Review by Booklist Review
Espionage is a miserable life, rank with betrayal. So why is it such a hot subject for novelists? Perhaps because that shadowy fellow we're reading about, however ordinary he might seem, is in on all kinds of important stuff we aren't. Vidich refines the prosaic side of the spy's life in his novel's hero, Alex Matthews, a widower whose wife and daughter were killed in a boating accident. We see him struggling with a new wife and a gnarly adolescent son in long domestic scenes set forth in unadorned prose. This matter-of-fact style continues as Alex, who we meet as a burnt-out ex-CIA operative, is persuaded to head off to Russia to help a source of intel get out. Gears shift a bit for the long chase scene that follows, but it's in the concluding chapters that we see--rather, feel--the emotional effect of all this understatement as all betrayals are revealed. It's a stunning moment, since readers are invited to bring their long-denied shock and surprise to the scene.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Vidich (Beirut Station) serves up a rare misfire with this action-starved tale of a former CIA station chief in Moscow trying to extricate one of his old sources before the FSB closes in. It's been more than a decade since Alex Matthews resigned from the agency and started a Moscow-based financial firm, Trinity Capital, from the United States. The company has made Matthews a rich man, but not a happy one. His marriage to a beautiful CIA interpreter has chilled, and he's never been able to connect meaningfully with his teenage son. So when the agency asks Matthews to return to Russia and extract a double agent code-named Byron, whom Matthews hired, he sees an opportunity to recapture his glory days. Once Matthews arrives in Moscow, however, nothing goes as planned: Byron proves difficult to manage, and the Russians seem to always be two steps ahead of the CIA. The narrative's temperature rarely rises above a low heat, with little genuine suspense on offer. As a protagonist, Matthews lacks spark, and the plot suffers from numerous implausibilities, including a finale involving Matthews's wife that will leave most readers perplexed. Vidich is capable of much better. Agent: Will Roberts, Gernert Co. (May)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Alex Matthews used to run a string of CIA spies in Moscow, until he was forced out by enemies back home. Now he heads Trinity Capital, investing his clients' funds in Russia. The Agency calls him back for a one-off mission. Byron, a Russian asset recruited by Alex, has a file to share on a matter of national security implicating the White House. He'll only meet with Alex. The meeting is a disaster, and Alex is imprisoned temporarily. Upon release, he returns to Washington to continue rebuilding his life after the death of his wife and daughter in a boating accident. He's now married to Anna, a Russian translator for the Agency. But something's not right. In Moscow, Putin's government audits Alex's firm, threatening to confiscate its funds. It's dangerous to return. But Byron will only talk to Alex, who reluctantly agrees. Back in Russia, Alex is outfoxed at every step and there's a leak. Is the mole Anna? VERDICT Vidich's latest superb spy thriller (after Beirut Station) owes more to Charles McCarry than John le Carré, but the message is the same: spies pay for their loyalty in their inability to trust anyone else's.--David Keymer
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A retired CIA officer is pulled back into a dangerous game in this spy thriller by the author ofBeirut Station (2023). Alexander Matthews retired from the CIA and started Trinity Capital, a highly successful venture capital firm that often brings him to Russia. Once he'd been the CIA's top spy in Moscow, but that's all behind him now. But the Agency asks him for a favor: help extricate a Russian asset code-named Byron, a KGB-trained intelligence officer whom he had recruited and who claims to have sensitive secrets the CIA wants. He'd recruited other "poets" such as Keats and Blake, but they have vanished, perhaps in the bowels of Lefortvo Prison with bullets to the skull. Matthews has good reasons to decline: His late wife and daughter, killed in a boating accident while he was away, hated his lengthy absences, and he is on the verge of being estranged from his surviving son. He's remarried to a CIA translator, and his travel stresses that marriage. So of course he goes to Moscow and is promptly arrested on a trumped-up solicitation charge. Then the FSB tells him he's being investigated for tax fraud. Soon, he's reminded that it's dangerous for a wealthy American investor in Russia to be in the tabloids. And speaking of which, Byron claims to have the FSB's kompromat on Topcat, who'd been in Moscow for the Miss Universe contest in 2013. One CIA official calls him Apocalypse 45, but like Voldemort, no one says his name. Readers will have to figure that out. Meanwhile, Langley believes it has a mole. Matthews feels an emotional tug to Russia's capital city: He "wasn't from Moscow, but he was of Moscow." He's going to have to get over that, as he's not safe there anymore. Can he successfully exfiltrate Byron? As tension builds to a dramatic conclusion, so does the doubt. Vivid writing sets the tone: "The vans, yellow lights flashing, swallowed the prisoners like whales swallowing krill." The plot delivers eye-opening twists as well as insights into the Russian psyche. "In Russia," a character says, "stories never have happy endings." This one fits right in. Proof that we don't need the Cold War for smart spy fiction. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
