandonado por sus padres, fue adoptado por una familia americana con la que se crio en los Estados Unidos. Pero nunca olvidó sus orígenes y regresó a su país convertido en Vasily Federov, un hombre de negocios inmensamente rico, decidido a recolocar a su país en el centro del poder mundial. Frente a él, Frances Coffey, legendaria agente de la CIA y su equipo de agentes especiales. Entre ellos, Aubrey Argylle, cuyo oscuro pasado familiar le capacita para una misión tan peligrosa como localizar, antes que los hombres de Federov, el escondite de un tesoro napoleónico, arrebatado por los nazis y trasladado en secreto a uno de los lugares más recónditos de Europa. Las cartas están echadas, que gane el mejor.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary, Book Club

472 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2024

About the author

She lives in the United States and is currently working on the next instalment in the series.



This is a pseudonym used by two authors:
Terry Hayes and Tammy Cohen, according to the website: TheBookseller.

Reviews

[Teo-(school hiatus)]

You know what the biggest plot twist would be?
To find this is written by Jake Gyllenhaal😭😭😭

Welcome to Clownelia Street 🤡

If this is Taylor then her day has 30 hours and you can't argue with me.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm calling it now, this is going to go down as the most OVER hyped book of 2024 for me. A debut spy thriller getting touted as the next James Bond franchise that ALREADY has a major motion picture slated to release right after the book is published. There are even rumors that Taylor Swift is the real author behind the pen name, Ellie Conway.

First of all, I find it REALLY had to believe Taylor Swift would write a book like this without a strong female protagonist. Full stop that is why I find these rumors likely the result of some PR person who deserves a raise for generating the most buzz for a debut I've seen in a long while.

As for the story itself it was okay. That's really all I can say about it. It wasn't my genre of choice, I honestly wasn't that invested in the characters or the plot. The ancient artifact thing was the only really interesting part to me but it will not be a book I remember by the end of the year and in my opinion is not one you will regret skipping.

Many thanks to @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review. I do plan to see the movie at some point (maybe this will be a case of the film being better than the book?). I am also interested to see if these Taylor Swift rumors actually turn out to be true.

[Emma Griffioen]

I saw a tiktok saying this is Taylor Swift writing under a pseudonym… not sure if it’s true but I will be reading this!

[Susan Tunis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I'm mildly amused by all the hokum surrounding this novel and the film adaptation. No, Taylor Swift did not write it. But, who did? May have to check in with my thriller writing pals, as clearly Elly Conway is no more authentic than Richard Castle, the fictional author portrayed by Nathan Fillion, despite a string of successful ghost-written novels under his name.

So, I did, in fact, read this book thinking it was the source material for the film with the cute trailer. But as I got deeper and deeper into the book, I was like, "Wait, where's the cat?" There is no cat, and no lady author. On the contrary, this is the espionage thriller the lady writer in the film trailer supposedly wrote.

Are you following along?

It's Agent Argylle's origin story. It's okay. Nothing to write home about, but not offensive either. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a hint of the humor the film trailer has. Nope, it's a fairly cliched thriller. There's no especially compelling reason to read it, unless spy thrillers are really your thing. And if that's the case, have at. Me, I could have skipped this, but I'm quite looking forward to the film.

ETA: Having now seen the film, I need to correct what I wrote above. This is NOT the novel that the lady writer in the film had written. In fact, the ONLY thing connecting this novel and the film are the name "Argylle," and a one-minute Easter egg after the film credits roll. WTF? In the end, I'm left feeling kind of abused by an ambitious and unscrupulous publicist. Did I need to read this mediocre novel? No. Did it have anything to do with the movie (or Taylor Swift, for that matter)? No.

FWIW, the film was entertaining, but required a mighty suspension of disbelief. Definitely a better return on investment than the novel.

[Erin]

I think this book is just an elaborate marketing device for the movie. Like the book and author are fictional characters in the movie and the book is being released in conjunction as a promotional tactic. Either way I’ll still be reading lol

[Liene · Rating 1 out of 5]

Elly Conway did not write this.
Taylor Swift, also, did not write this.
Honestly, it seems like no one wrote this.
This book is a prop and nothing more.

[Brooke -So.Brookeish- · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay, I had to sit with this one for a couple of days before I could truly formulate my thoughts!

I absolutely picked this one up because of the movie deal/author intrigue. DO I have a single theory as to who the author is? not one. Either way I wanted to give it a read before seeing the movie and when it became available on my PRH audio app I dove in!

Argylle in a nutshell is a political spy novel and a high stakes mission to recover an invaluable missing artifact, the 8th Wonder of the World, The Amber Room.

I won't lie, I had never heard of The Amber Room prior to this novel and I will be the first to admit that I enjoy a good spy novel now and then, but at the end of the day its not my go to genre. Regardless, not once did I feel lost. In fact more than once I found myself googling art, places, and old Russian lore.. to me that makes a great spy novel, that push the reader feels to do their own research and to learn what they can inside and outside of the book.

This book starts slow, but ends with a bang, to be honest I didn't feel that intense pull to be listening to the story, but I'm going to say that was due to the narration (more on that in a bit) than the actual book. The books pacing was engaging, the characters were all distinct, and their growth was well done. The mystery itself unfolded in a way that was steady and exciting. Some surprise elements I guessed, and some I didn't. I honestly thought to myself so many times, "okay, this is going to be such a fun movie!" all in all this was an easy 4 stars. At the time of this review the average rating is 3.88 and that feels spot on with a round up to 4 for that action packed ending that had me standing in my living room staring into space while I listened, completely enraptured!

For me the initial hestitation for writing this review was my conflicted thoughts. WAS this really a 4 star read? Why didn't I feel that pull to dive in after having set the story down? At times I almost dreading picking it up, but once I sunk into the story I was fine.. so weird.

ultimately I think for me this was a two part issue.
1. Its written in 3rd person POV. This isn't my personal preference for books and it takes a truly exceptional read for me to sink in and move past this. while this book is good, exceptional isn't a word id necessarily use for it.

2. The narration was lackluster at best. I listen to A LOT of audiobooks, hundreds every single year. It takes quite a bit for a narrator to drag a story down for me, but in this case the audiobook was my hinderance. I personally feel like a sensational story like this, written in third person POV, could have benefitted from a full cast audio, or at the very least two narrators, a male and female.

all in all if you love spy novels, mission impossible, Russian history, unlikely heroes, team dynamics, and a race against the clock for a prize of untold fortune, this book is for you.. just maybe go with the physical copy if you can!

thanks so much to PRH audio for this ALC, all opinions are my own!

[Rachel Webb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the best start to 2024. This was a complete slog and I almost DNF’D 10 times. This has to be a marketing ploy by the writer/director/production company to hype the movie, because I cannot believe there would be a bidding war over this “debut”.

[Lia Strange · Rating 2 out of 5]

mi mejor amiga taylor swift no escribió esto porque es super aburrido y ella jamás haría algo que me aburra

[emilybookedup]

this was a DNF for me at about 20-25% 🤷🏼‍♀️ i’ll watch the 🎬 adaptation but reading slow burn spy stories aren’t my vibe rn!

[Kerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not my thing at all, and the incorrect pronunciations (which may have partly been the result of a British narrator narrating in an American accent?) completely disrupted the flow. The movie trailer seems like the movie could be fun but don’t bother with the “source” book.

[luqman (INACTIVE)]

apparently this is taylor swift so.. yeah

[Evgen Novakovskyi]

безхитрісний шпигунський трилер, приправлений біготнею за скарбами та парочкою хистко спланованих пограбувань. мені аж не віриться, що це текст 2024 року — настільки він прямолінійний та наївний. головний рушій сюжету — пошук бурштинової кімнати — взагалі якийсь крінж, навіть коментувати не хочеться. це буквально книга, яку могла б написати нейронка, натренована на пейпербеках треваньяна та дена брауна: одновимірний калейдоскоп маячні, де за динамічним сюжетом не криється нічого. дивитись на таке було б весело, бо в файному екшенові зазвичай є хореографія бойових сцен, артистично поставлений кадр, світло, трюки, спецефекти та хімія між акторами, саме за це ми й цінуємо пригоди ітана ганта або джона віка. а от навіщо створювати роман, в якому екшон виписується з ретельністю кіносценарію — яхз.

найцікавіше в цій книзі — маркетинг. я пишу цей текст 5 січня 2024 року, і станом на сьогодні невідомо, хто справжній автор роману. в мережі несуться спекуляції, ніби його написала чи то роулінг, чи то, чомусь, тейлор свіфт, але вже за місяць виходить типу екранізація, і головна героїня фільму — авторка еллі конвей, що пише книжки про шпигуна аргайла. тобто, типу вигад��на письменниця з фільму написала саме цю книжку, про яку ви зараз читаєте. я не знаю скільки мета рівнів чигає на нас далі — перезапуск арчера з аргайлом в якості головного героя, кросовер з усіма одразу шпигунськими серіалами на амазоні, чи тупа коллаба з фортнайтом — промо кампанія книги/фільму вже варта якогось канського лева, аплодую цьому маркетинговому уроборосу стоячи. але оскільки ми тут в першу чергу заради тексту, то скажу ще раз: безпосередньо роман — казковий буллщіт, повний шаблонів і штампів. в мережі є купа натяків, ніби так і було задумано. ну, якщо це правда — то у творців все вийшло. браво, мабуть.

[Anna Doodko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Поставила 5 зірочок, бо це добротний пригодницький роман. Погоні, перестрілки, брава команда ЦРУшників. Мінус, це, авжеж, русня. Але вони там антигерої і приємно читати, коли вони отримують під зад.
Книга написана точно не новачком. Все гарненько, красиво, динамічно.
Це не мій жанр, бо читати 10 сторінок те, що відбувається в житті героїв 10 хв таке собі задоволення.
Це динамічна пригода, яка набагато кращий вигляд буде мати не екрані.
Цікаво чи екранізують криваві подробиці?
А так, очікуємо щось між Джеймсом Бондом та Янголами Чарлі.
Цікаво, хто зіграє Аргайла?
Він загалом Марті Сью, авжеж, але терпимо.

[kezzie ʚ♡ɞ]

the real question isn’t whether taylor swift wrote this book but whether meredith is the cat in the movie….

[mrsboomreads]

DNF at 40%.
Reading this puts any inkling of a rumor to rest. There’s no way the lyrical genius who crafted All Too Well could have penned this plotless novel. Nice PR stunt, I guess.

[twenty one readers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Convinced AI wrote this

[Acacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this book in the weirdest way. It isn't due for release until January 4th, yet I found a copy in a Waterstones in Central London on the 17th December. A lone copy on a trolley next to a shelf.

I am aware of the speculations surrounding the book, I don't think Taylor Swift is Elly Conway (as Elly is fictional and not a real person). There IS a lot of Taylor Swift coded clues or "Easter eggs" which are hard to ignore, I would be more inclined to believe that Taylor Swift may be cast as the last character introduced in the book (will leave the name out so you can all see for yourselves the link).

For the book itself, I loved it! Each chapter had me hanging by a thread, including the ending, teasing clearly another book and film in the series.
The plot, I guess, is very stereotypical, i.e., spy, Russian bad guys, missing treasure, though not having read too much of this genre I found it interesting.
The pace was slightly off for me, beginning half I found it was slow, and the latter half crammed in a lot!

Crazy excited for the film and how the book fits into the blurring of reality and fiction.

[katie ♡]

i saw the theory that this is taylor swift and i've never been more confused

[słomka · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7/5 Bardzo lubię książki o tematyce szpiegowskiej i polski wątek tym bardziej przyciągał mnie do tej pozycji.
Oczywiście gdy dowiedziałam się, że jedynym z autorów jest cudowny TERRY HAYES (CZYTAJCIE PIELGRZYMA!) od razu dorwałam swój egzemplarz.
Nie jest ona tak niesamowita jak Pielgrzym - jest jednak dobra. Czuć w niej styl Hayesa - nawet początek przypomina Pielgrzyma.
Wielowątkowa, ciekawa i psychologiczna wciąga czytelnika, ale niestety nie od pierwszych stron. I to jest jej największy minus, bo rozkręca się po około 100 stronach.

[Volpe Nera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Найгірша книга року. І байдуже, що лише середина січня.

[Rita da Nova]

“Depois disso, é aquilo que se pode esperar de um livro sobre espiões: tudo a acontecer, russos contra americanos, nazis enfiados lá no meio, explosões, tiros, mentiras, idas a festas para roubar coisas, etc. Não posso dizer que não seja divertido (e muito fora daquilo que costumo ler), mas sei que não me vou lembrar de nada do que acontece daqui por uns tempos. De qualquer das formas, gostei muito da forma como os Elly Conway conseguiram construir as dinâmicas entre todas as personagens que compõem esta equipa.”

Review completa em: https://ritadanova.blogs.sapo.pt/argy....

[Zoë · Rating 1 out of 5]

if i DNFed books, i would have

[Priscilla BookaddictNL · Rating 4 out of 5]

In ‘Argylle’ maken we kennis met Aubrey Argylle. Op het eerste oog nogal een flierefluiter die geen idee heeft wat hij wil met zijn leven. Zeker niet na het overlijden van zijn ouders, waarvan hij na hun dood pas ontdekte wat zij werkelijk voor de kost deden.

Door een briljante actie van zijn kant om enkele mensen te redden die het ooit op zijn ouders hadden voorzien, komt hij onder de aandacht van Frances Coffey. Een hooggeplaatste spion binnen de CIA.

Ze biedt hem een baan aan die hij vanwege zijn eigen veiligheid eigenlijk niet kan weigeren.

Dit is de start van een bizar avontuur vol actie. Een missie met een team dat moeite heeft hem te vertrouwen, maar ook een missie om de wereld te redden van een verschrikkelijk monster dat duistere plannen heeft.

’Argylle’ begint met een proloog dat direct een sinistere ondertoon aan het verhaal geeft. Dit proloog laat direct een opbouw aan spanning zien. De dreiging is voelbaar.

Elly Conway weet met dit proloog meteen de aandacht van de lezer te trekken.

Haar schrijfstijl is meeslepend en gedetailleerd. Echter had ik persoonlijk even de tijd nodig om gewend te raken aan haar schrijfstijl. Doordat het hier en daar behoorlijk gedetailleerd is, zijn er namelijk lange zinnen aanwezig. En doorspekt met vakjargon, was dat soms even wennen.

Het was voor mij echter wel meteen duidelijk dat dit geen debuut kan zijn. Er moet iemand achter dit verhaal schuilen die zeker eerder al iets heeft geschreven en ook nog eens bekend is met het genre.

Uit het verhaal komt namelijk duidelijk naar voren dat er zorgvuldig onderzoek is gedaan naar overheidsinstanties en gebeurtenissen in de geschiedenis.

Naast het verhaal van Argylle, vinden we in dit boek ook hoofdstukken die geschreven zijn vanuit Frances Coffey en de Russische oligarch. De perspectieven samen geven een compleet beeld en maken deze spionage thriller tot een ware pageturner.

De personages zijn ontzettend fascinerend en tot in de puntjes uitgewerkt.

Van zowel de personages die aan het woord komen, als bij- personages krijg we voldoende verdieping ter ondersteuning van dit verhaal.

Daarnaast maakt dit ook het team rondom Argylle ontzettend interessant. De personages hebben duidelijk een eigen uniek karakter en dit zorgt ervoor dat de dialogen bijdragen aan de spanning.

De enige kanttekening die ik echter heb, is dat het Argylle wel allemaal iets te makkelijk afgaat in mijn ogen. Al kan ik dat Elly Conway wel vergeven.

Spionage thrillers bevatten vaak een hoop actie en deze actie is absoluut aanwezig in ‘Argylle’.

Daar we voornamelijk met het team op missie zijn, belandden we van de ene actie in de andere en door de filmische beschrijvingen komt dit verhaal, met bijbehorende locaties, absoluut tot leven.

Deze thriller las weg als ‘Mission impossible’ en ‘Indiana Jones’. Een verhaal vol actie en avontuur.

Gaandeweg vinden we een toffe link naar de geschiedenis. Een link met WOII en de geruchten die nog steeds bestaan over een trein van de nazi’s die ooit zou zijn ingezet bij de roof van bijzondere kunstvoorwerpen.

De combinatie van actie en avontuur met deze geschiedenis deed mijn hart sneller kloppen!

Elly Conway werkt in ‘Argylle’ toe naar een zeer goed uitgedacht en verrassend plot. En dat niet alleen. Dit plot kende ook nog eens meerdere wendingen.

Als lezer viel ik van de ene verbazingwekkende plottwist in de andere en dat zag ik even niet aankomen.

Naar mijn mening was dit absoluut briljant gedaan. Zeker wanneer je tijdens het lezen beseft dat er meerdere levens op het spel staan.

Ook het einde van dit boek vond ik absoluut goed uitgewerkt en het laat zeker de nodige lijntjes open voor een eventueel vervolg.

Een vervolg waarvan ik hoop dat deze er gaat komen, want ik ben eigenlijk nog helemaal niet klaar met Aubrey Argylle!


Conclusie
Wat mij betreft is ‘Argylle’ een meesterwerk van een spionage thriller. En met de mystiek die om Elly Conway heen hangt, ben ik echt ontzettend benieuwd wie hier achter zit.

En of Elly Conway wel of niet eerder spionage thrillers heeft geschreven, is ‘Argylle’ wat mij betreft ook een spionage thriller die instap klaar is voor de lezers die kennis willen maken met dit genre.

Zowel de personages als het verhaal zijn goed uitgewerkt, en zijn beide absoluut fascinerend.

Ook aan ontwikkeling en verdieping is gedacht en samen met de continue aanwezigheid van spanning en het onverwachte, is het moeilijk dit boek weg te leggen.

De meerdere plottwist’s waren fantastisch en lieten mij balen dat het boek al zo snel weer uit was.

’Argylle’ is wat mij betreft echt een dikke aanrader en ik ga duimen draaien voor een vervolg!

[Bo Verhoef · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When faced with a choice, choose the option you fear most"

If you love movies like James Bond, Die Hard, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones and other actionpacked movies, than Argylle is definitely a book for you. It's full of thrilling events, heists, races and scenes like that. Don't expect a lot of romance or fantastic character development, because 80% of the book is only action. The writing style is really easy and I finished this book so quickly.

I wasn't blown away by it, but I kept on reading and it was intriguing enough for me. Because the pacing is really high and so much is happening, you will want to read another chapter, and another, and another. Before you know it, the book is finished and you are not really comprehending what just happened.

Later I read this book is one of many and it will be part of a complete spy metaverse. I'm really curious to see how that checks out, because I'm not complete sure if that will work.

The upcoming is about book 4 (which is not written yet), so that definitely says something about hte metaverse we will learn about more later. We shall see.

[Meredith Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

can not believe I fell for the hype of taylor swift potentially writing this book. she did not.

there is only a hint of character development and barely a plot. also, why did this kinda feel like vladimir putin fanfic??

[Wybredna Maruda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nie podejrzewałam, że tak mi się spodoba, bo polityczne intrygi to mnie mniej niż bardziej interesują, ale kurcze, trzymało w napięciu jak porządny film sensacyjny!

o całej dramie związanej z tą książką: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mFg9...

[gooba ｡.:*☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

okay first of all let’s get clear that all those puny little cunts only talking about taylor swift for this book infuriate me to no end JUST SHUT UP SHUT UP ITS ALKT AYLOR SWIFT IT SOESNT EVEN MATTER AND WHY WOULD THAG EVEN BE TRUE OR RELEVEANR IN ANY SCENARIO????!!!!!! it’s a book can you literally read and enjoy it for the writing and story and stop yapping for just one SECOND?

lol anyway i really enjoyed this book it had me on my tippy toes so often and that pure action is what i’ve been missing in my books lately. it makes them so much easier to read and there’s a bonus of me actually enjoying the characters.

argylle himself sounds soloklooo cool mysterious handsome if you will like i want him but that’s besides the point he’s super talented and that makes me drawn to him AS A MAIN CHARACTER love it when they’re special (so did not appreciate when frances coffey mentioned her search to find more aubrey argylles like girl there’s only one settle down)

speaking of coffey i envisioned her with long thick curly natasha lyonne style red hair this entire book even tho i’m pretty sure it’s a clean cut brown bob but whatever let me live?

JUST WANNA SAY I PREDICTED IT WAS GONNA BE ERIN QUINN I CALLLEDD ITTTTT I KNOW EVERYTHING i felt so accomplished no amount of good grades could give me that one moment of satisfaction audibly said WOOHOO out loud alone in my room

when the entire CIA team was introduced i knew i was going to have trouble remembering names and who they were but seriously mentioning them once and then once again at the end of the book during the amber room tunnel mission?? like i’m sorry we have a bald engineer and a guy named ryan? who ARE THESE PEOPLE?!!!???

i just hope the movie will be fun to watch and compare everything i’ve just read to
especially the characters i have avoided every single trailer pop up possible because i want to be surprised with what they look like

anyway book okay or whatever

[Nick Pageant · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Le Carré, but I don’t think it was meant to be. This was good fun with little effort required.

[Maria João Faria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vou começar por dizer que este livro claramente não foi escrito pela Taylor Swift e estou triste por isso.

Enquanto alguém que cresceu a ver vídeos do género 007 achei que ia adorar um livro de espionagem. Aparentemente estava enganada.
Achei que o livro tinha demasiados detalhes desnecessários e demorei a perceber o que é que se estava a passar
Estávamos na página 170 e ainda estava a ser introduzida a novas personagens….

Também demorei a perceber a ligação entre os dois pontos de vista, mas assim que percebi foi completamente previsível.

Não foi um mau livro, de todo. Apenas estava à espera de mais.

Se já costumas ler livros de espionagem e gostas de política russa, talvez este livro seja para ti