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The Scarlet Papers
VIENNA, 1946: A brilliant German scientist snatched from the ruins of Nazi Europe MOSCOW, 1964: A US diplomat caught in a clandestine love affair as the Cold War rages RIGA, 1992: A Russian archivist selling secrets that will change the twentieth century forever LONDON, THE PRESENT A British academic on the run with the chance to solve one of history's greatest mysteries Their stories, their lives, and the fate of the world are bound by a single manuscript. A document feared and whispered about in capitals across the globe In its pages, history will be rewritten. It is only ever known as . . . THE SCARLET PAPERS The devastating secrets contained within teased by a brief Tomorrow 11AM. Take a cab and pay in cash. Tell no one.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published May 25, 2023
853 people are currently reading
1764 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Richardson
64 books109 followersMatthew Richardson was born in 1990 and graduated with a First in English from Durham University in 2011. He then went on to postgraduate research at Merton College, Oxford, specialising in intellectual history. He was a freelance journalist, a speechwriter and a researcher in Westminster while also starting work on his debut novel, My Name is Nobody. In the summer of 2015, at the age of 24, Matthew Richardson was signed by Penguin in a six-figure pre-empt deal.
Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews
May 25, 2023
If you're a fan of the novels of John le Carré such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy you will absolutely love this brilliantly compelling espionage thriller that combines 'old world' tradecraft - dry-cleaning, safe houses, book codes, secret writing, brush passes, dead letterboxes - with modern technology. Think surveillance and tracking devices capable of being installed just about anywhere.
Moving from the end of the Second World War, through the Cold War to the present day, it conjures up the murky world of secret agents, double agents, sleepers and moles. References to real life individuals such as Kim Philby, James Jesus Angleton and Maurice Oldfield (reputed to be one of the models for John le Carré's George Smiley), along with figures in the world of espionage from more modern times, give it an air of authenticity. (As can be seen from the bibliography, the author's research has been extensive.) And although the story is fictional, many of the elements seem completely plausible. Worryingly so, if you believe in the reality of a secret state. And it wasn't so long ago that the existence of someone very like one of the main characters in the story was revealed, after many years in the shadows.
The book is full of characters with messy relationships and exposes the moral dilemmas which spies confront, the isolation inherent in their role and the burden of keeping secrets, even from those you love. As one character observes, 'We were good spies and terrible human beings.' Many of the characters are almost certainly not who they purport to be or are adept at adopting different personas. 'Spying was a performance and the costume, the voice, the initial entrance were as vital as the lines themselves.'
It's impossible to describe the twists and turns of the plot without giving anything away. I could sympathise with one character as they complain, 'Spies always seemed to make things so damn complicated' although that delicious complexity is what makes The Scarlet Papers a 'just one more chapter' read. Despite being quite a chunky book, the story moves along like a whirlwind with surprises galore awaiting you. I loved it. If you're a fan of espionage thrillers, put this one on your wishlist.
Moving from the end of the Second World War, through the Cold War to the present day, it conjures up the murky world of secret agents, double agents, sleepers and moles. References to real life individuals such as Kim Philby, James Jesus Angleton and Maurice Oldfield (reputed to be one of the models for John le Carré's George Smiley), along with figures in the world of espionage from more modern times, give it an air of authenticity. (As can be seen from the bibliography, the author's research has been extensive.) And although the story is fictional, many of the elements seem completely plausible. Worryingly so, if you believe in the reality of a secret state. And it wasn't so long ago that the existence of someone very like one of the main characters in the story was revealed, after many years in the shadows.
The book is full of characters with messy relationships and exposes the moral dilemmas which spies confront, the isolation inherent in their role and the burden of keeping secrets, even from those you love. As one character observes, 'We were good spies and terrible human beings.' Many of the characters are almost certainly not who they purport to be or are adept at adopting different personas. 'Spying was a performance and the costume, the voice, the initial entrance were as vital as the lines themselves.'
It's impossible to describe the twists and turns of the plot without giving anything away. I could sympathise with one character as they complain, 'Spies always seemed to make things so damn complicated' although that delicious complexity is what makes The Scarlet Papers a 'just one more chapter' read. Despite being quite a chunky book, the story moves along like a whirlwind with surprises galore awaiting you. I loved it. If you're a fan of espionage thrillers, put this one on your wishlist.
August 11, 2023
The summer of reading continues. This was a 99p special, and I have mixed feelings about it.
At times, this was as compulsively readable as any spy novel, with the kind of twists and turns you'd expect. 'The best spy novel of the year' trumpets the quote from The Sunday Times which forms part of the blurb. To which my response is… maybe? Because, frankly, great spy novels are few and far between. And when you've read Le Carré, almost everything else pales into comparison, especially when it comes to dialogue, characterisation, tension building. So it's not as if there's much competition, is what I'm saying.
Another part of the blurb speaks of 'high stakes thrills', to which my response is… what? Because it didn't seem particularly thrilling to me, and the stakes didn't ever come across as particularly high. Which is not because the in-universe stakes aren't given to be high, but they did not come across viscerally to the reader as such. I think that's something to do with style, and a distancing effect which arises from the sheer familiarity of much of the material.
We all love the Cold War, right? That's why we're here. And the Cambridge Five and the double and triple agents and the treachery and betrayals are all part of that interest. But there is a sense that the Cold War has been done to death, and that the 20th century history of espionage has been picked over, leaving nothing but bones to mark the way. And those way markers are very familiar by now. Operation Mincemeat; Operation Paperclip; The Cousins; Philby, Burgess, & McLean; Blunt and Cairncross; Blake's escape.
So my response to this is partly through the filter of knowing at least as much as the author about Cold War spying, and my awareness that even Le Carré looked elsewhere for inspiration, and that more contemporary espionage writers like Mick Herron don't go in for it much at all. All the beats here seem a bit threadbare, some of it even clichéd.
The premise of The Scarlet Papers is that a (modern day) professor of Cold War history at the LSE is approached by a mysterious figure who promises him 'treasure' in the form of a personal memoir of 'the last undiscovered Cold War double agent'. It's this memoir that forms the second narrative thread of this book, starting in 1946 and covering the next 70 years, not in fine detail but stopping off in 1964, 1992, and 2010. The professor protagonist is a bit of a cliché: bitter, broke, divorcing; the memoirist (more forgivably, perhaps) isn't particularly convincing, either.
And there's the first problem. If this was just your standard two-viewpoint, twin-timeline narrative, that would be fine. But the memoir is written like fiction (for unconvincing reasons). As fiction, it reads well, but as a supposedly non-fiction genre inserted, mise-en-abyme style into the other narrative, it doesn't really work.
The other problem is that I've read a lot of spy novels and I was expecting something to come along to reveal some kind of artifice or misdirection. And I did, in fact, spot a couple of obvious errors, which alerted me to the idea that something was afoot. The first error is that, in one of the 1946 chapters, a character mentions Operation Paperclip and Nazi scientists being recruited 'for NASA'. This immediately struck me as probably wrong: there was surely no NASA in 1946, even if the Paperclip name was in wide circulation. NASA was founded in 1958.
The less obvious error was that in one of the 1964 chapters, an academic was described as driving 'the family Volvo'. Well, Volvo cars did not come to the UK until 1967, and an unofficial import of one in 1964 was highly unlikely for that particular character.
Both of these errors seemed like they were either deliberately planted so as to be revealed as such later—or, simply the result of somewhat superficial research. Because while there is clearly research in this novel, it feels like a stone skipping across a lake rather than a deep dive. Hence my feeling that there was too much distance, as a result, probably, of too much telling as opposed to showing.
So the twists and turns, when they arrive, are the result of withholding information rather than inserting disinformation. There's just another chapter in which something else is revealed that we weren't told about earlier.
In the end, this is one of those all right if you like that kind of thing books. I quite enjoyed the reading of it, but it's not amazing.
At times, this was as compulsively readable as any spy novel, with the kind of twists and turns you'd expect. 'The best spy novel of the year' trumpets the quote from The Sunday Times which forms part of the blurb. To which my response is… maybe? Because, frankly, great spy novels are few and far between. And when you've read Le Carré, almost everything else pales into comparison, especially when it comes to dialogue, characterisation, tension building. So it's not as if there's much competition, is what I'm saying.
Another part of the blurb speaks of 'high stakes thrills', to which my response is… what? Because it didn't seem particularly thrilling to me, and the stakes didn't ever come across as particularly high. Which is not because the in-universe stakes aren't given to be high, but they did not come across viscerally to the reader as such. I think that's something to do with style, and a distancing effect which arises from the sheer familiarity of much of the material.
We all love the Cold War, right? That's why we're here. And the Cambridge Five and the double and triple agents and the treachery and betrayals are all part of that interest. But there is a sense that the Cold War has been done to death, and that the 20th century history of espionage has been picked over, leaving nothing but bones to mark the way. And those way markers are very familiar by now. Operation Mincemeat; Operation Paperclip; The Cousins; Philby, Burgess, & McLean; Blunt and Cairncross; Blake's escape.
So my response to this is partly through the filter of knowing at least as much as the author about Cold War spying, and my awareness that even Le Carré looked elsewhere for inspiration, and that more contemporary espionage writers like Mick Herron don't go in for it much at all. All the beats here seem a bit threadbare, some of it even clichéd.
The premise of The Scarlet Papers is that a (modern day) professor of Cold War history at the LSE is approached by a mysterious figure who promises him 'treasure' in the form of a personal memoir of 'the last undiscovered Cold War double agent'. It's this memoir that forms the second narrative thread of this book, starting in 1946 and covering the next 70 years, not in fine detail but stopping off in 1964, 1992, and 2010. The professor protagonist is a bit of a cliché: bitter, broke, divorcing; the memoirist (more forgivably, perhaps) isn't particularly convincing, either.
And there's the first problem. If this was just your standard two-viewpoint, twin-timeline narrative, that would be fine. But the memoir is written like fiction (for unconvincing reasons). As fiction, it reads well, but as a supposedly non-fiction genre inserted, mise-en-abyme style into the other narrative, it doesn't really work.
The other problem is that I've read a lot of spy novels and I was expecting something to come along to reveal some kind of artifice or misdirection. And I did, in fact, spot a couple of obvious errors, which alerted me to the idea that something was afoot. The first error is that, in one of the 1946 chapters, a character mentions Operation Paperclip and Nazi scientists being recruited 'for NASA'. This immediately struck me as probably wrong: there was surely no NASA in 1946, even if the Paperclip name was in wide circulation. NASA was founded in 1958.
The less obvious error was that in one of the 1964 chapters, an academic was described as driving 'the family Volvo'. Well, Volvo cars did not come to the UK until 1967, and an unofficial import of one in 1964 was highly unlikely for that particular character.
Both of these errors seemed like they were either deliberately planted so as to be revealed as such later—or, simply the result of somewhat superficial research. Because while there is clearly research in this novel, it feels like a stone skipping across a lake rather than a deep dive. Hence my feeling that there was too much distance, as a result, probably, of too much telling as opposed to showing.
So the twists and turns, when they arrive, are the result of withholding information rather than inserting disinformation. There's just another chapter in which something else is revealed that we weren't told about earlier.
In the end, this is one of those all right if you like that kind of thing books. I quite enjoyed the reading of it, but it's not amazing.
December 10, 2023
As much as I love Mick Herron’s Slough House spy thrillers, there’s a certain nostalgic pleasure to be relished in spy stories of the classic Cold War kind, where tradecraft, high stakes politics (international, governmental and office) and double and triple agents played out a deadly game for the highest of stakes in a ‘wilderness of mirrors’. Matthew Richardson combines the best of both worlds in this cracking spy thriller with a contemporary setting, played out against a backdrop of long-buried Cold War secrets that have surfaced, bringing with them jeopardy of the most serious kind. Fast moving, seamlessly weaving the past and the present, and with plot twists of the most surprising kind, The Scarlet Papers is a richly entertaining, edge of your seat spy story of the best kind.
March 10, 2024
Couldn’t get past the cliches at the beginning. More James Patterson than John Le Carre
July 28, 2023
Masses of namedropping of Le Carre and real-life spy cases, plus overuse of technical spy jargon to try and sound 'in the know', the opening chapters are so chockful of cliches I wondered if this was supposed to be taken seriously. Apparently it was.
So dreadful in so many ways, a wish-fulfilment novel about a wannabe spy drawn into Hollywood version of espionage. The plot, which involves several giant coincidences, might have worked as a parody…and the dialogue is ridiculous when it tries to be clever.
Also, we are right back to the Cold War and Russians as baddies, no mention of the current scene and how everything has moved on to different threats.
The real world 'intelligence' scene of incompetence, bungled poisonings and stupid mistakes is mentioned but glossed over for a fantasy of glamorous, ultra efficient and omniscient spooks. And hey, these days if you wan to get information out, you just put it out on the internet, so all this retro chasing after notebooks and publishing deals is redundant.
Worst thing I’ve read for a while, and I've read some bad books.
July 31, 2024
Well that was disappointing. I wanted to enjoy this book far more than I actually did, and in the end finishing it became a chore carried out due to pure stubbornness rather than enjoyment or intrigue.
There are arguably three main characters - Max, Saul and Scarlet. If Max or Saul had been killed off in the middle or end of the book, I really wouldn’t have cared. Neither character was particularly likeable, and I didn’t become invested in them or their outcomes.
Scarlet was a little different in that regard, but not much.
Huge chunks of the book needed me to suspend belief and frankly, it bored me. Glad it’s over, won’t be reading another.
There are arguably three main characters - Max, Saul and Scarlet. If Max or Saul had been killed off in the middle or end of the book, I really wouldn’t have cared. Neither character was particularly likeable, and I didn’t become invested in them or their outcomes.
Scarlet was a little different in that regard, but not much.
Huge chunks of the book needed me to suspend belief and frankly, it bored me. Glad it’s over, won’t be reading another.
April 28, 2024
2.5. 10-20% real page turner, rest didn’t grab as much. Big reveal left me a bit meh. Wd perhaps have been better if less ambitious?
December 20, 2024
The first thing I should say is actually to congratulate the author for the work he has done. The research, the details and most importantly shaping such a complex story flawlessly, is not an easy task. Secondly, almost each chapter finished on a sort of cliffhanger, which was very nice.
July 14, 2024
Very entertaining thriller. Would recommend.
May 14, 2024
Top notch spy fiction.
A story that rattles along alternating between various past timelines and the present day.
It cleverly ties in some of the major espionage events from history, the Cambridge spies, Philby, Russian defectors and their poisoning into this story.
Almost up there with 'Box 88' and 'Slow Horses' in the modern spy thriller stakes.
Very good.
A story that rattles along alternating between various past timelines and the present day.
It cleverly ties in some of the major espionage events from history, the Cambridge spies, Philby, Russian defectors and their poisoning into this story.
Almost up there with 'Box 88' and 'Slow Horses' in the modern spy thriller stakes.
Very good.
June 3, 2025
Disappointing.
I finished The Scarlet Papers a while ago (2023) and can say I disagree with the 5* ratings. It's obvious that the author built his story with research into past cases of espionage and attempts to weave those facts into his fiction... despite that, Richardson comes up short in places (tradecraft) and the underlying premise stretches the imagination beyond my usual ability to suspend disbelief. I'm not going to drop specifics as that might ruin the story for some readers. Suffice to say, this book is not in my top ten. or forty.
I finished The Scarlet Papers a while ago (2023) and can say I disagree with the 5* ratings. It's obvious that the author built his story with research into past cases of espionage and attempts to weave those facts into his fiction... despite that, Richardson comes up short in places (tradecraft) and the underlying premise stretches the imagination beyond my usual ability to suspend disbelief. I'm not going to drop specifics as that might ruin the story for some readers. Suffice to say, this book is not in my top ten. or forty.
March 24, 2023
Intriguing, fast paced, with some good humour for spy fans. Not my normal kind of read but I enjoyed it.
April 26, 2024
4.5* The Scarlet Papers is a superb twisty old school spy thriller.
Max, an academic with a speciality in intelligence services and miles, finds a note inviting him to a meeting. He finds himself face to face with a hero of the Cold War. But was anyone who they said they were in post war espionage?
Told across multiple timelines and taking in Nazis, the Cambridge spies and much beyond this is a fantastic and immersive thriller. The pace rarely lets up, you’d be a fool to trust anyone and the plot hangs together well.
I listened to the audio and the narration was excellent.
Thoroughly recommended.
Max, an academic with a speciality in intelligence services and miles, finds a note inviting him to a meeting. He finds himself face to face with a hero of the Cold War. But was anyone who they said they were in post war espionage?
Told across multiple timelines and taking in Nazis, the Cambridge spies and much beyond this is a fantastic and immersive thriller. The pace rarely lets up, you’d be a fool to trust anyone and the plot hangs together well.
I listened to the audio and the narration was excellent.
Thoroughly recommended.
April 4, 2024
4.5 stars
The Scarlet Papers is so simple, be it the story, the plot or even the story telling, yet….it’s not. Not to spoil anything, let’s just say I’m amazed that Matthew Richardson seems to always have something up his sleeves especially with his volley plot twists. 👏👏👏👏👏
The Scarlet Papers is so simple, be it the story, the plot or even the story telling, yet….it’s not. Not to spoil anything, let’s just say I’m amazed that Matthew Richardson seems to always have something up his sleeves especially with his volley plot twists. 👏👏👏👏👏
July 21, 2023
Fantastic book. Great story and superbly written.
October 8, 2023
The Scarlet Papers is a masterpiece. Compelling, original, a page turner that has you in it's claws from the very first page.
November 22, 2023
I think this will be my book of the year. A fantastic spy thriller. It’s a cross between Tinker, tailor and Atonement. Very easy to read and gripping from the start. Would highly recommend.
March 26, 2024
Super book, lots of authentic spy craft and plenty of twists and turns.
Read
December 25, 2024not good
February 5, 2025
A fairly complex, very clever storyline. But don’t let that put you off, because it's a great read and this classic type of spy story evolves very well. A solid 4+ stars. I will certainly be adding Matthew Richardson on my watch list (to read more of, not to spy on of course!)
July 3, 2023
What a surprise!!!
I really like spy novels and this is the best I’ve read since the much missed John Le Carre. What a plot!! What terrific characters!!! All the twists and turns you don’t expect and the ending made me quite tearful. Lovely Scarlet was a match for them all.
I really like spy novels and this is the best I’ve read since the much missed John Le Carre. What a plot!! What terrific characters!!! All the twists and turns you don’t expect and the ending made me quite tearful. Lovely Scarlet was a match for them all.
March 18, 2024
Middle was a slog, but the ending is very satisfying
August 19, 2025
Proper page turner this, maybe I’m a spy book man
May 25, 2023
There were times, during my reading of this novel, that I was as confused as I ever wanted to be! A brilliant spy novel, full of authentic details, names that are still familiar to the majority of people even now, and so many twists and red herrings, no one tells the whole truth.
Scarlet King is an old lady, who was a super spy, a legend in her own lifetime. She wants to publish her memoirs, a tell all book, that will embarrass both the UK and American governments, and may push the boundaries of what is permitted in the Official Secrets Act.
Scarlett has written her memoirs in a notebook, that is securely hidden, but these details have to be verified before a publisher will give a final commitment to take on this task.
Dr Max Archer is a history professor, who has written many books about the Cambridge Spies, this knowledge alone gives a clue about the nature of these jottings in a notebook. Scarlet wants Max to verify her notes, in preparation to publish.
World War Two events were never going to be clear cut or clean. Wartime was nasty, trust was not automatically given, there were double agents, triple agents and the intelligence services were ruthless in their endeavours.
We have both USA/ UK agents trying to find escaped German scientists in order to recruit them for the Nuclear programmes, and these organisations were always having mole hunts for hidden agents working for Russia.
There are good interrogation descriptions, which leave the reader quite breathless at the speed of questions and answers. The research is intense and detailed, with actual names and events to add verisimilitude to this story. The ending is astounding, will make you take a sharp intake of breath, there was not a hint of this throughout the book. Astonishing .
My only gripe……, too many acronyms, they disturbed the flow of the narrative.
My thanks to Netgalley and publishers, Penguin, Michael Joseph, for my advance digital copy, freely given in return for my honest review.
I will leave reviews to Goodreads and Amazon UK.
Scarlet King is an old lady, who was a super spy, a legend in her own lifetime. She wants to publish her memoirs, a tell all book, that will embarrass both the UK and American governments, and may push the boundaries of what is permitted in the Official Secrets Act.
Scarlett has written her memoirs in a notebook, that is securely hidden, but these details have to be verified before a publisher will give a final commitment to take on this task.
Dr Max Archer is a history professor, who has written many books about the Cambridge Spies, this knowledge alone gives a clue about the nature of these jottings in a notebook. Scarlet wants Max to verify her notes, in preparation to publish.
World War Two events were never going to be clear cut or clean. Wartime was nasty, trust was not automatically given, there were double agents, triple agents and the intelligence services were ruthless in their endeavours.
We have both USA/ UK agents trying to find escaped German scientists in order to recruit them for the Nuclear programmes, and these organisations were always having mole hunts for hidden agents working for Russia.
There are good interrogation descriptions, which leave the reader quite breathless at the speed of questions and answers. The research is intense and detailed, with actual names and events to add verisimilitude to this story. The ending is astounding, will make you take a sharp intake of breath, there was not a hint of this throughout the book. Astonishing .
My only gripe……, too many acronyms, they disturbed the flow of the narrative.
My thanks to Netgalley and publishers, Penguin, Michael Joseph, for my advance digital copy, freely given in return for my honest review.
I will leave reviews to Goodreads and Amazon UK.
June 24, 2023
My thanks to Penguin Random House Michael Joseph for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Scarlet Papers’ by Matthew Richardson.
This is a superb spy thriller that begins in the present day when Dr. Max Archer, Associate Professor of Intelligence History at the London School of Economics’, receives a card with the mysterious message: “Tomorrow 11AM. Take a cab and pay in cash. Tell no one. Dry-clean thoroughly. Scarlet King. (PS ATLAS)”.
Max is aware that Scarlet King had been a legendary name in the post-war intelligence community though she now must be in her 90s and a ghost. Max cannot understand why she has reached out to him but there is no way he will refuse the chance to solve one of history's greatest mysteries.
The narrative moves between the present and a number of time periods and locations in post WWII Europe; weaving together aspects of Scarlet King’s long career in MI6 and her involvement in various Cold War intelligence operations.
I love spy fiction and I found myself quickly drawn into ‘The Scarlet Papers’. On completion I was impressed not only with the intricate plotting and characterisation but how well Richardson had captured the various historical locations.
The novel was clearly well researched and in his Acknowledgements Richardson provides a bibliography of some of the nonfiction sources that he consulted in writing his novel. It’s quite a long list and given the novel’s length and depth, he rightly reflects that it had been a monumental project.
Overall, I found ‘The Scarlet Papers’ a multilayered, intellectually satisfying work of spy fiction in the tradition of John le Carre’s George Smiley novels. There’s plenty of suspense and twists along with references to historical events and figures.
Highly recommended.
This is a superb spy thriller that begins in the present day when Dr. Max Archer, Associate Professor of Intelligence History at the London School of Economics’, receives a card with the mysterious message: “Tomorrow 11AM. Take a cab and pay in cash. Tell no one. Dry-clean thoroughly. Scarlet King. (PS ATLAS)”.
Max is aware that Scarlet King had been a legendary name in the post-war intelligence community though she now must be in her 90s and a ghost. Max cannot understand why she has reached out to him but there is no way he will refuse the chance to solve one of history's greatest mysteries.
The narrative moves between the present and a number of time periods and locations in post WWII Europe; weaving together aspects of Scarlet King’s long career in MI6 and her involvement in various Cold War intelligence operations.
I love spy fiction and I found myself quickly drawn into ‘The Scarlet Papers’. On completion I was impressed not only with the intricate plotting and characterisation but how well Richardson had captured the various historical locations.
The novel was clearly well researched and in his Acknowledgements Richardson provides a bibliography of some of the nonfiction sources that he consulted in writing his novel. It’s quite a long list and given the novel’s length and depth, he rightly reflects that it had been a monumental project.
Overall, I found ‘The Scarlet Papers’ a multilayered, intellectually satisfying work of spy fiction in the tradition of John le Carre’s George Smiley novels. There’s plenty of suspense and twists along with references to historical events and figures.
Highly recommended.
April 2, 2023
A sweeping story of events that affected the secret services from WWII through the cold war until the collapse of the Soviet Union. During which time the Russian’s successfully established a recruiting centre at Cambridge University to recruit spies s is well known. The story however is centred on an old lady, Scarlet, recruited as a young lady, retired after reaching the top echelons of the of the service then wanted to record her memoirs for posterity. She recruits a low level academic to review and check her extensive notes for publication. The story becomes a historical novel written with such intermate detail that Scarlet seems to be a real part of historical events. A most engrossing read, full of double cross smoke and mirrors with vested interests waiting to pounce and prevent publication with plenty of red herrings to confuse them. A tense action-packed story.
November 12, 2024
I was misled by the high ratings on Goodreads. While I didn't expect a masterpiece on par with le Carré or Graham Greene, this book failed to meet even the most basic expectations from an espionage thriller
The plot was woefully underdeveloped, relying on predictable 'twists' that were telegraphed from afar. The narrative's repetitive nature only accentuated its lack of depth.
Overall, this book fell disappointingly short of delivering the sophistication and suspense I crave in an espionage thriller.
The plot was woefully underdeveloped, relying on predictable 'twists' that were telegraphed from afar. The narrative's repetitive nature only accentuated its lack of depth.
Overall, this book fell disappointingly short of delivering the sophistication and suspense I crave in an espionage thriller.
December 15, 2022
A thrilling espionage tale where a burnt out academic is chosen to write and reveal the life of Britain’s top Cold War spy. Engagingly written and utterly immersive, it really had the energy of a James Bond style book - a single character becoming utterly wrapped up in this world.
I will say what let this book down and prevented the full five stars was the plot twists - I found them incredibly predictable a lot of the time.
I will say what let this book down and prevented the full five stars was the plot twists - I found them incredibly predictable a lot of the time.
October 18, 2024
I love this type of book, and got caught up with the Times ‘No 1’ reviews, but it wasn’t as good as I expected. Overly long, and a couple of twists too many. I did have to turn back the pages at times. The story was there, but meandered at times, and had too many twists. It could have been better, possible needed better editing. I loved the ending though. My husband is reading it now. I’m desperate for him to finish so I can check some of my understanding.
July 9, 2025
Gave up on this book quite quickly. There was nothing 'hooking' me in from the start, making me want to find out what was going to happen next. I lost interest after two pages, and the will to live after four.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews