Seemingly every minute at work, she had to keep from breaking out in a screaming rage. Snapping at the neighbors or her mother on the phone, keep from bursting into tears in front of her son. Can you feel the genre boundaries begin to shift? And shift they do. Two-thirds of the way through, Red Widow mutates into a tale steeped in empathetic woman-to-woman bonding and a quest to reverse institutional injustice.
This is a book crafted for marketplace success, awaiting a following it grandly deserves. It offers a thrilling spy hunt, an atmospheric recreation of CIA operations and culture, and a gentle shift into an upbeat tale anybody can get behind.
And there are enough skillfully placed loose ends to promise a dandy sequel. Support the Independent by purchasing this title via our affliate links: Amazon. Book Review in Fiction More. Lyndsey, when reporting to Eric for the first time, is nervous about telling him about her upcoming punishment for boinking a foreign agent. I bet he knows. Guess, what? He knows. Yup, someone did. I hated her chapters. Yes, we get it. You love your kid. Move the fuck on. The fucking book is named after her so yeah, she has to be the mole.
Theresa Warner is about as scary as the fuzzies under your sofa. Would a Russian spy give her this much info? Him holding a newspaper?
A phone call? Nope, she goes all in. Her sudden panicked reaction to his cold demeanor is hilarious. What did she expect? The Russian would immediately hand over her husband and apologize? Give her a basket of muffins? She does research on the names her handler helpfully gave her and this is her reaction: Theresa pushed back from her desk, stricken.
She tried not to let her shock show on her face. The man who was pulling her strings was a mastermind. Her hands started to tremble again.
Like, he might be smarter than me! She knew she was as smart as them [um, I disagree]. She had to: there was no other choice. There was Brian. It was her job to protect him, to stand between her precious boy and the monsters. Even the cold-blooded murderers and confirmed war criminals. She was only one woman, but she was his mother.
So after reading this chapter, you know who the mole is and what her code name is so the big reveal of Theresa signing a message to the Russians! Just another occasion for me to roll my eyes over the stupidity of this novel. Most of the book has been completely robbed of any suspense or mystery it could have had because the author reveals way too much so early on. However, after a few coffees, a few after work cocktails, they are besties.
So much so that Lyndsey is view spoiler [torn up about suspecting her dear, dear friend Theresa. Is it not possible, Lyndsey, that Theresa was chatting you up because she knew you were searching for the mole?
Searching for her? Katsu definitely works hard to portray her as an innocent victim. Despite all this, Theresa is not held responsible for any of her actions. Oh, no. The end is all smiles and hearts and two best girlfriends drinking prosecco. The scene of Richard coming home…oh fuck off.
Red Widow fucking sucks. Read some nonfiction accounts of spies. Anything is more exciting than this novel. Mar 29, Stacey Kade added it Shelves: read Highly, highly recommend. Probably will be one of my favorites for the year. Definitely one of my favorites reads this month. I also got the sense that maybe the author was in way over her head when it came to the genre or subject. The story opens with an intriguing scene.
On a flight from Moscow to the United States, a passenge 2. On a flight from Moscow to the United States, a passenger suddenly falls ill and dies, despite the best efforts of the flight crew to save his life.
And in a bedroom in Washington DC, a CIA operative named Lyndsey Duncan wakes up in the middle of the night to a phone call telling her to report to headquarters in Langley first thing in the morning. Having just been recalled from a mission in Lebanon for breaking some serious protocols, Lyndsey believes this means she is being dismissed from her position.
However, she soon finds out that the meeting is to be with her old boss Eric Newman, and instead of firing her, he gives her a new assignment. As it turns out, the man who died on the flight enroute from Moscow had been an important Russian asset, someone who was very close to Lyndsey from when she had been his handler back when she worked in Russian Division.
Eric suspects that the spy had found out his identity was compromised, and was in the process of fleeing when his enemies caught up to him and poisoned him. Thus Lyndsey, with her reputation for being a human lie detector, became his first choice to flush out the mole.
Still reeling from her change of fortune, Lyndsey moves back into Russian Division, ready to get to work. She is reacquainted with some of her old colleagues, including Theresa Warner, known around the office as the Red Widow due to the death of her husband Richard, a highly ranked and CIA agent who was killed in an operation in Russia a few years back.
Now raising her young son alone, Theresa has a lot of anger towards the higher ups in the agency, whom she blames for failing Richard. Lyndsey is warned not to get too close to her, lest she catch any of the blowback. But when Theresa gets some shocking news, reigniting her conflict with the CIA, Lydnsey will have to decide what to do about their friendship and how to proceed with the information she has learned.
Problem is, the entire premise of this book felt impractical and hardly convincing. The mood around their headquarters also feels a lot like high school full of gossipy women and supervisors who sleep with their underlings. Maybe try to show a little discretion? Sadly, that picture is quickly shattered long with any of my initial respect for her when it is soon revealed just how dumb she is.
Those elements come across as very rudimentary and paper-thin, and Lyndsey, for all that she is being touted as this amazing human lie detector, hardly uses any of her skills or does any real operative work to find the mole. I was thrilled to be approved and quickly dove in. Still waiting the outcome of her career following her dismissal from Beirut, CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan is recruited by her former colleague and Chief of the Russia Division for a special investigation.
Three informants are dead, and it's looking more likely that there's a mole in-house. Lyndsey agrees to lead the search, not knowing that the lines of trust are fickle, and motives aren't always as cut-and-dry as they appear to be.
I really enjoyed this book. First, as a protagonist, Lyndsey was dynamic and engaging. We get the mystery surrounding her dismissal, her obvious expertise in the field, and the rationale behind her approach to the investigation.
We also get her budding friendship with Theresa, The Widow, and I found the moments that she debates where she should draw her personal boundaries to be both endearing and tense. At a certain point, we know what's happening behind the scenes, and watching Lyndsey's discovery process unravel the intrigue was that much more successful because Katsu's clever structuring.
The plot is engrossing, an intricate web of deception that will leave you guessing until the very last page. I also think Katsu could have a successful series lead in the making, as I would definitely read the next installment of a Lyndsey Duncan narrative. I will say that this is more of a quiet thriller despite the action-packed lineup. Murders, poison, CIA, espionage--most of the in-your-face action happens off-scene, in a sense, and what we get is largely the intelligent mind-picking that follows.
That's not to say this is a dry read--I think this will appeal to many readers in the vein of 24 or Homeland--but I'd expect more of a thinker-thriller than a constant string of explosions. Overall, Red Widow is captivating, smart, and fascinating, a study in loyalty, morality, ethics, and the lengths people will go to save the ones they love.
Out in March, I can't wait for this one to hit the shelves. Mar 19, Laura crofteereader rated it liked it Shelves: netgalley. This one was a little slow. There are some big moments where the plot really ramps up and you're frantically turning pages, but most of the book feels like the insider threat awareness seminars and training that all government employees and contractors have to undergo and renew annually. Like, every step of the way I felt like I had a checklist in my brain like "did they look for this?
What are the office policies on that? Also there's a lot of narrative distance between our characters and the consequences. You have people dying in Russia but the playmakers are sitting at their desks pushing paper around in Virginia. Plus it felt like there were a lot of random threads left hanging - perhaps the promise of another book but more likely just not seen as important to the overall resolution. My biggest issue was with pacing though.
Apart from our insider threat awareness seminar, the big plot points and moments of tension are really spread out. But with a slow start and a stagnant middle, a reader may put the book down and not give it the chance it deserves. Jun 08, Kim Kaso rated it really liked it Shelves: ladies , lor , wom , women-of-mystery-finished , books-i-own. I particularly liked the 2 female protagonists. Lyndsey and Theresa are well-written as characters, I cared about them and their situations.
I worked on the Naval Security Station while serving as an officer, and going through security, opening safes, dealing with classified material everyday felt very familiar. The Russia side of the story felt right, and hope the author carries on with the story of Lyndsey and her new intelligence asset. Not quite to the level of my beloved George Smiley, but well worth reading and highly recommended.
I was in the mood for a spy thriller and picked this up. Turns out it's a really good one. Author Alma Katsu had a 35 year career in U. Intelligence at various agencies. That depth of experience comes through in the authenticity and easy authority with which she writes on the often complex organizational politics at play. The plotting is fast-paced and crafty and the characters are well drawn. If there's a sequel in the works I'm there.
Jan 01, David rated it it was amazing. Any book by Alma Katsu is an absolute treat. She can write in any genre and deliver the goods! Alma Katsu typically writes horror novels, so imagine my surprise when I find out that her latest novel, Red Widow, is a spy thriller. With that type of experience, I had high hopes for this look at modern-day spycraft. Unfortunately, much like her last horror novel, I found Red Widow a bit of a slog. I imagine that some of my disappointment with Red Widow stems from the fact that I pretty much guessed the plot a quart Alma Katsu typically writes horror novels, so imagine my surprise when I find out that her latest novel, Red Widow, is a spy thriller.
I imagine that some of my disappointment with Red Widow stems from the fact that I pretty much guessed the plot a quarter of the way in. This meant that there was nothing about it that was a surprise, which is not exactly what you want when you are reading a spy novel.
I mean, spying is all about keeping secrets and things not being what they seem. I mean, sure, Putin is an evil man who essentially brought Russia back being ruled by a Tzar, but is he really the biggest threat the country faces?
I struggle with this. Yes, there is some mention of China and cyber warfare in general, but the focus of Red Widow is strictly Russia and Russian double agents. It all feels more s and not at all present day. One situation involving an agent may be morally reprehensible and forbidden by the powers that be, and yet the very same situation involving a different agent will see that agent receiving accolades for that same action.
I get that the world of spying changes every minute of every day based on new information, but holy hell. At least pick a moral yardstick and consistently use it. For what it is worth, Lyndsey is pretty tough as an agent. She has the thick skin necessary for working in a male-dominated workplace.
Plus, she has the smarts to go toe-to-toe with any of her fellow analysts. She does a lot of hand-wringing about her previous assignment and how she left it, which is annoying. When she focuses on the task assigned to her, the story picks up speed and interest. Unfortunately, she spends as much time focused on the task as she does on her long-term situation.
Katsu paints. She makes a point to emphasize the hypocrisy of its leaders, the ongoing silos in which the analysts continue to work, and the continuous power struggles among the analysts as they use their access to information to get ahead of their counterparts. This is the fourth Katsu novel I have read, and I will admit to only liking two of them. The most recent of her novels left me disappointed because they were missing the magic of her previous novels.
Lyndsey Duncan is a CIA officer whose past actions have put her under a cloud. On her first overseas assignment, she was detailed to the high-stakes Moscow Field Station, where she recruited Yaromir Popov, a high-ranking officer in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service who proved to be an astonishing asset.
Then, rotated out of Russia to Lebanon, her new male colleagues — resentful? She played into their hands by having an affair with a man from another clandestine service. So now she finds herself back at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, unsure of her future there, while an investigation drags on. On the up side, Eric Newman, the chief of the Russia Division, has asked for her help. Apparently two double agents have gone missing in Russia — one a scientist and the other a military man.
It might also suggest that their identities were leaked by someone in the CIA. Her prize, Yaromir Popov, whom she regarded practically as a father, died on a flight to Washington the previous night, apparently poisoned.
She has a reputation as a human lie detector, which should stand her in good stead. However, she recognises one woman. Theresa Warner is a little older than Lyndsey, and they knew each other slightly in the old days.
Her husband was killed while conducting a sketchy Russian operation.
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