Red Sparrow: A Novel Author: Jason Matthews | Language: English | ISBN:
B008J4PK86 | Format: EPUB
Red Sparrow: A Novel Description
“A great and dangerous spy-game is being played today between Russian intelligence and the CIA. Very few people know about it, but Jason Matthews does, and his thrilling
Red Sparrow takes us deep inside this treacherous world. He’s an insider’s insider. And he is also a masterful storyteller. I loved this book and could not put it down. Neither will you.” —Vince Flynn
In the grand spy-tale tradition of John le Carré…comes this shocking thriller written with insider detail known only to a veteran CIA officer.
In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency’s most important Russian mole.
As the action careens between Russia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States, Dominika and Nate soon collide in a duel of wills, tradecraft, and—inevitably—forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but those of others as well. As secret allegiances are made and broken, Dominika and Nate’s game reaches a deadly crossroads. Soon one of them begins a dangerous double existence in a life-and-death operation that consumes intelligence agencies from Moscow to Washington, DC.
Page by page, veteran CIA officer Jason Matthews’s
Red Sparrow delights, terrifies and fascinates, all while delivering an unforgettable cast, from a sadistic Spetsnaz “mechanic” who carries out Putin’s murderous schemes to the weary CIA Station Chief who resists Washington “cake-eaters”. Packed with insider detail, this novel brims with Matthews’s life experience of espionage, counterintelligence, spy recruitment, and cyber-warfare. Brilliantly composed,
Red Sparrow is a masterful spy tale. Authentic, tense, and entertaining, this novel introduces Jason Matthews as a major new American talent.
- File Size: 2837 KB
- Print Length: 449 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1476766223
- Publisher: Scribner (June 4, 2013)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B008J4PK86
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,513 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #89
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Espionage
- #89
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Espionage
I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley and the publisher in return for an honest review, which follows.
I am an avid reader of thrillers and am particularly a fan of espionage thrillers. So, I figured that Red Sparrow would be "right up my alley." However, the book's slow pace during the first hundred pages kept me undecided as to whether I was liking it or not. This is because it took me awhile to get used to the fact that Red Sparrow wasn't going to be a book filled with lots of physical action -- e.g., fist fights, gun fights, killings, dramatic car chases, etc.-- that I've come to expect from books of this type.
Soon after, however, I realized that Red Sparrow is an espionage thriller that is several notches above the typical book in this genre. It is filled with many fully dimensional, credible characters and location descriptions that make you feel that you are there experiencing all of the deceptions, schemes, and double crosses involving the various CIA and Russian intelligence agents and politicians --some of whom are moles for both sides. Further, it becomes quickly obvious that first-time author and former CIA operative, Jason Matthews, really knows his subject matter, as Red Sparrow is filled with an abundance of information about the inner workings within both the U.S. and Russian intelligence organizations that is not only interesting, it serves to create an atmosphere that keeps the reader shaking his/her head in wonder.
This book will hold you in its grip. Jason Matthews rivals the masters of the genre, I cannot remember ever being so riveted by the characters in a spy story as they get pulled deeper into a terrifying series of concentric events.
The twists leading up to the most magnificent turn, which is a pivotal yet deceptively simple idea that unfolds throughout the third act, are elegantly choreographed, yet while reading I wasn't thinking about technical or structural expertise, just totally immersed in the story, which deftly shifts back and forth between the humanity of the characters, the incessant tradecraft and counterespionage, and the intense and shocking violence inherent in the most crucial of conspiracies, with huge stakes and an ever-expanding web of motivated operatives.
It's all there, travel to dozens of exotic locations around the world, taste the food, see the sights, witness the exchange of violence and deception between intelligence services, and get completely wrapped up in the astounding love story embedded in the midst of ruthless treachery and radical choices that leave the participants in the spy game a dwindling set of unpalatable options.
Hero and heroine are put to the test time and again, it was all I could do not to read the whole book in one sitting, I finished the final eighty pages at eight in the morning and can't wait for time to pass so I can read it again.
The women in this story erupt from the pages in fully-realized passionate motivation to take charge of engineering intricate plots, there is often a freakish, scary, next-level psychopathic killer waiting around the corner, unpredictable and plausible in the extreme.
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