The Collaborators
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 30 Jan 2025
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
A brilliant young intelligence officer and a troubled heiress stumble into a global conspiracy that pits present-day Russia against the CIA in this electrifying, globetrotting spy thriller.
Combining realistic thrills with sophisticated spycraft and witty dialogue, The Collaborators delivers a gut-punch answer to the biggest geopolitical question of our time. How exactly did post-Soviet Russia turn down the wrong path?
Criss-crossing the globe on the way to this shocking revelation are disaffected millennial CIA officer Ari Falk, thrown into a moral and professional crisis by the death of his best asset, and brash, troubled LA heiress Maya Chou, spiralling after the disappearance of her Russian American billionaire father. The duo’s adventures take us to both classic and surprising locales – from Berlin and Tangier to Latvia, Belarus and a semi-abandoned technopark outside Moscow.
Dynamic, fast-paced and filled with captivating details that provide a window into a secretive world, The Collaborators is a first-rate thriller that pays homage to both meanings of ‘intelligence’.
'A hell of an espionage thriller – thoroughly modern and frighteningly relevant, yet with clear reverence for the genre’s roots . . . I did not want to put this book down' Alex DeMille, New York Times bestselling author of Blood Lines
'A terrific espionage thriller with a propulsive plot and fantastic twists, but what really sets this book apart is the writing, sparkling on every page' Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Expats and Two Nights in Lisbon
'Compulsively readable, with more twists than a bar full of martinis, The Collaborators takes a deep dive into global espionage, what-ifs, and the things we do for those we love' I. S. Berry, Edgar Award-winning author of The Peacock and The Sparrow
'Smart, stylish, and propulsive from the very first page. I can't wait to see what Michael Idov writes next' Anna Pitoniak, author of The Helsinki Affair
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The search for a missing hedge fund manager with ties to Russian intelligence animates screenwriter Idov's bumpy fiction debut (after the memoir Dressed Up for a Riot). At the center of the action is CIA officer Ari Falk, who's investigating the likely murder of one of his prized assets, a Russian blogger who was taken off a passenger jet during an unplanned stop in Latvia and never seen again. Falk eventually connects that case to the disappearance of billionaire financier Paul Obrandt, who recently jumped from the back of his yacht off the coast of Portugal. Paul's daughter, Maya, is looking for her dad, not out of love but out of a suspicion that he staged his own death. She and Falk team up, repressing their mutual attraction as they trace Obrandt's trail across Eastern Europe to Moscow, where they learn of his links to Russia's military intelligence agency. Idov, whose TV credits include the espionage series Deutschland 89, shows promise in his transition to the page—the details of the tradecraft feel especially authentic—but the action lurches along at an awkward shuffle, with a few too many time-lapses, and it all culminates in an unconvincing finale. It's a letdown.
