Red Sparrow
Books | Fiction / General
4.2
(756)
Jason Matthews
“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 FlynnIN 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. Spies have long relied on the “honey trap,” whereby vulnerable men and women are intimately compromised. Dominika learns these techniques of “sexpionage” in Russia’s secret “Sparrow School,” hidden outside of Moscow. 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 and 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” to MARBLE, the priceless Russian mole. Packed with insider detail and written with brio, this tour-de-force novel brims with Matthews’s life experience, including his knowledge of espionage, counterintelligence, surveillance tradecraft, spy recruitment, cyber-warfare, the Russian use of “spy dust,” and covert communications. Brilliantly composed and elegantly constructed, Red Sparrow is a masterful spy tale lifted from the dossiers of intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Authentic, tense, and entertaining, this novel introduces Jason Matthews as a major new American talent.
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More Details:
Author
Jason Matthews
Pages
434
Publisher
Simon and Schuster
Published Date
2014-04-29
ISBN
1476764174 9781476764177
Community ReviewsSee all
"Review cross-posted from <a href="https://books.max-nova.com/red-sparrow-series">https://books.max-nova.com/red-sparrow-series</a><br/><br/>"Red Sparrow" is a sexy spy thriller set in modern day Russia. The sexpionage expert Dominika Egorova and CIA operative Nathaniel Nash play a risky cat and mouse game as a desperate mole-hunt is waged for a top-level Russian intelligence officer. Dominika's origin story at "sparrow school" is shocking, brutal, and acerbically self-aware. Playful, sexy, and packed with counterintelligence tradecraft, "Red Sparrow" is a solid modern entry in the spy genre."
"Good book."
B G
Breanna Garrett
"Having loved the movie, I thought this would be one of those “the book was better” situations, but that is not the case imo. The writing gets bogged down in the minutiae of boring spy work—sending cables and telegrams and spending ages walking around aimlessly to make sure the characters aren’t being followed. The action—if you can call it that in many instances—happens over the span of three pages and then you’re left with six chapters of boring nothingness. <br/>There’s also the issue of exactly when this book is meant to take place.... had it not been for like two? three? specific mentions of dates post 2001, I would have said this book takes place either during the Cold War or during the 80s. Nothing of the book or the characters or the settings lends me to think this is supposed to be a modern day story. They hardly even use/mention cell phones, and there’s not one computer in the whole story. It was jarring when I came upon those dates (and with the knowledge of the movie) that this is supposed to be taking place this decade. <br/>The is one of the few times I’ll say this: the movie was better. It had a better plot, better pacing, better characters, better suspense, better payoff."
L
Lyndsey
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