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The Poet's Game: A Spy in Moscow
'Vidich has firmly established himself in the very top flight of espionage writers, with a series of slow-burn character studies putting him in the line of le Carré'CrimeReads on Beirut Station
'Tense' and 'fast-moving'Kirkus on Beirut Station
'Confirms Vidich's status in the front rank of spy writers' Tim Shipman in The Sunday Times on Beirut Station
'We all have dreams and then we wake up.'
Alex Matthews thought he had left it all behind. His CIA career, the viper's den of bureaucracy at headquarters and the lies and stress of the cat and mouse game of double agents. But then the Director came asking for a favour.
Alex is a different man from when he had run Moscow station, where he recruited a network of 'poet spies' including the one he names BYRON. He has pieced his life back together after a tragic boating accident killed his wife and daughter but the scars remain. But Alex remains, in his mind, a patriot, and so he begrudgingly accepts the Director's request.
Something, though, is off about the whole operation from the start. The Russians seem one step ahead and the CIA suspects there is a traitor in the agency. Alex realizes that by getting back into the game he has risked everything he has worked his new marriage, his family's safety, his firm. As the noose tightens around Alex, and the FSB closes in, the operation becomes a hall of mirrors with no exits. To find redemption, Alex must uncover the secrets behind BYRON or lose everything.
The Poet's Game is a remarkably sophisticated, timely, and emotionally resonant portrait of a spy from a master of the genre.
'Tense' and 'fast-moving'Kirkus on Beirut Station
'Confirms Vidich's status in the front rank of spy writers' Tim Shipman in The Sunday Times on Beirut Station
'We all have dreams and then we wake up.'
Alex Matthews thought he had left it all behind. His CIA career, the viper's den of bureaucracy at headquarters and the lies and stress of the cat and mouse game of double agents. But then the Director came asking for a favour.
Alex is a different man from when he had run Moscow station, where he recruited a network of 'poet spies' including the one he names BYRON. He has pieced his life back together after a tragic boating accident killed his wife and daughter but the scars remain. But Alex remains, in his mind, a patriot, and so he begrudgingly accepts the Director's request.
Something, though, is off about the whole operation from the start. The Russians seem one step ahead and the CIA suspects there is a traitor in the agency. Alex realizes that by getting back into the game he has risked everything he has worked his new marriage, his family's safety, his firm. As the noose tightens around Alex, and the FSB closes in, the operation becomes a hall of mirrors with no exits. To find redemption, Alex must uncover the secrets behind BYRON or lose everything.
The Poet's Game is a remarkably sophisticated, timely, and emotionally resonant portrait of a spy from a master of the genre.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published May 6, 2025
214 people are currently reading
602 people want to read
About the author
Paul Vidich
12 books350 followersPAUL VIDICH is the acclaimed author of The Coldest Warrior (2020), An Honorable Man (2016) and The Good Assassin (2017), and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, LitHub, CrimeReads, Fugue, The Nation, Narrative Magazine, and others. He lives in New York.
Praise for THE COLDEST WARRIOR:
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Mystery/Thriller Pick for Spring 2020
Publishers Weekly and Library Journal STARRED reviews.
“Vidich . . . writes with the nuanced detail and authority of a career spook. With this outing, Vidich enters the upper ranks of espionage thriller writers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A worthwhile thriller and a valuable exposé.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Vidich presents a fast-paced, historically accurate thriller, placing him alongside other great spy authors such as John le Carré and Alan Furst. Readers of the genre will want this slow-burn chiller that shows how far government will go to keep secrets."—Library Journal (starred review)
“The Coldest Warrior is more than an entertaining and well-crafted thriller; Vidich asks questions that remain relevant today.”—JEFFERSON FLANDERS, picked as a Top Espionage Novel of 2020
Praise for AN HONORABLE MAN:
Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top 10 mysteries and thrillers coming 2016.
A Booklist STARRED Review.
"Cold War spy fiction in the grand tradition--neatly plotted betrayals in that shadow world where no one can be trusted and agents are haunted by their own moral compromises." -- Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author of Leaving Berlin and Istanbul Passage.
"A cool, knowing, and quietly devastating thriller that vaults Paul Vidich into the ranks of such thinking-man's spy novelists as Joseph Kanon and Alan Furst. Like them, Vidich conjures not only a riveting mystery but a poignant cast of characters, a vibrant evocation of time and place, and a rich excavation of human paradox." -- Stephen Schiff, Co-Producer and writer, The Americans.
"As I read AN HONORABLE MAN, I kept coming back to George Smiley and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. That’s how good this book is. Much like John le Carre and Eric Ambler before him, Vidich writes with a confidence that allows him to draw his characters in clean, simple strokes, creating dialogue that speaks volumes in a few spare lines while leaving even more for the reader to fathom in what’s not said at all. At the center of the novel is George Mueller, a man who walks in the considerable shadow of Smiley but with his own unique footprint, his own demons and a quiet, inner strength that sustains and defines him in endless shades of cloak and dagger gray. Pick up this book. You’ll love it." --Michael Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Chicago Way
"An Honorable Man" is wonderful -- an unputdownable mole hunt written in terse, noirish prose, driving us inexorably forward. In George Mueller, Paul Vidich has created a perfectly stoic companion to guide us through the intrigues of the red-baiting Fifties. And the story itself has the comforting feel of a classic of the genre, rediscovered in some dusty attic, a wonderful gift from the past. – Olen Steinhauer, New York Times Bestselling author of The Tourist and The Cairo Affair.
“Paul Vidich's tense, muscular thriller delivers suspense and intelligence circa 1953: Korea, Stalin, the cold war, rage brilliantly, and the hall of mirrors confronting reluctant agent George Mueller reflects myriad questions. Just how personal is the political? Is the past ever past? An Honorable Man asks universal questions whose shadows linger even now. Paul Vidich's immensely assured debut, a requiem to a time, is intensely alive, dark, silken with facts, replete with promise.” -- Jayne Anne Phillips, New York Times Bestselling author of Lark and Terminte a
Praise for THE COLDEST WARRIOR:
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Mystery/Thriller Pick for Spring 2020
Publishers Weekly and Library Journal STARRED reviews.
“Vidich . . . writes with the nuanced detail and authority of a career spook. With this outing, Vidich enters the upper ranks of espionage thriller writers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A worthwhile thriller and a valuable exposé.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Vidich presents a fast-paced, historically accurate thriller, placing him alongside other great spy authors such as John le Carré and Alan Furst. Readers of the genre will want this slow-burn chiller that shows how far government will go to keep secrets."—Library Journal (starred review)
“The Coldest Warrior is more than an entertaining and well-crafted thriller; Vidich asks questions that remain relevant today.”—JEFFERSON FLANDERS, picked as a Top Espionage Novel of 2020
Praise for AN HONORABLE MAN:
Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top 10 mysteries and thrillers coming 2016.
A Booklist STARRED Review.
"Cold War spy fiction in the grand tradition--neatly plotted betrayals in that shadow world where no one can be trusted and agents are haunted by their own moral compromises." -- Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author of Leaving Berlin and Istanbul Passage.
"A cool, knowing, and quietly devastating thriller that vaults Paul Vidich into the ranks of such thinking-man's spy novelists as Joseph Kanon and Alan Furst. Like them, Vidich conjures not only a riveting mystery but a poignant cast of characters, a vibrant evocation of time and place, and a rich excavation of human paradox." -- Stephen Schiff, Co-Producer and writer, The Americans.
"As I read AN HONORABLE MAN, I kept coming back to George Smiley and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. That’s how good this book is. Much like John le Carre and Eric Ambler before him, Vidich writes with a confidence that allows him to draw his characters in clean, simple strokes, creating dialogue that speaks volumes in a few spare lines while leaving even more for the reader to fathom in what’s not said at all. At the center of the novel is George Mueller, a man who walks in the considerable shadow of Smiley but with his own unique footprint, his own demons and a quiet, inner strength that sustains and defines him in endless shades of cloak and dagger gray. Pick up this book. You’ll love it." --Michael Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Chicago Way
"An Honorable Man" is wonderful -- an unputdownable mole hunt written in terse, noirish prose, driving us inexorably forward. In George Mueller, Paul Vidich has created a perfectly stoic companion to guide us through the intrigues of the red-baiting Fifties. And the story itself has the comforting feel of a classic of the genre, rediscovered in some dusty attic, a wonderful gift from the past. – Olen Steinhauer, New York Times Bestselling author of The Tourist and The Cairo Affair.
“Paul Vidich's tense, muscular thriller delivers suspense and intelligence circa 1953: Korea, Stalin, the cold war, rage brilliantly, and the hall of mirrors confronting reluctant agent George Mueller reflects myriad questions. Just how personal is the political? Is the past ever past? An Honorable Man asks universal questions whose shadows linger even now. Paul Vidich's immensely assured debut, a requiem to a time, is intensely alive, dark, silken with facts, replete with promise.” -- Jayne Anne Phillips, New York Times Bestselling author of Lark and Terminte a
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
December 4, 2025
Having really enjoyed the author’s recent espionage thriller Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy, I was attracted to this tale, Vidich’s latest offering. It’s billed as the first in an ongoing series and features a man, Alex Matthews, who has previously worked for the CIA. These days, he’s running a lucrative business of his own, based in Moscow. He commutes periodically between his American home and his Moscow office. But his old boss at the CIA has asked a favour of him, and as the book opens we find him in Moscow attempting to exfiltrate an ‘asset’.
As always with such tales, there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes – much of it hidden from those in the midst of the action but also sometimes from the reader, too. We soon become aware of a suspicion that there’s a Russian spy (a double agent) within the ranks of the CIA. Who is this person and how much danger do they pose? We are helpfully supplied with what amounts to a shortlist of candidates. One burning issue is that a valuable mole remains in Moscow, and the CIA would love to get him out of there ASAP.
Matthews is a pretty good invention. He has a tragic past – having lost some of his immediate family in a boating accident – and is trying to re-build his life. He’s since re-married, but this relationship might now be threatened by his frequent trips abroad. How can he square the circle? Is he willing to make the sacrifices this might entail?
Overall it’s a good story, if (in my opinion) not quite up to the standard of Beirut Station. But I was certainly entertained enough to confirm that I will be definitely be back for the next instalment in this series.
As always with such tales, there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes – much of it hidden from those in the midst of the action but also sometimes from the reader, too. We soon become aware of a suspicion that there’s a Russian spy (a double agent) within the ranks of the CIA. Who is this person and how much danger do they pose? We are helpfully supplied with what amounts to a shortlist of candidates. One burning issue is that a valuable mole remains in Moscow, and the CIA would love to get him out of there ASAP.
Matthews is a pretty good invention. He has a tragic past – having lost some of his immediate family in a boating accident – and is trying to re-build his life. He’s since re-married, but this relationship might now be threatened by his frequent trips abroad. How can he square the circle? Is he willing to make the sacrifices this might entail?
Overall it’s a good story, if (in my opinion) not quite up to the standard of Beirut Station. But I was certainly entertained enough to confirm that I will be definitely be back for the next instalment in this series.
December 15, 2025
Every time I think Paul Vidich has reached his peak as an author in the spy novel genre, he one-ups himself and delivers another classic. “The Poet’s Game” may be my favorite among those in his catalog, and that’s sayin’ somethin’. It’s that good.
The basics of the plot…. A high level CIA source in Moscow has “kompromat” on the American POTUS. He wants to get it into our hands but he also wants to ‘get outta Dodge’ before he gets discovered and ends up with a bullet in the head (or falls off a balcony, pick one…). He’ll only deal with his former controller, Alex Matthews, an ex-CIA operator who left the service years ago and is now a successful businessman doing a lot of biz in, you guessed it, Moscow. Alex left the CIA under trying circumstances but is still well remembered there, to the extent that he’s friends with the Director and other big wheels running the Agency.
Alex is asked to do a ‘favor’ for his former employer-meet with his old source and work on getting our hands on the materials he possesses. He agrees, it’s botched in Moscow and he is lucky to be able to return to DC. Alex is asked to make another attempt, but in the meantime his marriage isn’t exactly going well and the troubling question as to why his initial effort to meet with his former source failed is still out there. Did someone within the Agency alert the Russians to his visit? And why, after making his fortune in Russia, is Alex’s business now under investigation by Putin’s henchmen? The Poet’s Game becomes a story about risk/reward, as Alex has to balance his business interests, home life, secret identity, communications with his former source, and his reputation with the potential of his imprisonment and/or death, impact on his family, and loss of his business.
Everything in The Poet’s Game appealed to me. The writing and dialogue were superb, the characters were beautifully developed, the tradecraft well executed, and the plot a strong mix of a great spy story with a big helping of domestic issues threaded in. Loved it, now #1 in my Book of the Year list.
The basics of the plot…. A high level CIA source in Moscow has “kompromat” on the American POTUS. He wants to get it into our hands but he also wants to ‘get outta Dodge’ before he gets discovered and ends up with a bullet in the head (or falls off a balcony, pick one…). He’ll only deal with his former controller, Alex Matthews, an ex-CIA operator who left the service years ago and is now a successful businessman doing a lot of biz in, you guessed it, Moscow. Alex left the CIA under trying circumstances but is still well remembered there, to the extent that he’s friends with the Director and other big wheels running the Agency.
Alex is asked to do a ‘favor’ for his former employer-meet with his old source and work on getting our hands on the materials he possesses. He agrees, it’s botched in Moscow and he is lucky to be able to return to DC. Alex is asked to make another attempt, but in the meantime his marriage isn’t exactly going well and the troubling question as to why his initial effort to meet with his former source failed is still out there. Did someone within the Agency alert the Russians to his visit? And why, after making his fortune in Russia, is Alex’s business now under investigation by Putin’s henchmen? The Poet’s Game becomes a story about risk/reward, as Alex has to balance his business interests, home life, secret identity, communications with his former source, and his reputation with the potential of his imprisonment and/or death, impact on his family, and loss of his business.
Everything in The Poet’s Game appealed to me. The writing and dialogue were superb, the characters were beautifully developed, the tradecraft well executed, and the plot a strong mix of a great spy story with a big helping of domestic issues threaded in. Loved it, now #1 in my Book of the Year list.
May 21, 2025
Good spy story but rather confusing. The writing is compelling though. I’ll look to read more by this author.
July 21, 2025
Told over five parts, alternating in Moscow and Washington, D.C., Vidich does what he does best, provide realistic spy procedure and painfully, vulnerable CHs. I read a lot of spy fiction so I was not surprised by most of the events in the plotting of this excellent spy tale; however, once again, the author shines with the authenticity of his flawed CHs, especially his main protagonist, Alex Matthews, retired CIA head of the Moscow bureau and now CEO of Trinity Capital, a successful financial company in Moscow. He lost his 1st wife and daughter in a boating accident which spared his son, now 14 and resentful of Alex’s long absences. Now married for five years to the much younger and beautiful Anna, Alex deals with growing concerns of her infidelity, the fall-out from his CIA career, and a favor from the CIA’s director that sends him back to rescue the last remaining Russian agent in his fabled Poet’s spy ring. Putin’s toxic Russia and its politics, kickbacks, and government department competition puts Alex in the crosshairs of multiple policing agencies. Byron, the agent he is trying to exfiltrate, is one of the slipperiest CHs of many in this novel. Pay attention to the friendships in this book, they are as nuanced as the CHs involved in them. The weaving of economic and financial details, along with the government structures, political vipers and finagling, the constant specter of betrayal, journalism, and life-threatening decisions interplay with the US realities of 2018 US politics and Vidich uses some real issues well to tell a fictional possibility. Tone is one of constant jeopardy involving physical and emotional danger as the author uses the shadowed Russian infrastructure, its street scenes, and underground tunnel systems well comparing it to the monied ease of the oligarch class and the DC comforts and safety that the US CIA personal enjoy in contrast. Décor, cuisine, clothing, and boating details add to the depth of the Settings and Tone. RED FLAGS: Graphic Violence; Torture. Readalikes may be David McCloskey, Alma Katsu, and Jason Matthews.
July 30, 2025
Suspenseful at times, but I tagged the real traitor about half way through the book. I would have enjoyed this more if the political slant had been left out of it.
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August 1, 2025NEW VIDICH ALERT! STUNNING SPY FICTION, THATS WHAT WE CALL “THE VIDICH GUARANTEE”
September 12, 2025
A Cold War spy novel set in current days with reference to current American politicians and predictable bad guy/good guy interactions. Emphasis on the 'guy'
December 15, 2025
poetry in motion
I enjoyed the books imagination and journey. An insight into Russia and the dance of spies. A modern feeling for sure.
I enjoyed the books imagination and journey. An insight into Russia and the dance of spies. A modern feeling for sure.
June 15, 2025
3.5 stars. The beginning of this book was very confusing and little boring but it really got a lot better as it went along (certainly the last 100 or so pages went at a breakneck speed.) I guessed two plot twists (I thought both were super obvious) but only one actually happened. I guessed they are saving the second for the sequel. I really love a well done spy novel (surprisingly one of my favorite genres) and this was good enough that I’ll probably check out more of his books. I will say David McCloskey’s books are far superior.
August 24, 2025
Dashed Hopes
So many 5 star reviews and yet from the opening scene I was cringing at the clumsiness and incompetence. By Chapter 5 I’d guessed the entire plot and identified the FSB mole in the CIA. There are a dozen former intelligence agents writing better plots so for me this was a bust.
So many 5 star reviews and yet from the opening scene I was cringing at the clumsiness and incompetence. By Chapter 5 I’d guessed the entire plot and identified the FSB mole in the CIA. There are a dozen former intelligence agents writing better plots so for me this was a bust.
May 10, 2025
Not well written.
It was obvious who the spy was from the very beginning from Russia. It was not well written. I would not recommend this book to anyone. I will not read a book from this author again.
It was obvious who the spy was from the very beginning from Russia. It was not well written. I would not recommend this book to anyone. I will not read a book from this author again.
May 25, 2025
Not nearly as good as his other novels, I thought.
May 20, 2025
Is the President a Russian asset?
When we first meet Alex Matthews, he is on an errand for his old friend, the CIA Director. Matthews had once served as Moscow Station Chief. Now, having left the Agency nine years earlier, he is in Moscow running an investment firm. But this night he is on his way to meet BYRON, a spy he’d recruited but last seen a decade ago. As he sets out from his hotel, he could not know that the operation would threaten his life, his freedom, his family, and his livelihood. It would also set off a hunt for a mole in the CIA and promise proof that the President of the United States had been compromised traveling as a private businessman in Moscow. This is the setup in The Poet’s Game, Paul Vidich’s outstanding seventh novel of espionage, as we follow Alex Matthews as a spy in Moscow.
A former high-ranking CIA spy is back in action
Alex Matthews thinks of himself as “an ordinary middle-aged man.” He’s nothing of the sort.
Matthews is a brilliant performer as CIA Station Chief and a world-class success as a contrarian investor. And everyone around him envies him his private life. He’s the father of a fourteen-year-old son and recently married a beautiful younger woman whom the boy is coming to accept. And though he created some resentment by leaving the Agency, he maintains a close set of friends who are still on the job there, including his wife, Anna Kuschenko.
They’re all in senior positions within the CIA—and all will be caught up in the hunt for the mole who blew that operation in Moscow, aborting Matthews’s mission to meet BYRON.
Spy novels grounded in CIA history
In a half dozen previous spy novels, Vidich built his plots around prominent events or characters in CIA history. Markus Wolf, the Stasi head of counterintelligence, for example. William Morgan, soldier of fortune executed by Castro. James Kronthal, aide to Allen Dulles, who committed suicide to save the agency from the embarrassment of his Soviet betrayal. and Frank Olson, a murdered bioweapons scientist in the notorious MK-ULTRA LSD scandal. They’re all set in the Agency’s past.
Now, in The Poet’s Game, he has shifted the timetable to the current era, setting the story midway through the first Trump Administration. Once again, he has centered the tale around a matter well covered in the news media: the debate over claims that the KGB had gathered evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Donald Trump that made him vulnerable to blackmail by the Kremlin.
Kompromat on the President is the central plot device
In The Poet’s Game, BYRON promises to deliver proof that Vladimir Putin possesses kompromat on the man in the Oval Office and has, as a consequence, become a Russian asset. Is he? Most of Vidich’s characters believe he is. And that belief drives the sense of urgency behind their efforts to exfiltrate BYRON from the clutches of the criminal Russian regime. But is it true? What will we learn in the end when BYRON reveals what he’s promised? Be prepared to be surprised as The Poet’s Game rushes toward its shocking end.
About the author
The Poet’s Game is Paul Vidich‘s seventh spy novel and the first set in the current era. Prior to turning to writing, Vidich had a distinguished career in music and media at Time Warner, AOL, and Warner Music Group, where he was Executive Vice President in charge of global digital strategy. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Vidich lives in Manhattan with his wife. They have children and grandchildren.
When we first meet Alex Matthews, he is on an errand for his old friend, the CIA Director. Matthews had once served as Moscow Station Chief. Now, having left the Agency nine years earlier, he is in Moscow running an investment firm. But this night he is on his way to meet BYRON, a spy he’d recruited but last seen a decade ago. As he sets out from his hotel, he could not know that the operation would threaten his life, his freedom, his family, and his livelihood. It would also set off a hunt for a mole in the CIA and promise proof that the President of the United States had been compromised traveling as a private businessman in Moscow. This is the setup in The Poet’s Game, Paul Vidich’s outstanding seventh novel of espionage, as we follow Alex Matthews as a spy in Moscow.
A former high-ranking CIA spy is back in action
Alex Matthews thinks of himself as “an ordinary middle-aged man.” He’s nothing of the sort.
Matthews is a brilliant performer as CIA Station Chief and a world-class success as a contrarian investor. And everyone around him envies him his private life. He’s the father of a fourteen-year-old son and recently married a beautiful younger woman whom the boy is coming to accept. And though he created some resentment by leaving the Agency, he maintains a close set of friends who are still on the job there, including his wife, Anna Kuschenko.
They’re all in senior positions within the CIA—and all will be caught up in the hunt for the mole who blew that operation in Moscow, aborting Matthews’s mission to meet BYRON.
Spy novels grounded in CIA history
In a half dozen previous spy novels, Vidich built his plots around prominent events or characters in CIA history. Markus Wolf, the Stasi head of counterintelligence, for example. William Morgan, soldier of fortune executed by Castro. James Kronthal, aide to Allen Dulles, who committed suicide to save the agency from the embarrassment of his Soviet betrayal. and Frank Olson, a murdered bioweapons scientist in the notorious MK-ULTRA LSD scandal. They’re all set in the Agency’s past.
Now, in The Poet’s Game, he has shifted the timetable to the current era, setting the story midway through the first Trump Administration. Once again, he has centered the tale around a matter well covered in the news media: the debate over claims that the KGB had gathered evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Donald Trump that made him vulnerable to blackmail by the Kremlin.
Kompromat on the President is the central plot device
In The Poet’s Game, BYRON promises to deliver proof that Vladimir Putin possesses kompromat on the man in the Oval Office and has, as a consequence, become a Russian asset. Is he? Most of Vidich’s characters believe he is. And that belief drives the sense of urgency behind their efforts to exfiltrate BYRON from the clutches of the criminal Russian regime. But is it true? What will we learn in the end when BYRON reveals what he’s promised? Be prepared to be surprised as The Poet’s Game rushes toward its shocking end.
About the author
The Poet’s Game is Paul Vidich‘s seventh spy novel and the first set in the current era. Prior to turning to writing, Vidich had a distinguished career in music and media at Time Warner, AOL, and Warner Music Group, where he was Executive Vice President in charge of global digital strategy. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Vidich lives in Manhattan with his wife. They have children and grandchildren.
September 28, 2025
Alex Matthews is a ten-year retiree from the CIA and former chief of station in Moscow, where he currently helms his own investment firm. He has just about become officially rich. Commuting from DC is not easy, especially with a new young wife and sometimes sullen adolescent son.
Out of the blue, an old asset in Moscow pops up requesting a meeting. BYRON is the last of a network Matthews established back in the day, all named for poets, and the rest of whom are all dead. The asset offers a bright shiny piece of information that everyone wants, no actually, everyone is salivating to have. BYRON will only deal with Matthews and so the Director asks him to step back in briefly and do this little favor. In and out, no big.
Everything goes sideways from the start and Alex is lucky to make it home from the first leg of the job. It will be extremely dangerous for him to re-enter Russia but the Director of course wangles his way into getting Matthews to try again. Meanwhile, a hunt is underway for a traitor in the top ranks (the best plots always have traitors and moles and betrayals). Who could it be?
Matthews and his DC cohorts have known each other for many years, some even in battle. Most are married happily but not all, injecting a normally ignored aspect of agent life into this kind of book.The plot is tried and true but I was still surprised. JLC could have made this more convoluted and Len Deighton could have made it funnier. But it meets the bar and what else is there?
PV is a top-tier espionage writer and does not disappoint.
Out of the blue, an old asset in Moscow pops up requesting a meeting. BYRON is the last of a network Matthews established back in the day, all named for poets, and the rest of whom are all dead. The asset offers a bright shiny piece of information that everyone wants, no actually, everyone is salivating to have. BYRON will only deal with Matthews and so the Director asks him to step back in briefly and do this little favor. In and out, no big.
Everything goes sideways from the start and Alex is lucky to make it home from the first leg of the job. It will be extremely dangerous for him to re-enter Russia but the Director of course wangles his way into getting Matthews to try again. Meanwhile, a hunt is underway for a traitor in the top ranks (the best plots always have traitors and moles and betrayals). Who could it be?
Matthews and his DC cohorts have known each other for many years, some even in battle. Most are married happily but not all, injecting a normally ignored aspect of agent life into this kind of book.The plot is tried and true but I was still surprised. JLC could have made this more convoluted and Len Deighton could have made it funnier. But it meets the bar and what else is there?
PV is a top-tier espionage writer and does not disappoint.
November 12, 2025
Alex Matthews, former CIA Moscow station chief, has left the agency to specialize in Russian business. But it needs him to perform one last mission: an agent he recruited long ago, with valuable information, will only deal with Matthews.
It's Trump's first term. Washington's smart set is all agog with rumors of the president's alleged (and since disproven) Russian collusion.
Does Matthews' agent have the goods?
Matthews' world is one of paranoia: not just that necessary to operate on Moscow's streets, where he really is being watched and followed, but back home in Washington. His social circle consists of fellow spies and their wives—and one among them is likely a Russian mole.
Matthews' suspicions darken his life, including his marriage. Is his wife having an affair with one of his friends? Or is he reading too much into what he sees and hears? His work cost him one marriage; he'd like it not to blow another, and to meanwhile repair the damage done between him and his son..
Matthews is a man of few words, letting others expose themselves while avoiding doing the same.
The scenes in Moscow are tense. Matthews knows he's being watched, but he learned how to operate like that when he was paid to be a spy.
Now, though, he has more at stake. His Russian business interests are vulnerable to government interference, and many would love to shut this American businessman down.
It's Trump's first term. Washington's smart set is all agog with rumors of the president's alleged (and since disproven) Russian collusion.
Does Matthews' agent have the goods?
Matthews' world is one of paranoia: not just that necessary to operate on Moscow's streets, where he really is being watched and followed, but back home in Washington. His social circle consists of fellow spies and their wives—and one among them is likely a Russian mole.
Matthews' suspicions darken his life, including his marriage. Is his wife having an affair with one of his friends? Or is he reading too much into what he sees and hears? His work cost him one marriage; he'd like it not to blow another, and to meanwhile repair the damage done between him and his son..
Matthews is a man of few words, letting others expose themselves while avoiding doing the same.
The scenes in Moscow are tense. Matthews knows he's being watched, but he learned how to operate like that when he was paid to be a spy.
Now, though, he has more at stake. His Russian business interests are vulnerable to government interference, and many would love to shut this American businessman down.
May 30, 2025
Another tense, intelligent espionage novel from Paul Vidich.
Alex Matthews has left his career as a spy behind, and is now focused on running an investment firm investing heavily in Russian assets, where Alex used to be CIA's head of station (bad idea). He has a younger second wife, a teenaged son, and no desire to get back into the backstabbing bureaucratic world of the CIA. But as anyone who reads spy fiction knows, it is very difficult to retire completely from the spy game. The director of the CIA asks Alex for a favor, to contact a spy while in Moscow, a spy whom Alex had recruited in his past life, a spy who wants to come out with an explosive proof of "kompromat" on the US President. Does this mean the US President is actually a Russian asset?
But before Alex can meet with his agent the operation is blown. How did Russia find out? Is there a mole in the CIA? Now both the Russians and the CIA area after BYRON, the spy who may take down the US government. And as Alex tries to protect his asset and do the right thing, he jeopardizes his family and the new life that he has built for himself.
A great window into modern politics and the current situation in Moscow and the rest of the world. Some cliches abound, but they are welcome and comforting in the hands of a great author such as Mr. Vidich.
Alex Matthews has left his career as a spy behind, and is now focused on running an investment firm investing heavily in Russian assets, where Alex used to be CIA's head of station (bad idea). He has a younger second wife, a teenaged son, and no desire to get back into the backstabbing bureaucratic world of the CIA. But as anyone who reads spy fiction knows, it is very difficult to retire completely from the spy game. The director of the CIA asks Alex for a favor, to contact a spy while in Moscow, a spy whom Alex had recruited in his past life, a spy who wants to come out with an explosive proof of "kompromat" on the US President. Does this mean the US President is actually a Russian asset?
But before Alex can meet with his agent the operation is blown. How did Russia find out? Is there a mole in the CIA? Now both the Russians and the CIA area after BYRON, the spy who may take down the US government. And as Alex tries to protect his asset and do the right thing, he jeopardizes his family and the new life that he has built for himself.
A great window into modern politics and the current situation in Moscow and the rest of the world. Some cliches abound, but they are welcome and comforting in the hands of a great author such as Mr. Vidich.
September 23, 2025
Vidich has written a credible spy novel set during the first Trump administration. He refers to the president as "the child in the White House," as well as utilizing many other demeaning descriptions.
The plot consists of the CIA director asking Alex Matthews, a retired CIA agent who served in Moscow, to retrieve some information from a former Russian asset who is a colonel in the FSB.
The information supposedly will clarify Russian involvement in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Alex Matthews seems like an honest person, but all of the other characters are very suspect. One of them is a mole within the CIA and it was pretty clear early on who that would be.
There were many points in the story where things didn't seem to have been well explained or where there was no prior foundation. This could be the result of careless heavy editing or a flaw in the author's story telling capability. There have been problems with the narratibe in the other books I have read, but I have not put him on my AVOID list yet.
Regardless of the flaws, I enjoyed the suspenseful story and the insights (whether accurate or not) into Russian life under Putin.
This book deserves 3.5 stars but I'm rounding down.
The plot consists of the CIA director asking Alex Matthews, a retired CIA agent who served in Moscow, to retrieve some information from a former Russian asset who is a colonel in the FSB.
The information supposedly will clarify Russian involvement in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Alex Matthews seems like an honest person, but all of the other characters are very suspect. One of them is a mole within the CIA and it was pretty clear early on who that would be.
There were many points in the story where things didn't seem to have been well explained or where there was no prior foundation. This could be the result of careless heavy editing or a flaw in the author's story telling capability. There have been problems with the narratibe in the other books I have read, but I have not put him on my AVOID list yet.
Regardless of the flaws, I enjoyed the suspenseful story and the insights (whether accurate or not) into Russian life under Putin.
This book deserves 3.5 stars but I'm rounding down.
May 9, 2025
This book totally engrossed me and demonstrates exactly how and why Paul Vidich has become an elite and masterly writer of spy thrillers.
Set in 2018 the book features Alex Matthews, supposedly retired from the CIA who is reluctantly brought back into the fold from his role as a successful financier working in the Russian markets to exfiltrate one of his former spy’s - forenames Byron who has compromising information on the unnamed US president and also about the identity of a Russian spy working within the CIA.
Nothing is quite as it seems with the Russians always seemingly one step ahead.
Matthews returns to Moscow and is in imminent danger of arrest. The tensions build as the city is also the hero of the book with its locations beautifully described.
Matthews’s spy is also being sought by the Russians and there is a remarkable eye opening twist near the end when identities are finally revealed.
Matthews is a complex character struggling manfully to manage his double life as well as a complex and difficult family situation and I would hope that this will be simply the first of a wonderful new series.
Highly recommended.
Set in 2018 the book features Alex Matthews, supposedly retired from the CIA who is reluctantly brought back into the fold from his role as a successful financier working in the Russian markets to exfiltrate one of his former spy’s - forenames Byron who has compromising information on the unnamed US president and also about the identity of a Russian spy working within the CIA.
Nothing is quite as it seems with the Russians always seemingly one step ahead.
Matthews returns to Moscow and is in imminent danger of arrest. The tensions build as the city is also the hero of the book with its locations beautifully described.
Matthews’s spy is also being sought by the Russians and there is a remarkable eye opening twist near the end when identities are finally revealed.
Matthews is a complex character struggling manfully to manage his double life as well as a complex and difficult family situation and I would hope that this will be simply the first of a wonderful new series.
Highly recommended.
August 9, 2025
Set in contemporary Moscow and Washington D.C., this is a spy thriller rooted in the morally ambiguous world of modern espionage.
The story revolves around a high-stakes extraction operation by the Americans to pull out a double agent embedded within the FSB. But things quickly become more complicated since someone on the American side is leaking information, as the Russians always seem to be one step ahead.
The plot combines together the dangerous mission to extract the FSB spy with the internal hunt for a mole within the CIA. Twists and turns keep the tension high throughout.
Beyond the espionage, the novel also focus into personal relationships, particularly as the protagonist struggles with a complex and strained family situation. Recurring social gatherings between four CIA couples, including the protagonist’s, the mole hunter’s, and the prime suspect’s, explore themes of trust, betrayal, and the emotional toll of life in intelligence.
There are several surprises along the way, adding intrigue and momentum.
This book serves as the opening installment of a new series, and while I’ve encountered stronger entries in the genre, I am looking forward to the next one.
The story revolves around a high-stakes extraction operation by the Americans to pull out a double agent embedded within the FSB. But things quickly become more complicated since someone on the American side is leaking information, as the Russians always seem to be one step ahead.
The plot combines together the dangerous mission to extract the FSB spy with the internal hunt for a mole within the CIA. Twists and turns keep the tension high throughout.
Beyond the espionage, the novel also focus into personal relationships, particularly as the protagonist struggles with a complex and strained family situation. Recurring social gatherings between four CIA couples, including the protagonist’s, the mole hunter’s, and the prime suspect’s, explore themes of trust, betrayal, and the emotional toll of life in intelligence.
There are several surprises along the way, adding intrigue and momentum.
This book serves as the opening installment of a new series, and while I’ve encountered stronger entries in the genre, I am looking forward to the next one.
May 19, 2025
An above average spy book. A weird combination of the kind of more psychological and realistic spy books that I like with a not very believable plot. Good characters and de rigueur but entertaining observations about CIA culture specifically and DC culture more generally, e.g., alcoholic Ivy League educated WASPs on their way out and MAGA types on their way in. In contrast, the plot strains credulity. It involves an ex-CIA agent running an investment firm in Russia with shades of Red Notice, his Russian wife who now works for the CIA, a mole inside the CIA, and the ex-agent's role in exfiltrating one of his former sources from Russia. The characters and their inner monologues are just interesting and believable enough to keep things from going completely off the rails. Full of little zingers, such as "Her voice had the brisk politeness of someone about to make a rude request," and meta-observations about how spies like to write spy books.
May 30, 2025
If you prefer your spy fiction to be more realistic with shadowy moral grey zones of modern-day espionage, then this one’s for you.
Set against the backdrop of contemporary Moscow and D.C., this novel plunges you into a world of double agents, CIA tradecraft, and the ever-twisting wilderness of mirrors.
It’s not just a gripping read—it’s smart, timely, and chillingly believable. Vidich has fine-tuned his knack of seamlessly weaving fictional characters with real-life timelines, historical figures, and current geopolitical tensions to deliver a tale that feels all too plausible.
Required reading for fans of the more realistic spy novel and for those of you who enjoy spy stories set in recent times. Paul Vidich is one of the best spy thriller writers working today. Trust me—you’ll be hooked.
Set against the backdrop of contemporary Moscow and D.C., this novel plunges you into a world of double agents, CIA tradecraft, and the ever-twisting wilderness of mirrors.
It’s not just a gripping read—it’s smart, timely, and chillingly believable. Vidich has fine-tuned his knack of seamlessly weaving fictional characters with real-life timelines, historical figures, and current geopolitical tensions to deliver a tale that feels all too plausible.
Required reading for fans of the more realistic spy novel and for those of you who enjoy spy stories set in recent times. Paul Vidich is one of the best spy thriller writers working today. Trust me—you’ll be hooked.
June 11, 2025
A new breed of espionage novels author seems to be emerging recently; Matthew Richardson, to name one, has written with The Scarlet Papers one of the best books of the genre in recent years.
Paul Vidich is another one: at his seventh novel, The Poet’s Game, he keeps delivering on a very high standard that puts him in the A League on the genre.
An tense story where intelligence and counterintelligence keeps crossing paths in what was called the wilderness of mirrors. A rather outstanding character exploration makes it stand out in the sea of sameness the genre, underpinned by an understated but intense prose.
A truly high quality read.
Paul Vidich is another one: at his seventh novel, The Poet’s Game, he keeps delivering on a very high standard that puts him in the A League on the genre.
An tense story where intelligence and counterintelligence keeps crossing paths in what was called the wilderness of mirrors. A rather outstanding character exploration makes it stand out in the sea of sameness the genre, underpinned by an understated but intense prose.
A truly high quality read.
May 13, 2025
An extraordinary tour de force .
An utterly believable espionage novel regarding Russian election interference, kompromat, the moral ambiguities of the CIA , Modern day Moscow , double agents, and the wilderness of mirrors that is the world of espionage.
On a par with Damascus Station this is a superbly written novel, utterly engrossing populated by fictional characters and both real events, time lines and people blended into a utterly compelling narrative..
Definitely required reading for espionage fans .
An utterly believable espionage novel regarding Russian election interference, kompromat, the moral ambiguities of the CIA , Modern day Moscow , double agents, and the wilderness of mirrors that is the world of espionage.
On a par with Damascus Station this is a superbly written novel, utterly engrossing populated by fictional characters and both real events, time lines and people blended into a utterly compelling narrative..
Definitely required reading for espionage fans .
August 27, 2025
When quality is a given.
Buying a new Paul Vidich book is one of the easier decisions in life. You know that disappointment is not going to be an issue.
"The Poet's Game" is yet another example of a master craftsman at his peak. I served in the Royal Air Force when the Cold War was at its peak and my experience coloured my outlook on Russia for many years, until the Berlin Wall came down.
Paul Vidich's writing triggers the same feelings about modern Russia. Superb believable plotting delivered with outstanding writing.
Buying a new Paul Vidich book is one of the easier decisions in life. You know that disappointment is not going to be an issue.
"The Poet's Game" is yet another example of a master craftsman at his peak. I served in the Royal Air Force when the Cold War was at its peak and my experience coloured my outlook on Russia for many years, until the Berlin Wall came down.
Paul Vidich's writing triggers the same feelings about modern Russia. Superb believable plotting delivered with outstanding writing.
August 30, 2025
Fun spy novel set during Trump I that has fictional characters probing whether our president is a Russian asset and undertaking a fraught CIA mission to find kompromat that will prove the conjecture. Our central character is a former spy whose loyalty to the agency threatens his fortune and his family. I found the romance between Alex and Anna, his much younger second wife, tiresome, as was Alex's troubled relationship with his teenage son. (Are any fictional teenagers not sullen?) But the spycraft was sprightly, so The Poet's Game was ultimately worth playing.
November 17, 2025
I read a great many espionage novels and Paul is definitely in the top class of writers in the genre, along with le Carré, Allbeury and Seymour. He portrays the doublethink, misdirection and mindgames of the secret world beautifully. I was surprised though that such a great writer, with all the support of professional editors, still leaves errors in the finished book. Mostly typos but there’s also a repeated factual error in this novel, about the Skripal poisoning in the UK. In any case, it’s a splendid novel.
May 10, 2025
Another Vidich Banger!
Paul Vidich does not disappoint! Another amazing spy novel with twists and turns in authentic historic and cultural settings. I love that his books are always around 300+ pages… perfect for a weekend read, but when you are done, you feel like you have been immersed in another world for a much longer read. A rich reading experience! I totally recommend all of his books and this is one of his best yet!
Paul Vidich does not disappoint! Another amazing spy novel with twists and turns in authentic historic and cultural settings. I love that his books are always around 300+ pages… perfect for a weekend read, but when you are done, you feel like you have been immersed in another world for a much longer read. A rich reading experience! I totally recommend all of his books and this is one of his best yet!
May 11, 2025
The Poet’s Games confirms Paul Vidich’s place as one of this generation’s top writers of the espionage genre
The Poet’s Game is a crackerjack thriller, but more impressively is how well it captures a sense of place and the inside manipulations of both the Russian and American espionage organizations, as well as the double lives of those who work for them.
A first rate thriller by a first rate author.
The Poet’s Game is a crackerjack thriller, but more impressively is how well it captures a sense of place and the inside manipulations of both the Russian and American espionage organizations, as well as the double lives of those who work for them.
A first rate thriller by a first rate author.
June 25, 2025
I had read another Paul Vidich book and when I saw a positive review for The Poet’s Game, it sounded like my kind of book. And it was. But I can’t give it the five stars the plot and writing deserve because Mr. Vidich is now another of the contemporary authors who preach their TDS from their books.
If they have so many readers that they can afford to disrespect and alienate half of the country, please go ahead. Too many other good authors out there.
Last penny he gets from me.
If they have so many readers that they can afford to disrespect and alienate half of the country, please go ahead. Too many other good authors out there.
Last penny he gets from me.
September 24, 2025
spy novel, sees former CIA now successful businessman, Alex Matthews, make contact again with his ‘poet’ in Moscow.
Who’s a spy, who’s a traitor, and who can Alex trust…
I enjoyed it, though my fave novel of the authors is Beirut Station, which I thought was outstanding. #thrillerbooks #spynovel
Who’s a spy, who’s a traitor, and who can Alex trust…
I enjoyed it, though my fave novel of the authors is Beirut Station, which I thought was outstanding. #thrillerbooks #spynovel
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