Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Lord knows how he got the manuscript of Red Sparrow past the redacting committee at Langley, but he has turned his considerable knowledge of espionage into a startling debut.
Matthews keeps the trouble popping in Red Sparrow, but relentless drama is just one of the high points of this sublime and sophisticated debut.
Matthews writes a smart, intriguing tale rooted in his own experience as an operative. He does it so well that fans of the genre's masters including John le Carré, creator of George Smiley, and Ian Fleming who gave us James Bond, will happily embrace Matthew's central spy.
...this story excels when the protagonists take to the streets. An alternative marketing approach might have been to give it a yellow cover and call it 'Tradecraft for Dummies'.
That sense of authenticity, along with vividly drawn characters, much detail about tradecraft, and an appropriately convoluted plot that centers on moles in both the SVR and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence make this a compelling and propulsive tale of spy-versus-spy. Matthews’ characters are variously fascinating, eccentric, and truly odious.
Matthews’ first novel, a globe-trotting spy thriller, features enough action to satisfy even the most demanding of adrenaline junkies.
Matthews’s exceptional first novel will please fans of classic spy fiction.