Free (iBooks) - Moscow Sting by Alex Dryden [Espionage Thriller]

[Hellmark]

No longer free at B&N, Kobo, or Amazon.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

No longer free at B&N, Kobo, or Amazon.

Correct, but still free at selected public libraries in Canada and the US

And I just finished it. And it was almost as good as #1 in the series. Some will say better.

Slight cavil: I don't buy that clever people can look at a person's eyes and see into their character. Can Alex Dryden really believe this, or is it just a phony plot device used to elucidate character when he can't think of something better?

I'm now on the FLP wait list for #3, The Blind Spy.

#4, Death in Siberia, was released in Britain last November but still isn't available in the US, except as a pbook import. What's with that?

[SteveEisenberg]

Just finished #3, The Blind Spy

It's well worth reading if you have any interest in either US foreign policy or Eastern Europe, and reviews I'm finding are good -- but few in number. I usually judge books a lot by whether they are realistic. Much of the appeal is that you know Dryden is retired MI6 and can get away with truths in fiction he couldn't in non-fiction. But which parts are and are not ripped from real occurrences? Take the title character. While many blind people can have productive careers, the idea of a blind spy who travels foreign cities, by himself, sensing surroundings better than virtually all sighted spies is a little hard to accept. On the other hand, maybe Dryden knows a real-life blind (or comparably disabled) spy.

This must have been a problem for Dryden:

April 27, 2010 - Russia and Ukraine Announce 25 Year Sevastopol Lease Extension

September 16, 2010 - Original publication date, The Blind Spy

To its credit, the book does integrate the lease extension in the plot. This news event must have caused a big last minute re-write. If you will like guessing how it changed the book, and deciding whether it argues for or against the overall Dryden political thesis, this book is definitely for you.

[russianfiction]

Очень хорошая книга!