Book Review: "Red Sparrow" by Jason Matthews (2013)
James C. Rocks
"Red Sparrow" is the first book written by ex-Central Intelligence Agency operative, Jason Matthews who, I am told, is married to someone who is also an ex-operative. It is the first of a trilogy featuring the beautiful Russian ex-ballerina and spy, Dominika Egorov, detailing her relationship with American operative, Nathaniel Nash or "Nate". The book was made into a film of the same name released in 2018, it starred Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton however this review concerns the book (the kindle edition to be precise).
"Red Sparrow" is a classic spy yarn with authentic seeming tradecraft set against a continuation of the cold war which has continued, "business as usual" into the Putin era, a good old-fashioned spy yarn based, presumably, on the author's experience as a CIA operative. It is his attention to detail, his quirky use of language (including Russian) that raises this book above the bar. With a scope ranging across Russia, Sweden and the US, the book has a lot of fast paced action, from characters on foot trying to avoid roving patrols to car tails and chases. The book started slowly, quite difficult to get into, with the author's style hard to adapt to but, by a third of the way in, I was very glad I stuck it out.
Although I was able to guess some of upcoming twists, I was generally only able to do so close to when they happened and, in general, the suspense in the book was good. There was a significant amount of violence in the book most notably when a particular Russian assassin is involved. The romance between the two lead characters, Egorov and Nash, as well as the associated sex scenes, was well handled.
