“Red Sparrow” by Jason Matthews – The Cold War Never Ends

Though many would assume that as the iron curtain fell along with the Soviet Union, that the power struggle between them and the United States would come to an end, those people couldn’t be any more wrong. The country is still there, the people who ran it are still there, and perhaps more importantly, they still want to gain every possible advantage over their competitors.

In Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews, who himself is a former CIA officer, we are treated to a post-Cold War espionage thriller as a Russian “Sparrow” agent (professional seductress), Dominika Egorova, is charged with working over a young CIA officer, Nathaniel Nash, who is handling Russia’s most prominent mole. 

Naturally, the mission goes smoothly for neither of the agents and things begin to escalate; as alliances are broken and betrayals are committed, Dominika and Nate find themselves to be pawns in a very dangerous game of chess that will decide the fates of countless people.

Though there are surely plenty of espionage thrillers to go around out there, I have no choice but recommend that you make it a priority to check this one out. The fact that Jason Matthews himself was a CIA officer does wonders for this book, as it allows him to recreate with all the detail he wants the way in which intelligence officers operate.

Considering his experience, he is acquainted with the operative methods of both the Americans and the Russians, and it shows in his methodical writing as the most intricate details of the profession are discussed before us. From a realism standpoint, Red Sparrow is definitively one of the most engrossing novels I have had the pleasure to read.

As far as the story itself goes, it has virtually everything you could ever demand or expect from an espionage thriller. The hero and heroine travel to numerous exotic locations around the entire globe, they make the acquaintance of many interesting, mysterious and dangerous characters, all while being pitted one against the other in an intellectual battle where every step is necessary and calculated. 

Matthews describes it all with such vivid precision that it’s hard not to imagine yourself being there, along with the characters for the ride. There are plenty of political schemes and shadowy agents threatening them, leaving very little room for rest or respite in the plot.

All in all, I would be very hard-pressed to find aspects of this book that deserve to be criticized; it is one of the most impressive, detailed, realistic and enthralling spy thrillers out on the market, and no fan of the genre can afford to miss out on this one.

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Jason Matthews Jason Matthews is a retired CIA officer from the Operations Directorate, a department now referred to as the National Clandestine Service. His career spanned over thirty years durign which he was engaged in countless clandestine operations around the world, his experiences during them serving as the inspiration for his novel Red Sparrow.