The Cormorant Hunt by Michael Idov

Published by Scribner on January 27, 2026

Of current authors of spy novels, only a handful reside in my first tier. Michael Idov has made that list on the strength of The Collaborators and its sequel, The Cormorant Hunt.

In the first novel, CIA agent Ari Falk made trouble for himself by giving a recording to an open-source intelligence website operated by Alan Keegan. In the recording, veteran CIA agent Rex Harlow confesses that he attempted to rig Russia’s 1996 election and, twenty-five years later, murdered several people who got wind of his dirty tricks. Harlow referred to the operation’s mastermind as the Cormorant.

The story begins with Katya Lisichenko crossing into Estonia from Russia in the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She is detained because records show that she made the same crossing two days earlier. She didn’t, so someone must have been using her name.

The story then shifts to Keegan’s receipt of an email with the subject line “a message for Ari Falk.” Keegan doesn’t know how anyone would know of his connection to Falk, apart from people at the top of the CIA hierarchy. Keegan traces the email to Petra Lorencová, an employee of Radio Free Europe in the Czech Republic. He travels there and confronts Petra, who claims she was paid by an unknown source to send the email. The meeting does not end well for Petra or Keegan.

We next encounter Falk, who is living off the grid in the Republic of Georgia. Worried that he is being framed for Keegan’s fate, Falk decides it is time to run. The current deputy director of operations at the CIA (who owes her job to Falk’s outing of Harlow), Asha Tamaskar, dispatches a Mormon CIA agent, Jim Otterbeck, to find Falk. Otterbeck dislikes Falk but the feeling is mutual. It helps Falk’s cause that Otterbeck is straight-laced while Falk is devious.

The other primary plot element involves Felix Burnham, the “champagne version” of Andrew Tate, an advocate of a silly but popular “men’s rights” movement. Burnham has the “slippery, shape-shifting charisma of a born cult leader.” Burnham’s podcast appeals to insecure young men who blame their problems on women, LGBTQ people, and nonwhite immigrants rather than their own disagreeable personalities.

Burnham’s podcast is, naturally enough, financed by Russia in its never-ending attempt to destabilize progressive western nations. Using those funds, Burnham is “putting together a purpose-built private army.” Tamaskar would like to do something about it, but worries that she will be undermined by the Cormorant.

In addition to Ivov’s ridicule of the men’s rights movement, I appreciated his take on the dangers of the modern world. Falk understands that, thanks to Russia, the left-right distinction is no longer relevant. “The only existential standoff now was between the people who wanted to replace institutions with better institutions and the people who wanted to replace institutions with themselves.”

As was true of the first book, the story is clever. The plot eventually links characters in unexpected ways. While the action moves quickly, Ivov takes time to flesh out secondary characters, assigning credible motivations that are consistent with their actions. While characters take heroic risks for the greater good, I also enjoyed the characterization of the CIA’s hackers as “insufferable geeks who considered themselves God’s gift to the Agency.”

In this second novel, Ivov cements himself as a must-read author for spy novel fans. His prose is clear and forceful, even if he lacks the stylistic brilliance of the genre’s master, John Le Carré. That’s not a knock, because there was only one Le Carré. In his ability to craft credible but exciting plots, reasonably deep characters, and perceptive analyses of world events, Idov is an exceptional spy novelist.

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The Collaborators by Michael Idov

Published by ‎ Scribner on November 19, 2024

Ari Falk is a CIA operative. His job as a media investor is a cover for his covert assignment — “helping Russian opposition journalists find and run stories damaging to the Kremlin.” Ari’s biggest success is funding a popular and openly gay Russian blogger named Anton Besmanny. Anton exposes corruption but “the unspoken compact between the Russian people and their masters has always been that each looked away while the other stole whatever wasn’t bolted down.”

When Anton humiliates a deputy minister of defense, Falk knows he needs to keep Anton safe. He gets Anton a ticket for a flight to Riga, but the flight is diverted to Minsk by Russian military jets. Anton is convinced that the plane is being grounded because of him and gives a speech that apologizes to the other passengers for the trouble that he’s caused.

At the airport, Anton is placed in a room with a man and woman. Shortly after they are removed from the room, Anton hears two gunshots. To save himself from a similar fate, Anton makes a video in which he apologizes for “glorifying descriptions of a degenerate lifestyle.” The plane returns to the air, bound for Riga, but Anton is swept off to Istanbul.

Falk knows the plane made an unscheduled stop but he expects to see Anton at the airport in Riga. Instead, he sees a Russian bagman. Falk forces the bagman to reveal that Anton is now in Turkey. Falk promptly flies to Istanbul, where he nearly meets his death.

Having established its setup, the story shifts to Maya Olbrecht, who at 22 has tried to kill herself twice and completed two stints in rehab. Maya’s father has just committed suicide by jumping over the side of a yacht at night near Portugal. Paul Olbrecht is a billionaire whose wife is disturbed to learn that much of the money he had been managing for wealthy investors is missing from the investment fund. Paul leaves behind a makeshift will that gives Maya a house in Portugal, where she goes to get away from her mother.

The two storylines converge after Russian shooters kill Falk’s co-workers at the media company he established as a cover. Falk investigates the shooting while Maya investigates her father’s death. When the two investigations link, Falk becomes sexually (albeit casually) involved with Maya because he expects to never see her again. Fate, of course, has other ideas. Saving Maya will eventually become Falk’s mission, although he takes on a bigger mission when he learns why the money that Paul Olbrecht was managing disappeared.

Russians have always made the best spy novel villains. I'm always happy to encounter a story that forces western spies to match wits with their easten counterparts. While this isn’t a novel of tradecraft and double agents, Falk makes use of his skills and clandestine contacts to get to the bottom of the triple mysteries — why did Russian spies go to so much trouble to capture Anton, who were the man and woman that the Russians removed from the plane, and what did Paul Olbrecht do with the money? The mysteries have credible solutions that most readers will not easily guess (at least I didn’t).

Given her troubled childhood and struggles with addiction, Maya is a sympathetic character. Falk’s personality is developed in sufficient detail to make him an interesting character, if not a memorable one. The pace is steady and Eastern European locations give the novel a credible atmosphere (no doubt assisted by Michael Idov's familiarity with Riga, the city of his birth). Idov’s prose has no rough edges. My recommendation, however, was won by clever plotting and surprising plot twists. The world of spy fiction is hungry for new practitioners. I happily welcome Idov to its ranks.

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