About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

RED STAR BURNING
by Brian Freemantle
Thomas Dunn Books, July 2012
368 pages
$26.99
ISBN: 1250006368


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Charlie Muffin may be the best field agent in Britain's MI5, but he has been placed into protective custody after an operation in Russia that has him targeted for assassination. Unbeknownst to his employers, Charlie is married to an agent with the FSB in Russia, Natalia Fedova, with whom he has a young daughter. She fears that her agency has found out about their relationship, which could lead to her being placed in front of a firing squad and their child being raised by the state. Charlie wastes no time in breaking away from his minders; even though he is wanted in Russia, he travels there, hoping to find a way to bring Natalia and Sasha back to England with him.

What Charlie doesn't know is that he has stumbled into an operation being run by MI6 which has plans to aid a major intelligence worker in defecting to England. The head of that operation, Gerald Monstad, is a conniving opportunist and thinks nothing of using Charlie as bait in order to achieve his goal. Although ostensibly MI5 and MI6 are working together to help Charlie, the real story is something else altogether. The twists and turns are myriad, and it is almost impossible to determine who is friend or foe.

RED STAR BURNING is an excellent book on several levels. Freemantle does a great job of developing the espionage plot, and it's fascinating to see the conflicts not only between the UK and Russia but the political maneuvering between MI5 and MI6. The reality is that Charlie faces more of a threat from his counterparts in MI6 than the FSB assassins. The suspense rises as he navigates the treacherous world in which he is living. The book ends with a cliffhanger which will means a 12-month wait for a clear resolution! The only quibble I had with the book was that Freemantle at time invents his own usage, turning words that are typically nouns into verbs, which feels awkward at best.

RED STAR BURNING is the second in a trilogy within the 15-book Charlie Muffin series, following RED STAR RISING which revealed the perils that he and Natalia face working for the FSB in Russia and MI5 in Britain. I can't wait for the final chapter of the trilogy; Freemantle does a wonderful job of blending the interesting world of spy tradecraft with matters of the heart.

§ Formerly a training development manager for a large company, Maddy is now retired and continues to enable the addiction of crime fiction fans as owner of the online discussion group, 4 Mystery Addicts(4MA), while avidly reading in every possible free moment herself.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, July 2012

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]