The Kremlin's Candidate by Jason Matthews

Published by Scribner on February 13, 2018

The Kremlin’s Candidate is the third novel in a trilogy that features a Russian spy who has agreed to provide intelligence to the CIA. The spy is a beautiful woman named Dominika who was trained as a “Sparrow” — female Russian operatives who are wise in the ways of seduction. In the first novel, Dominika targets a CIA agent named Nate Nash, only to fall in love with him when he recruits her as a double agent.

In The Kremlin’s Candidate, Nash again encounters a beautiful spy who has been trained in the art of seduction, but this one is a Nightingale, the Chinese version of a Russian Sparrow. Nate has trouble keeping his hands off beautiful spies, which has more than once caused trouble with his CIA superiors. Nash is in Hong Kong after visiting Macao to encourage the defection of a Chinese general who has embezzled state funds to cover a large gambling debt. When Nash meets the Nightingale, he wants to recruit her as a source, given her presumed access to sensitive information as the assistant manager of a hotel frequented by the rich and powerful. Nash doesn’t know that the Nightingale is a Chinese spy but she knows all about Nash. She’s been assigned not just to seduce Nash so that she can learn the name of the Chinese traitor he is recruiting, but to kill Nash for having the audacity to spy on the Chinese.

Before all of that happens, the novel follows the path of the earlier books as Dominika engages in clandestine acts, occasionally meeting with Nash for a debriefing followed by (or following) a romp in bed. Dominika has become the CIA’s best Russian source, thanks to her proximity to Putin and her possible ascension to the top ranks of the SVR. But a Russian mole in the American military is being considered for a position as the next CIA director. Even if she doesn’t get the job, the CIA has been ordered to give all of the candidates briefings that would at least indirectly reveal Dominika’s identity as a CIA source and ultimately lead to Dominika’s torture and execution.

The politics in this novel are more pronounced than in earlier entries. Jason Matthews clearly has no use for politicians who believe that oversight of the CIA is needed to keep it from breaking the law, despite the CIA's history and culture of lawless behavior. The novel's insufficiently hawkish American president (now in his fifth year) isn’t mentioned by name, but it isn’t difficult to understand who Matthews had in mind when he derided the president’s “social progressivism.” Matthews complains that his fictional president failed to take a hard line on Russia, a criticism that seems misplaced when compared to the current and all-too-real president, who touts his friendship with Putin, refuses to implement congressional sanctions against Russia, and ignores Russian interference with American elections. In any event, Matthews portrays Putin as a canny and ruthless character, an assessment with which nearly everyone but Donald Trump would agree. The novel's political tone didn't trouble me because Matthews doesn't let politics get in the way of storytelling, which is all I ultimately care about in a spy novel.

Character and plot development in this series have been strong, and the work that went into the first two books pays dividends in this one. The plot takes a couple of unexpected turns before arriving at a surprising but credible ending. The novel includes enough action to keep the story racing forward without becoming a mindless action novel. Tension arrives in waves and then peaks in the penultimate chapter. Fans of spy novel tradecraft will be happy with the series, and readers who want to admire heroes will enjoy the droll wit and fierce resolve of Americans (and the Russian Dominika) who are unwavering in their belief that free nations treat their people decently and that the fight against authoritarians is always worth waging.

RECOMMENDED

The Seeds of Treason by Ted Allbeury

First published in Great Britain in 1986; published by Dover on November 6, 2017

Jan Massey wants to be understood, so he agrees to tell his story to a reporter from the BBC. The interview takes place in his home in a remote part of Spain. Massey is a former MI6 agent who committed an indiscretion. The novel is his story.

Massey ran the Berlin office for MI6 after the war, a life marred only by a brief disastrous marriage until he met Anna Kolkov. Like Massey, she has Polish roots. Her husband, Alexei Kolkov, is a KGB officer in Berlin, which makes Massey’s affair with Anna rather dangerous. It’s also a bit unconvincing, since there seems little beyond their Polish roots to make them fall in love at first sight or to make Massey behave so impetuously. We are given to understand that Slavic passions are to blame, but the affair happens too quickly and too deeply to make me think that Massey would be such a fool. In any event, the affair gets Massey into a pickle before the novel reaches its midway point.

As the title suggests, traitors abound in The Seeds of Treason. Massey is getting information from a KGB agent named Kuznetsov who is, to some degree, a traitor to Russia, and from a greedy French spy who seems to be betraying everyone he can. Andrew Johnson, a member of the British military who is handling signals intelligence in Berlin under Massey’s watch, decides he’ll be more appreciated by the Russians than the British. He thinks his prostitute girlfriend will even like him better if he’s a Russian hero, but the girlfriend is also prepared to betray anyone who doesn’t pay her enough.

And then there’s an NSA mathematician/codebreaker named Jimbo Vick who isn’t knowingly a traitor, but chats without discretion when he’s in bed with his beautiful girlfriend. As with Massey, love is the source of betrayal. But it is Massey who is the biggest fish in the pond, and a great catch for the KGB if they can use his affair with Anna against him.

Ted Allbeury writes in a low-key, matter-of-fact style, a nice change from the hysteria that pervades so much American spy fiction. The novel lives up to its title by explaining how three different people become traitors, although Vick’s story, at least, seems to be thrown in to provide a third example. Vick’s story might be the most credible of the three but he plays a relatively small role in the story. The most convincing character development is given to Johnson. Whether or not his sudden decision to seek appreciation from the Russians that he can't get from the British is believable, he's such a self-centered creep that the reader will readily see him as someone who would betray his country.

Massey is a more likable character than either Johnson or Vick and, if I didn’t necessarily find his betrayal to be credible, I did appreciate Allbeury’s effort to make him sympathetic. Allbeury makes the point that when a government labels someone a traitor, its first order of business is to paint him as deplorable in all aspects of life, because the government can’t have people understanding why someone might betray the government or, even worse, supporting the betrayer. Not all traitors are deplorable, particularly when they betray a country that isn't your own. That's the lesson Allbeury tries to teach in The Seeds of Treason, and I think he does so successfully.

The novel’s ending seems realistic. This is the only Allbeury novel I’ve read (it seems to the third that Dover has returned to print), so I don’t have much basis for comparison, but I wouldn’t rank Allbeury with John le Carré or Len Deighton or Gerald Seymour, simply because those masters of British spy fiction are justly known for gripping stories and compelling characters. I would instead compare Allbeury to Clive Egleton, who wrote British spy novels that were pleasurable if a bit unexciting.

RECOMMENDED

Red Swan by Peter T. Deutermann

Published by St. Martin's Press on August 22, 2017

A new CIA operative, Melanie Sloan, is recruited to a mission that asks her to become intimate with the chief of China’s Ministry of Security Services. Preston Allender, a consulting psychiatrist for the CIA, has selected Melanie and one of his female associates trains her in the art of seduction. That sort of thing happens all the time in spy novels, but P.T. Deuterman makes the set-up seem credible … or credible enough that I happily bought into it for the sake of the story.

About a third of the way into the novel, a trap gets sprung and the story takes a twist, one I haven’t seen before in the many spy novels I’ve read. Kudos to Deutermann for his cleverness. But the story doesn’t stop twisting until it reaches its end. The consequences that follow from Allender’s scheme set up the remainder of the novel.

Red Swan also differs from most spy novels in the way that Allender’s scheme backfires, not because it is unsuccessful, but because it is so successful that it has political ramifications. Heads must roll and Allender’s head is most convenient. The political and bureaucratic aspect of the novel is sharper than most American spy novels manage to convey. But again, the reader sees only the tip of a political struggle that will gain depth at the plot moves forward, entangling the CIA’s director and its top two deputies, as well as a Congresswoman and a slew of American and Chinese spooks.

Allender is a character I would like to meet again. He’s known as Dragon Eyes because his yellow eyes are unusually intense, an attribute he put to good use as the CIA’s chief interrogator before his retirement. He also has a preternatural ability to anticipate what someone is about to say, a talent he uses to convince people that he can read their minds — and maybe he can, in a limited sense. An interrogation scene at the end of the novel is very cool. All of that makes Allender an interesting character without taking him too far over the top, as so many recent thrillers have done with their protagonists.

Red Swan is a fun novel. The plot kept me guessing about which purported were really good guys and which apparent bad guys were actually the enemy. That's what a spy novel should do. Low-key action keeps the story moving but I was engrossed by the puzzles that torment the key players. Deutermann writes in the confident voice of a seasoned author. If this is the start of a series, I look forward to the next installment.

RECOMMENDED

The Good Assassin by Paul Vidich

Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on April 18, 2017

“Evil does not betray you” is the theme of The Good Assassin. Like all good spy novels, betrayal is at the novel’s heart. Betrayals pop up at regular intervals as the story moves forward, taking many forms.

The Good Assassin takes place five years after An Honorable Man. George Mueller, now retired from the CIA, is sent to Cuba in 1958 as an “outsider” to take a reading on Toby Graham, a CIA agent with whom Mueller is acquainted. It is feared that Graham might be unduly sympathetic to Castro’s revolution (as opposed to the Batista dictatorship that the CIA clandestinely supports), and that Graham might be funneling weapons provided by the CIA to Castro rather than Batista.

Mueller is met and instantly disliked by the FBI’s man in Havana, Frank Pryce. He’s also disliked by Graham, with whom he has a dark history that includes a woman who is also a key character.

Cuba in 1958 is not a safe place to be unless you’re Ernest Hemmingway. The story places Mueller in jeopardy from Castro’s rebels and Batista’s troops, but danger may also be lurking closer to home. Mueller has plenty of things to worry about in this relatively brief but captivating story.

Is Graham a traitor? Or is he simply a realist who follows orders but complains about the hypocrites who issue them? Graham is clearly tired of “the persistent contemplation of evil,” an occupational hazard that “weakens the soul.” If he is a traitor, what should be his fate? In the game of espionage, the novel suggests, it is impossible to separate the white hats and the black hats. There are only shades of gray. There are no innocents, no souls untainted by corruption.

Paul Vidich handles those themes adeptly, as he did in An Honorable Man. The apparent simplicity of the story masks its depth. The novel ends in ambiguity, and while that’s how most things end, readers who like stories to wrap up neatly might be affronted by the lack of clear answers. I think the ending fits the story and its themes.

I am drawn to spy fiction in part because of the moral questions that characters so often confront, at least when the themes are deeper than “patriotic Americans kill bad people.” Vidich confronts moral issue in a thoughtful way. The Good Assassin is not as surprising as An Honorable Man, but Mueller continues to be a surprising, morally complex character.

RECOMMENDED

A Single Spy by William Christie

Published by St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books on April 25, 2017

“We gather information by many means, but a single spy in the right place and at the right moment may change the course of history.” With that encouragement, a 17-year-old Russian boy named Alexsi is sent to Germany, where it is envisioned that he will spend years rising to a position that will allow him to uncover great secrets for the benefit of the Soviet Union.

A Single Spy begins as Alexsi, struggling to survive, joins a group of Shahsavan tribesmen, nomads who roamed between Iran and Azerbaijan until the Soviet army began to do serious border patrol. Escaping a Soviet ambush in 1936, Alexsi, at the age of sixteen, is again on his own. Alexsi speaks Russian, German, and Farsi, among other languages, and is improbably literate, which makes him attractive to the NKVD. Like it or not, Alexsi becomes a spy.

Alexsi’s first task is to infiltrate a group that opposes Stalin. To do that, he must take advantage of a girl he knew in the orphanage where he spent part of his youth. That gives William Christie an opportunity to write scenes that flash back to the corrupt and inhumane setting of a Soviet orphanage. Other flashbacks illustrate Alexsi’s pre-orphanage years and explain how Alexsi later came to be living with Shahsavan tribesmen.

In the present, Alexsi serves the Soviets while pretending to serve the Germans in Berlin and Tehran, eventually stumbling onto a plot that may indeed change the course of history. While the plot might be a bit farfetched, that’s not unusual in modern thrillers, and Christie sold me on the story’s credibility.

Alexsi isn’t a complex character and some of the other characters are little more than stereotypes, but that’s common in a thriller that depends on plot more than characterization. The plot earns points for departing from the mold for most spy stories. It also earns points for being smart. Not brilliant, but smart.

The focus on a Russian from the Middle East who infiltrates the Germans during World War II is something I haven’t seen before, and I’m always happy to find a spy novel that isn’t just a variation of stories that the masters of espionage novels have already told. The story moves quickly, particularly in the action scenes that bring the novel to its finish. The themes of betrayal on which all spy fiction depends are sharply developed. Shortcomings of characterization notwithstanding, A Single Spy is a winning contribution to the genre of spy fiction.

RECOMMENDED