Alex Dryden

Alex Dryden's 'Red to Black' is a detailed account of the origin of his Anna Resnikov series, narrated by the then KGB officer as she begins the relationship with a male British spy that sets it all in motion. Can enemy spies fall in love? That seems to be the question over the first 2/3 of the book, and when finally answered things move quickly.

The plot is fairly complex. Finn, the British spy, has been in place in Moscow for an extended period. The Russians successfully use a beautiful KGB agent, Anna, to get close to him to find out what or who he's working with.... not the classic 'honey trap', but nearly so. They develop a relationship, Anna dutifully reports back details to her superiors, but she's not giving them everything. In the meantime, Finn discovers a huge Putin plot against the West, but his superiors think he's gone off the rails. He 'retires' as a spy, but opts to free-lance his investigations using an assortment of characters from his past. Will Anna help, or burn him? You need to read Red to Black to find out. It's worth it.

By the way, although first published in 2008, the Putin-related passages and descriptions of how Russia began to devolve from a potentially democratic country to an authoritarian regime that's almost a criminal enterprise on a grand scale couldn't be any more timely. Although it's fiction, the author has done his homework.

I've unfortunately read the series in reverse order. They've all been decent and this is the best of the lot. The writing is fine but the dialogue, as I've found through the series, is uneven, though that may be related to the diverse nationalities of the characters involved. Descriptions of tradecraft seem real, which is always a bonus in espionage novels, and the characters were fleshed out very well. It's an exciting beginning to the series and explains a lot- would've been better for me to start here!… (plus d'informations)

Alex Dryden's 'Moscow Sting' is a 'cat & mouse' spy thriller that's pretty well plotted but suffers from a couple unrealistic key characters and patches of stilted dialogue. It's a good novel, though, and the descriptions of the field work and trade craft seem solid.

The plot is complex and tough to describe without giving it all away, but the short explanation is that there's a beautiful female ex-KGB colonel living in hiding in rural France with her young son under the protection of the French intelligence service. Her husband, a spy for the Brits, had been poisoned by the Russians after having 'run' an agent who was close to Putin. Everybody wants to know who the agent was (the Russians, so they can kill him, the Americans, Brits, American contractors, etc. so they can continue to 'mine' him), so they're all searching for his murdered controller's widow. She's located by an American intelligence contractor and spirited away to the US, and the story continues as they try to extract information from her while others are attempting to find her. The detailed plot is much more complicated and fans of the genre will enjoy the chess-like moves by the various players.

My only real problem with 'Moscow Sting' was with the lead character, Burt, from the American contractor. He's larger-than-life, both literally and figuratively, seemingly omniscient, and connected to the 'official' intelligence offices in ways that I can't imagine being possible. His dialogue is full of God-like pronouncements and the size and power of his organization seems limitless. I may be totally off base, but I can't see interactions between state-based intelligence services and those of the private sector behaving as described. The 'damaged' ex-CIA operative, Logan, who is a central figure in the action is likewise a bit high on the unbelievability scale, but his failings are less obvious and more along the lines of behavior that's not consistent with someone of his reputation.

Other than that, I liked the way that Anna responded to the challenges thrown at her and I particularly liked the descriptions of her thought processes as she was plotting her movements. It was truly a 'cat & mouse' story, but the unique part is that the mouse seemed to call the shots in many ways.

'Moscow Sting' is certainly worth a read. Anna is a decent character that is a rarity in that she's ex-KGB but fairly likable.… (plus d'informations)

This was an average read. Putin is in charge now and the Communist "red" is being replaced by the capitalist "black". Finn is a British spy and Anna is a KGB Colonel. Anna lures Finn in a "honey trap" but the relationship actually works for them despite the complications of their lives. Finn uncovers a corrupt banking arms money scam that he tries to foil but of course it's in everyone's interests that he doesn't. The layers off corruption and the irrelevance of the truth are pure spy thriller stuff. Alex Dryden takes you into the settings both in terms of the espionage world and the European backdrop.… (plus d'informations)