I'm reading this series because it's topical: Herzog is cogent and vivid when writing about Russian or CIA history and both rural and urban geography, but his storyline, with the reluctant Lance Spector entering the fray and repeatedly saving the day, is absurd. I speed read most of this one, which took me to Book Three, in which Russia decides on a blitzkrieg in Latvia, to rebuild its lost USSR empire, quite plausible given its brutal invasion of Ukraine. Herzog makes the geopolitics and spycraft plausible but loses his way with his assortment of sadistic, crazed Russian freaks and assorted CIA operatives either easily played and used or climbing up from a cliffhanger to rescue, revive, and resuscitate America. As I said when I reviewed book one, The Asset, he finally seems to be writing for an audience willing to swallow almost anything with weapon porn, grisly torture, and gunplay involved. If this series was more authentic all the way through, with the spies more like Le Carre's creatures than cartoon heroes and villains, I'd recommend it for the care he seems to take at times with his settings and situations. Instead three stars, and be prepared to skim a lot.