Forty years ago, Russian specialist Charles Jenkins left the CIA in disgust after a botched op in Mexico City. Now, with his finances in disarray and his younger wife in the throes of a difficult pregnancy, the 64-year-old security expert finds his former station chief on his doorstep. Seven long-serving female spies in Russia are being hunted down by an eighth "sister," apparently a counterintelligence agent for the FSB (formerly the KGB). Three women have already died. Jenkins reluctantly agrees to help, though he knows if anything goes wrong the CIA will deny him aid and recognition. In Moscow, he tangles with a relentless FSB officer. This is only the first stage of what will turn out to be a desperate cat-and-mouse game with odds against him. Set in the new Cold War between Putin's Russia and the United States, Dugoni's 15th novel (after
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell) is a riveting tale of treachery.
VERDICT With lean prose and spot-on local color, this plot-driven thriller pulses with tension and fraught escapes, the action capped by a courtroom drama as good as any from Grisham. A must-read for fans of legal thrillers and/or spy novels.
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