The start of a major career! A gripping, highly commercial espionage thriller written with the delicious insider detail and up-to-the-minute insight only known to a veteran CIA spook.
In today’s Russia, dominated by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the cast-iron bureaucracy of post-Soviet intelligence. Drafted against her will to become a “Sparrow” – a trained seductress in the service, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a first-tour CIA officer who handles the CIA’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence. The two young intelligence officers, trained in their respective spy schools, collide in a charged atmosphere of tradecraft, deception, and inevitably, a forbidden spiral of carnal attraction that threatens their careers and the security of America’s valuable mole in Moscow.
Seeking revenge against her soulless masters, Dominika begins a fatal double life, recruited by the CIA to ferret out a high-level traitor in Washington – hunt down a Russian illegal buried deep in the U.S. military and, against all odds, to return to Moscow as the new-generation penetration of Putin’s intelligence service. Dominika and Nathaniel’s impossible love affair and twisted spy game come to a deadly conclusion in the shocking climax of this electrifying, up-to-the minute spy thriller.
w
4 1/2 Stars — Definitely Worth Reading But You’ll Need To Be Patient With It! 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…
Very good book. Fast moving and exciting Very good book. Fast moving and exciting, interesting characters with some depth. A fair amount of action, but still reasonably cerebral. I am surprised by how many people seemed bothered by the recipes at the end of each chapter. I liked that touch, but, even if I didn’t, I would just move on and not read the recipe, and it would not bother me in the least. I do agree to some extent with the criticism of how stereotypically bad and ugly most of the Russians are. On the other hand, it…
Good story, bad writing. Twice as long as it needs to be, filled with cringy purple prose. Matthews has the uncanny ability to make an interesting scene dull and stretch action that takes seconds into pages of tedium.It’s an entertaining enough book in desperate need of a competent editor.