Red London
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan's newest asset might just be her long-needed confidante...or her greatest betrayal.
After her role in taking down a well-placed mole inside the CIA, Agent Lyndsey Duncan arrives in London fully focused on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. That is until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, personally calls for her help.
Following a suspicious attack on Russian oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg's property in a tony part of London, Davis needs Lyndsey to cozy up to the billionaire's aristocratic British wife, Emily Rotenberg. Fortunately for Lyndsey, there's little to dissuade Emily from taking in a much-needed confidante. Even being one of the richest women in the world is no guarantee of happiness. But before Lyndsey can cover much ground with her newfound friend, the CIA unveils a perturbing connection between Mikhail and Russia's geoplitical past, one that could upend the world order and jeopardize Lyndsey's longtime allegiance to the Agency.
Red London is a sharp and nuanced race-against-the-clock story ripped from today's headlines, a testament to author Alma Katsu’s thirty-five-year career in national security. It’s a rare spy novel written by an insider that feels as prescient as it is page-turning and utterly unforgettable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in a near future in which Viktor Kosygin has replaced Vladimir Putin as Russia's president after "the Ukraine fiasco," Katsu's entertaining if flawed sequel to 2021's Red Widow takes CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan to London, to work with Dmitri Tarasenko, a Russian "war criminal and double agent," but she's soon taken off the Tarasenko case to go undercover to investigate Russian oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg. The Brits want him out of the U.K.; the CIA wants to know about his relationship with Kosygin. Lyndsey's mission is to befriend Mikhail's unhappy English trophy wife, Emily, and see whether she's open to turning on her husband. As a former CIA agent, Katsu knows her tradecraft, and she does a good job ratcheting up the suspense as Mikhail gets increasingly more fearful and paranoid—and more cruel to Emily, who fears he'll disappear with their two young children. On the other hand, Emily is little more than a pitiable figure, and there's way too much backstory. Still, a spy novel that focuses on relationships (including Lyndsey's), women, and family is a refreshing change from the usual genre fare. Katsu should win new fans with this one.
Customer Reviews
Does not maintain the intensity of Red Widow
Unfortunately not an equivalent to the first in the series. Most the time is spent with the weaker characters with naive traits and that leads to having to skip many pages to maintain intensity of the plot.
The series now lacks appeal to continue to follow.