Moscow Sting [Import] [マスマーケット]

This is the sequel to Red to Black: A Novel, which I had not read. You don't need to have read the first book to understand this one, but reading Moscow Sting likely will spoil the events of Red to Black. (For that matter, reading the plot summary of the second book probably spoils the first one.)

Anna is a former KGB colonel who defected to marry the British spy she was assigned to monitor. Her husband was killed by the KGB before the opening of the book and she is in hiding with her young son. The British, Americans and Russians all want her because they believe she is the only one who knows the identity of "Mikhail," who provided her late husband with Russian intelligence. An American private intelligence company gets to her first and a significant portion of the book involves the process of working her to disclose his identity and contact him to make him an American intelligence asset.

This book was OK for me but it didn't have the suspenseful tension that makes for a truly compelling espionage novel. The author has filled it with a lot of information about the politics of the spy business -- the use of private intelligence companies, the KGB's control of Russian business enterprises, political "horse trading" between the countries. But he tells it to the reader in a way that makes it just so many facts. (I'm assuming he has done the research to make it accurate.) Another thing that made the book less exciting is that it felt fairly believable. The Americans holding Anna didn't torture or drug her to get the information -- they interviewed her. Endlessly. And, with one exception, there aren't gun battles or wild chase scenes.

Believable action scenes that would be too tame for the typical blockbuster spy movie need something more to draw the reader in -- an emotional tie to the character. This book has so many different characters and points of view that it is difficult to get emotionally involved with any of them. Anna is the obvious center of the book but the author puts in too much extra stuff -- a subplot involving an assassin named Lars was an unnecessary distraction from the central story -- and the connection with Anna suffers.

Finally, some of the details make little sense in the context of the story. Anna's handler suggests she take a gun to a meeting where she will be otherwise unprotected. Of all the handgun possibilities, she improbably requests a single shot pistol with a very long barrel to hide under her clothes. And unless this is covered in the earlier book, Anna is much more familiar with New York City than she should be.

Fans of the espionage genre who like a lot of information in the story and don't need page-turning action should enjoy this book. For me, I wanted action or emotional connection to the characters and didn't feel either one.

Alex Dryden's "Moscow Sting" follows hard on the heels of Dryden's "Red to Black." In that complex, poignant novel, Russian spy Anna tracks down her beloved Finn (a jaded former MI-6 agent no longer in favor in London). "RtoB" builds to a heartbreaking climax as Finn is poisoned for being unwilling to abandon the truth as he saw it, even when the masters on both sides of the game wanted him to back off.

"Moscow Sting" sees Anna in seclusion with her son, Finn. Still grieving over Finn's demise, she is trying to rebuild a structure of normalcy so she can face the day without grief.

Unfortunately, the gorgeous Russian commands a high market value, and there are plenty of parties willing to pay.

Her location is revealed, and soon the Americans, the Brits, and the Russians are all racing to find her - some to protect her, others for what she can offer them, and others for revenge.

Soon she is under the seemingly-affectionate care of Burt, a former CIA genius who now has his own private intelligence company, Cougar. But can she trust Burt, or is he merely using her as a bargaining chip to build Cougar's fortunes? And even if she trusts Burt, what can she do when the Russians will stop at nothing for her? And what will she do when the British spymaster Adrian demands Burt reveal Anna to him so Adrian can avenge Finn's death?

This is another complex book of loyalty and trust, wrapped around a sterling spy novel chock-full of tradecraft, assassinations, and covert espionage. Dryden injects even the most innocuous conversation with sufficient subtext that the reader is swept away on tides of paranoia, where a chuckle can mask - or reveal - either murderous intent or the appreciation of a good joke.

"Moscow Sting" must be read after reading "Red to Black" - this cannot be considered a stand-alone novel. It will be interesting to see where Dryden takes these characters (I won't say who survives, although rest assured that at least one does . . . and at least one does not).

Enjoy!

It was with great anticipation that I awaited this sequel to the outstanding "Red to Black", but alas, it isn't a patch on its predecessor. First of all, it loses the intimacy of the original novel by being written in the third person rather than in the first person of the beautiful KGB officer, Anna Resnikov; whereas in the first book the narrative oozed emotion amidst an almost palpable noir, European atmosphere, this time one feels detached from Anna and therefore much less empathetic with her plight. In fact, I'd go even further and say that Anna now comes across as a borderline sociopath, rather than the compassionate and honourable figure of the first book.

Hopefully without offending anyone in the USA, I'm also a little saddened that the author has opted to flavour this instalment with American involvement. For British authors, it's pretty much an unspoken rule of novel-writing that to gain a wider audience (i.e. to sell large numbers of copies in North America) one must have American characters, and base a fair whack of the story in America too. It's as if Americans generally can't relate otherwise. But for me, it instantly stripped the story of old world intrigue and saddled it with a standard issue backdrop. I do understand, however, that the publisher would likely have leaned on the author to do this for purely commercial reasons and I accept that.

Now I come to some authenticity mistakes. Anna's surname - and this is an error carried through from the original book - is the first glaring no-no to anyone familiar with the Russian language. It should be Resnikova, not Resnikov, the latter being the male form; a Russian lady always adds the letter "a" at the end of her paternal or marital surname if that ends in -ev, -ov, etc. The only exception to this would be in the case of young, westernised Russian ladies who have emigrated to Europe or America, but certainly not someone like the KGB colonel.

Another mistake is in the reference to the British embassy in Kyrgyzstan. There is simply is no such facility there; just a consulate. I know this from first-hand experience of organising visas for my wife and her in-laws at various times; in every instance, we had to work through the nearby British embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

It is also clear from the novel that the author is not a football (soccer) fan, despite brief references. The Charity Shield event he refers to always has a large crowd in the region of 70,000 people, not the 35,000-40,000 bracket, and it's always played at Wembley (England's national stadium), not at any Premier League club's ground.

The last faux pas I noticed was Anna switching off her mobile phone so that her handlers would become unable to trace her. However, while the battery remains inside a mobile phone, the device can be traced as though it were switched on. Intel agencies, police forces, et al rely on public ignorance of such matters, but I thought it was something a spy author should have known.

In all, I sensed the book was written in a hurry, perhaps so as to quickly capitalise on the popularity of the work of brilliance that was "Red to Black". Those little inaccuracies I just mentioned, the flat ending that blatantly left the door open for a third book (whereas RTB was complete in its own right), the overuse of the word "desultory" (thrice is two times too many for such a generally underused word to appear in the same book), the absence of educational riches (such as the revelations about Transnistria in RTB), and the total loss of empathy with Anna (who, in many regards, seemed a different person to the delicate-yet-tough treasure of the first book) all combined to make this book look like it was manufactured for a market, whereas its predecessor was a standalone, inspired work of genius.

Now, that all said, I persevered with it and quite enjoyed it, chiefly because Anna intrigues me. Perhaps it's because my wife, like Anna, is a Russian of Tatar ancestry, and I, like Finn, am a British citizen with an Irish upbringing. Or perhaps it's because I, like the author, love snow and winter and multiple references thereto. But in any event, I hope the third book will avoid the niggles this one displayed and return Anna to a more accessible, likeable status.