Red Sparrow
A Novel
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4.1 • 70 Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times bestselling author and veteran CIA officer Jason Matthews, the electrifying modern spy thriller Red Sparrow—also a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton!
In contemporary Russia, state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova has been drafted to become a “Sparrow”—a spy trained in the art of seduction to elicit information from their marks. She’s been assigned to Nathaniel Nash, a CIA officer who handles the organization’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence. The two young intelligence officers, trained in their respective spy schools, collide in a charged atmosphere of tradecraft, deception and, inevitably, a forbidden spiral of carnal attraction that threatens their careers and the security of America’s valuable mole in Moscow.
For fans of John le Carré and Ian Fleming and featuring “high-level espionage, pulse-pounding danger, sex, double agents, and double crosses” (Nelson DeMille), Red Sparrow is a timely and electrifying thriller that is impossible to put down.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In Britain, it’s fairly routine for former intelligence officers turned authors to channel their insider knowledge into fiction (see John le Carré and Ian Fleming). Yet this seemed largely forbidden in the American intelligence community...until Jason Matthews—a retired 33-year CIA veteran—stepped into the fray. His thrilling debut novel provides a shockingly revealing glimpse into Putin-era U.S.–Russia relations. The entertaining story tracks the volatile, high-stakes tango between Nate Nash, an ambitious young CIA officer, and Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballerina forced to become a trained seductress. Red Sparrow is an instant spy classic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Matthews's exceptional first novel will please fans of classic spy fiction. In Moscow, CIA agent Nathaniel Nash is running the most valuable asset in the CIA's stable, a major general in the SVR, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. After Nate nearly blows his agent's cover, Nate's chief reassigns him to the CIA station in Helsinki. Meanwhile, SVR deputy director Ivan "Vanya" Egorov decides to use his beautiful 25-year-old niece, Dominika Egorova, as bait in a honey trap designed to kill a Russian mobster who has publicly feuded with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Dominika likes this assignment well enough to ask her uncle to send her to spy school, where she excels. Diagnosed as a synesthete as a girl, Dominika has an unusual gift: she perceives sounds as colors and can tell if someone is lying by the color of his or her aura. After training, she sets out to find the Russian traitor Nate was running. The author's 33-year career in the CIA allows him to showcase all the tradecraft and authenticity that readers in this genre demand. Recipes at the end of each chapter for a dish a character has eaten lend a homely culinary touch to the complex, high-stakes plot. 7-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
Red Sparrow
Excellent page turner. The author's experience in the real world of contemporary espionage and"the trade-craft" is clear and adds immeasurably to the sense of authenticity of the plot, even if it stretches plausibility to the limit. As I put the book down at 2.00 am I am fully satisfied that I got my money's worth and will look for more from this author
Geoff E
(Oakville, Canada)
Could not put it down
For the last third of the book, I stayed up in the middle of the night to see how everything would go and I saw the movie 🤪