Given that thrillers have been such fabulous reading for me lately, I thought it was worth sharing two more this week. Author Alma Katsu worked in the world of U.S. intelligence at the CIA and NSA for 29 years imbuing her Red Widow series with an authenticity that makes both novels, Red Widow and Red London, hard to put down.
Red Widow (Red Widow #1) by Alma Katsu
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date: March 23, 2021
Genres: Book Clubs, Fiction, Mystery
Bookshop
Lyndsey Duncan had been a rising star at the CIA, but doubt was cast upon her abilities because of her young age and her gender, leading to a reassignment that went badly. In Red Widow she’s sent back to the States on leave, but when the Russian asset she’d flipped years ago is killed, everyone is on high alert. She’s brought into Langley to head up an internal investigation into the CIA’s Russian office where it’s feared a mole may be selling assets’ identities, putting their lives at risk. There she meets Theresa Warner, another agent known as the “Red Widow” because her husband, the director of the Russian office, was killed when a rescue mission went wrong. Both women need allies, but can they trust each other? Red Widow is a classic tale of cat and mouse set in America’s spy factory, a workplace where the truth is an elusive commodity.
Red London by Alma Katsu
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date: March 14, 2023
Genres: Book Clubs, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Vacation Reading
Bookshop
Red London finds Lyndsey receiving a plum assignment in London that allows her to get back in the field. She’s the handler for a vicious Russian mobster who’s flipped on his boss and who may now provide critical intel on why a favored Russian oligarch seems to be an assassination target. At the same time, MI6 is trying to bring this oligarch to justice and Lyndsey becomes a viable option for befriending the man’s lonely wife.
Katsu’s previous career makes reading the Red novels easy. She’s scrupulously detailed and there’s no point in either story where things don’t add up—except for those sleights of hand she uses to keep the reader guessing. This is the nitty gritty of the CIA world—the reports, meetings, the more mundane parts of the job, but which can yield critical information. Add in the pervasive atmosphere of deception and obfuscation and it means that without resorting to descriptions of blood and violence Katsu is still writing to make readers jittery.
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