Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2009
384 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Finn is a veteran MI6 operative stationed in Moscow. In the guise of an amiable trade secretary, he has penetrated deep into the dangerous labyrinth that is Russia under Vladimir Putin to discover some of its darkest secrets, thanks to a high-level source deep within the Kremlin.
The youngest female colonel in the KGB, Anna is the ambitious daughter of one of the former Soviet Union's elite espionage families. Charged with helping to make Russia strong again under Putin, she is ordered to spy on Finn and discover the identity of his mole.
At the dawn of the new millennium, these adversaries find themselves brought together by an unexpected love that becomes the only truth they can trust. When Finn uncovers a shocking and ingenious plan—hatched in the depths of the Cold War—to control the European continent and shift the balance of world power, he and Anna are thrust into a deadly plot in which friend and foe wear the same face. With time running out, they will race across Europe and risk everything—career, reputation, and even their own lives—to expose the terrifying truth.
"Despite lackluster prose, Dryden's fact-based scenario provides worrisome food for thought." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. An exceptional novel by any standard; readers who enjoy a love story mixed with their espionage (à la le Carré's The Little Drummer Girl) will appreciate." - Library Journal
"Terrific when it sticks to spycraft and the intricacies of geopolitics. Not so much when it attempts the intricacies of the heart." - Kirkus Reviews
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in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Lenny Foster
Alex Dryden is the pseudonym of a British writer who worked for the British security services. He has had extensive first-hand experience with Russia for many years.
When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Dryden watched the statues of Lenin fall across the former Soviet Union. Since then he has charted the false dawn of democracy in Russia as the country morphed into the world's most powerful secret state.
His works include Red to Black, Moscow Sting and The Blind Spy.
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