With the holidays and a quiet January, I’ve had a chance to catch up on my reading, and I’m enjoying a great thriller right now, The Kremlin’s Candidate, part three in The Red Sparrow Trilogy. I read the first two books, and this final novel does not disappoint at all.

The author is a thirty-year veteran of clandestine CIA work, so his knowledge is deep, and I would venture to say that he has probably painted one of the more realistic portraits of the world of spy-craft found in fiction. He has also created a wonderfully complicated plot that sweeps the reader along.

The two spies who dominate the prior books continue in The Kremlin’s Candidate. Dominika Egorova, the Russian superspy and Red Sparrow herself, and her C.I.A. handler Nate Nash, a younger James Bond field-officer-type (they are lovers, of course) are doing their best to prevent a Russian mole from ascending to the heights of D.C. power via a top government position in Washington. If successful, the mole will acquire access and expose the names of many in Russia who are passing along intelligence to the Americans, including the Red Sparrow herself.

With all its twists and turns, this race against the clock never lets up, and the author’s writing and dialogue are delicious!

Click here to see the book!