The Mulberry Bush by Charles McCarry

Published by Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press on October 27, 2015

The early chapters of The Mulberry Bush are the story of an estranged father and son, told from the son’s perspective. The father was at one time a capable spy who angered (or embarrassed) the wrong people at Headquarters. When father and son reunite, the aftermath of their meeting gives the son a new purpose in life -- vengeance.

So begins the unnamed protagonist’s life as a spy, a career that he fashions on his own terms. Eventually he falls in love with Luz Aguilar, whose revolutionary/terrorist parents were killed by the police in Argentina. The protagonist believes that Luz can lead him to the Russians who control the Argentinians, but he also wants her help to pursue an agenda of his own.

The protagonist jets from Buenos Aires to Bogotá to Bucharest, playing the espionage game in his own way and aggravating his masters in the best tradition of spy fiction. Key characters include the protagonist’s stuffy superiors at Headquarters, a couple of Russians who may or may not want to betray their country’s secrets, a priest who once lived in Russia, and a surgeon who was close to Luz’ father and who is now Luz’ friend/protector. All of these characters have secrets that the protagonist must ferret out if he is to survive.

Many of the usual espionage plot threads are present in The Mulberry Bush. Are the apparent traitors really traitors or are they double agents? Are agents accused of being traitors because they really are or because the other side wants to destroy them with the weapon of suspicion? Is there a mole at Headquarters? Was Luz’ father working for the Russians, for Headquarters, or only for himself? The reader’s challenge is to work out what’s going on with the Russians, the Argentinians, and the Americans while getting a handle on just where the protagonist is headed.

Tension builds slowly and steadily as the story nears its climax. Charles McCarry isn’t a writer who needs to use artificial means (like the single-sentence paragraphs and two page chapters favored by many modern thriller writers) to move the story at a good pace. He writes vivid prose and creates complex, convincing, multifaceted characters. My only two complaints are that (1) the protagonist’s initial goal is clear but his plan for achieving it is ill-defined, leaving me wondering what he really hoped to achieve, and (2) the two Russians each disappear from the story in a way that left me unsatisfied. In the end, those qualms are minor. There was more than enough intrigue in The Mulberry Bush to ensure my rapt attention, and the plot twists kept me off-balance, as a spy novel should.

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Palace of Treason by Jason Matthews

Published by Scribner on June 2, 2015

Dominika Egorova, last seen departing for Moscow in Red Sparrow, is again the focus of Palace of Treason. She continues to work as a mole for the CIA, motivated by some awful things she sees in the SVR, where she was trained in twin arts of espionage and seduction. Will she once again break all the rules by sleeping with her CIA handler, Nate Nash? Do you need to ask?

The preliminary story involves an Iranian nuclear engineer who is of interest to both the Russians and the Americans. That story gives Nate and Dominika the opportunity to reunite.

About a third of the way into the story, a new character, embittered by the American intelligence establishment's failure to feed both his ego and his bank account, decides to pass secrets to the Russians. One of those secrets might expose Dominika, leading to a series of chase scenes, fights, and other standard spy thriller fare.

If you liked Red Sparrow (which I did), you will probably like Palace of Treason, simply because it is a similar novel. It blends tradecraft and action with a reasonable degree of character building. Jason Matthews isn't John le Carré or Len Deighton, but he tells a story that is credible and reasonably suspenseful. Interestingly, his Russian villains are drawn with greater detail and complexity than his whitebread American characters.

Palace of Treason is a bit wordier than it needs to be. The novel's sex scenes (including a rather mild encounter with Putin) lack the mature touch of a seasoned author. I could live without Dominika seeing colorful auras around the people she encounters and I still don't understand the point of putting a recipe at the end of every chapter for some meal that appeared during the course of the chapter, a contrivance that forces his characters to eat constantly. Those reservations aside, I continue to enjoy the series. Matthews has a knack for storytelling. For a spy fiction fan, the tradecraft alone makes the novel worthwhile.

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Snow Wolf by Glenn Meade

First published in 1995; published in trade paperback by Howard Books (Simon & Shuster) on May 19, 2015

Jakob Massey died in 1953 while working for the CIA. His son William was told that Jakob committed suicide. Decades later, William finds hidden documents referring to an operation called Snow Wolf that cast doubt on the date, place, and circumstances of his father's death. William travels to Russia in the hope of learning the truth. He hears the story from Anna Khorev, a woman who blamed Stalin for her father's execution, her mother's suicide, and the ugly turns her life took as she entered adulthood.

Without giving anything away, I can safely say that Snow Wolf incorporates the ingredients of a fast-moving thriller. A fellow named Alex Slanski (a former OSS assassin who used the code name Wolf) is dropped into Russia by parachute. He has a mission. Anna goes along as his cover but is not told the details of his mission. Of course, half the Russian army chases Slanski and Anna through Estonia and Russia as they try to evade capture and carry out their mission. Those scenes are all fast-moving and credible.

A key player in the novel's second half is a KGB major named Lukin, personally charged by Lavrentiy Beria with finding Slanski and Anna. Lukin is a surprisingly admirable character, given the nature of his employment. Beria keeps a secret from Lukin that Lukin and reader discover late in the story. Another plot twist involves a decision by President Eisenhower to abort Slanski's mission after it is already underway. That decision sends Jakob Massey to Russia.

Snow Wolf is all about plot. The characterizations are nothing special. The writing is surprisingly tight given the novel's length. Although we learn the ultimate fates of Massey and Anna (as well as the mission's outcome) in the novel's early pages, Snow Wolf manages to generate a satisfying amount of suspense. Most of the intrigue involves Slanski and Lukin as they work toward their respective goals.

Some aspects of the story are not entirely convincing but I found it easy to suspend disbelief for the sake of enjoying a good story. The novel's core surprises are plausible and its internal logic is consistent. The ending -- Slanski's completion of his mission -- is a bit too easy, which is the novel's greatest weakness. This is nevertheless a strong, fast-moving thriller.

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Radiant Angel by Nelson DeMille

Published by Grand Central Publishing on May 26, 2015

Colonel Vasily Petrov of the SVR receives a coded message instructing him to carry out his mission. John Corey, now working as a federal contract agent with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group, is assigned to watch Petrov. Corey and the DSG know Petrov is with the SVR but they don't know what nefarious purpose has caused him to masquerade as a diplomat. Corey is conducting surveillance with Tess, who claims to be a trainee with aspirations of joining the FBI. Corey isn't quite certain that her claim is truthful. He also has trust issues concerning his wife, which turns into a minor subplot as the story nears its conclusion.

Corey has an irreverent attitude that makes him a fun character. He holds some grudges against the CIA over a nasty incident in Yemen. He has more than a few grudges against Islamic terrorists but he's convinced that Russia continues to pose a greater security threat (an opinion that doesn't sit well with the State Department, politicians, or most of the intelligence community). Of course, following the universal law of thriller fiction, Corey is right and everyone else is wrong.

The first third of Radiant Angel, setting up the puzzle of what Petrov might be up to, is quite good. The next section, in which the focus shifts to Petrov, some Russian thugs, and a horde of hookers, is standard thriller fare. It moves quickly but the Russians are fairly dull and they're up to the same brand of mischief that has characterized Russian thriller villains for the last half century. The final third brings Corey and Tess back into the picture and the fun resumes.

Nelson DeMille kicked the rust off of a reliable formula and put it back in action, creating an unimaginative story that nevertheless conveys a sense of realism. DeMille has an undeniable gift for generating excitement, but Radiant Angel feels like a story I have read many times before. I give it high marks for "fun factor" but a low score for originality.

DeMille writes with a good deal of wit. Dialog is particularly enjoyable. Corey is an easy character to like. Those factors and the novel's excitement are all good reasons to enjoy the story, which I did. Still, Radiant Angel's staleness and its predictable ending prevent me from placing it on the top shelf of thriller fiction.

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All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer

Published by Minotaur Books on March 10, 2015

All the Old Knives tells a compelling story. It is a simpler story than the plots found in many spy novels. The central idea is the traditional fare of spy novels -- a mole in the CIA has given information to the enemy and the reader is challenged to discover the mole's identity -- but the focus of this relatively short novel is on just two characters engaged in an intricate dance, probing each other over a quiet dinner. Having cut away the complexity of plot that often attends such stories, Olen Steinhauer is free to focus on the complexity of two primary characters, each of whom is haunted by the past.

Information received from a Gitmo prisoner in 2012 suggests that a traitor within the American embassy assisted a terrorist attack at the Vienna airport six years earlier. The improbable accusation sends Henry Pelham scurrying off to interview people who might have relevant information, including Celia Favreau, a former lover who left the CIA and is now married with children. Pelham meets her in Carmel, "a perfect place to live if you want to be someone other than you once were." Pelham is prepared to end her life, if necessary.

This sounds like a plot that's been done before but Steinhauer makes it seem fresh. The theme of betrayal is common to books about espionage but the best ones use betrayal to teach a lesson. The lesson here is that betrayal, whether by individuals or governments, will almost always come back around to bite you in the backside. Steinhauer illustrates that lesson in a story that is tight, tense, and convincing. All the Old Knives doesn't have the breadth of the best spy fiction and the ending is a bit weak, but it is nevertheless a worthy read.

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