Quick Review: RED LONDON by Alma Katsu (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

November 8, 2022 Civilian Reader Review Alma Katsu, Espionage, Most Anticipated 2023, Mystery, Red London, Red Widow, Thriller

The New Cold War continues, as CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan travels to London, and infiltrates the world of the Russian Oligarchs in Britain

CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan has a new asset to turn, in order to prevent the most calculated global invasion of our time. But will their blossoming friendship get in the way?

After an explosive takedown of a well-placed mole within the CIA, agent Lyndsey Duncan has been tasked with keeping tabs on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. She arrives in London fully focused on the assignment at hand, until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, the very person responsible for ending her last mission overseas after they were caught in a whirlwind affair, personally calls for her.

After a suspicious attack on a powerful Russian oligarch’s property on Billionaires’ Row in the toniest neighborhood in London, Davis needs Lyndsey to cozy up to the billionaire’s aristocratic British wife, Emily Rotenberg. Lyndsey’s job is to obtain any and all information related to Emily’s husband, Mikhail Rotenberg, and his relationship with the new Russian president, whom CIA and MI6 believe is responsible for the sudden mysterious disappearance of his predecessor, the Hard Man. Fortunately for Lyndsey, there’s little to dissuade Emily from taking in a much-needed confidante. After all, misery needs company.

But before Lyndsey can cover much ground with her newfound friend, the CIA unveils a perturbing connection between Mikhail and Russia’s geopolitical past, one that could dangerously upend the world order as we know it. As the pressure to turn Emily becomes higher than ever, Lyndsey must walk a fine and ever-changing line to keep the oligarch’s fortune from falling into Russian hands and plunging the world into a new, disastrous geopolitical reality.

In Red London, the highly-anticipated sequel to Red Widow, CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan has been stationed in London to help out with an evolving situation involving a Russian oligarch who may or may not be on the outs with the new president. One of my most-anticipated novels of the year, I’m happy to report that it lived up to my high expectations. Continue reading →

New Books (September)

October 1, 2022October 13, 2022 Civilian Reader New Books Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alma Katsu, AM Homes, Anthony McCarten, Anthony Reynolds, David Annandale, James Rollins, Kyle Mills, Moses Ose Utomi, Natalie Haynes, Vince Flynn, Walter Mosley

I’m going to be sharing these a bit more frequently, I think. As I’m spending less time on social media, where I would often share as-they-come-in updates and so forth, I don’t want any books to get overlooked or missed.

Featuring: David Annandale, Natalie Haynes, A. M. Homes, Steven Hyden, Alma Katsu, Anthony McCarten, Kyle Mills, Walter Mosley, Anthony Reynolds, James Rollins, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Moses Ose Utomi

Continue reading →

New Books (June-July)

July 24, 2022July 20, 2022 Civilian Reader New Books Alex Segura, Alma Katsu, Anya Ow, Brenda Lozano, Chris Wraight, Dan Pfeiffer, Emery Robin, Emily McGovern, GB Trudeau, Grant Ginder, Guy Haley, Heather Cleary, J M Miro, James Grippando, John French, John Irving, Jonathan Ames, Jordan Harper, Josh Riedel, JT Greathouse, Lauren Nossett, Lillian Fishman, Margaret Sullivan, Meg Gardiner, Michael Mann, Olivia Blake, Patrick Radden Keefe, Paul Oyer, Robert Pobi, S A Cosby, Sam Lipstye, Samantha Jayne Allen, Tea Hacic-Vlahovic, Timothy Bella

Featuring: Samantha Jayne Allen, Jonathan Ames, Timothy Bella, Olivia Blake, Hillary Chute, Heather Cleary, S. A. Cosby, Lillian Fishman, John French, Meg Gardiner, Grant Ginder, J. T. Greathouse, James Grippando, Tea Hacic-Vlahovic, Guy Haley, Jordan Harper, John Irving, Alma Katsu, Patrick Radden Keefe, Kathleen Kent, Joe R. Lansdale, Sam Lipsyte, Brenda Lozano, Michael Mann, Emily McGovern, J. M. Miro, Lauren Nossett, Anya Ow, Paul Oyer, Dan Pfeiffer, Robert Pobi, Josh Riedel, Emery Robin, Alex Segura, Mike Shackle, Margaret Sullivan, G.B. Trudeau, Chris Wraight

Continue reading →

Upcoming: RED LONDON by Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

July 20, 2022 Civilian Reader Upcoming Alma Katsu, CIA, Espionage, GP Putnam's Sons, Most Anticipated 2023, Mystery, Red London, Red Widow, Thriller

Alma Katsu‘s Red Widow is one of my favourite thrillers from last year, so when I saw that its sequel, Red London was on the way, I immediately added it to my Must Read list. Given Katsu’s background actually working for CIA, it’s a series that readers can be confident has plenty of verisimilitude. Also, because Katsu’s an excellent author, Red Widow was a gripping story, populated by engaging and well-drawn characters. I have no doubt that Red London will provide more of the same. Here’s the synopsis:

CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan has a new asset to turn, in order to prevent the most calculated global invasion of our time. But will their blossoming friendship get in the way?

Red London is a nuanced, race-against-the-clock story that at times feels eerily set against today’s headlines, a testament to author Alma Katsu’s 30-plus career in national security. It’s a rare spy novel written by an insider that feels as prescient as it is page-turning and utterly unforgettable.

Alma Katsu’s Red London is due to be published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in North America and in the UK, on March 14th, 2023.

Also on CR: Interview with Alma Katsu (2013); Review of Red Widow

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Quick Review: RED WIDOW by Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

April 8, 2021 Civilian Reader Review Alma Katsu, CIA, Espionage, Fiction, GP Putnam's Sons, Most Anticipated 2021, Mystery, Red Widow

When you work in a building of smoke & mirrors, everyone and everything should be questioned…

The story of two women CIA agents whose paths become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division – one that’s coming from inside the agency.

Lyndsey Duncan worries her career with the CIA might be over. After lines are crossed with another intelligence agent during an assignment, she is sent home to Washington on administrative leave. So when a former colleague — now Chief of the Russia Division — recruits her for an internal investigation, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Lyndsey was once a top handler in the Moscow Field Station, where she was known as the “human lie detector” and praised for recruiting some of the most senior Russian officials. But now, three Russian assets have been exposed — including one of her own — and the CIA is convinced there’s a mole in the department. With years of work in question and lives on the line, Lyndsey is thrown back into life at the agency, this time tracing the steps of those closest to her.

Meanwhile, fellow agent Theresa Warner can’t avoid the spotlight. She is the infamous “Red Widow,” the wife of a former director killed in the field under mysterious circumstances. With her husband’s legacy shadowing her every move, Theresa is a fixture of the Russia Division, and as she and Lyndsey strike up an unusual friendship, her knowledge proves invaluable. But as Lyndsey uncovers a surprising connection to Theresa that could answer all of her questions, she unearths a terrifying web of secrets within the department, if only she is willing to unravel it…

I haven’t read all of Katsu’s previous works, but as a long-time lover for espionage fiction, I knew I had to read this as soon as I could. I’m very glad to report that it is an engaging, twisty espionage novel set in the halls of Langley and D.C. I enjoyed this a lot. Continue reading →

New Books (December-January)

January 25, 2021March 31, 2021 Civilian Reader New Books Alma Katsu, Amanda Montell, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Veasna So, Ava Barry, Bae Myung-hoon, Bryan Christy, Charles Soule, CK McDonnell, Dan Morain, Dana Stabenow, David Ebenbach, Elliot Ackerman, Eula Biss, Glenn Dixon, Graham McNeill, James Stavridis, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Melissa Broder, Paul French, Premee Mohamed, Richard Falkirk, S.J. Morden, Samuel L Popkin, Sexton Blake, Tahi Saihate, Wallace Stroby, Walter Isaacson

Featuring: Elliot Ackerman, Bae Myung-hoon, Ava Barry, Eula Biss, Sexton Blake, Melissa Broder, Bryan Christy, Glenn Dixon, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, David Ebenbach, Richard Falkirk, Paul French, Walter Isaacson, Alma Katsu, Cassandra Khaw, Andrew McCarthy, C.K. McDonnell, Graham McNeill, Premee Mohamed, Amanda Montell, Dan Morain, S.J. Morden, Samuel L. Popkin, Tahi Saihate, Anthony Veasna So, Charles Soule, Dana Stabenow, Wallace Stroby

Continue reading →

Upcoming: RED WIDOW by Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

July 15, 2020March 31, 2021 Civilian Reader Upcoming Alma Katsu, CIA, Espionage, GP Putnam's Sons, Most Anticipated 2021, Mystery, Red Widow, Thriller, Upcoming 2021

Spotted this on Edelweiss. After making quite a splash with The Deep, a supernatural suspense novel about the Titanic, Alma Katsu‘s next novel takes on the espionage genre. In addition to the eye-catching cover, Katsu’s latest novel has an intriguing premise — the mole in the spy agency sub-genre has always been interesting to me, so this is high on my must-read list. It looks like it could appeal to readers of Karen Cleveland (Need to Know and Keep You Close), John le Carré, Jason Matthews (the Red Sparrow trilogy), and thriller/mystery readers in general. Here’s the synopsis for Red Widow:

An exhilarating spy thriller about two women CIA agents who become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division — one that’s coming from inside the agency.

Lyndsey Duncan worries her career with the CIA might be over. After lines are crossed with another intelligence agent during her most recent assignment, she is sent home to Washington on administrative leave. So when a former colleague, now Chief of the Russia Division, recruits her for an internal investigation, she jumps at the chance to prove herself once more. Lyndsey was once a top handler in the Moscow Field Station, known as the “human lie detector” and praised for recruiting some of the most senior Russian officials. But now, three Russian assets have been discovered — including one of her own — and the CIA is convinced there’s a mole in the department. With years of work in question, and lives on the line, Lyndsey is thrown back into life at the agency, only this time tracing the steps of those closest to her.

Meanwhile, fellow agent Theresa Warner can’t avoid the spotlight. She is the infamous “Red Widow,” the wife of a former director killed in the field under mysterious circumstances. With her husband’s legacy shadowing her every move, Theresa is a fixture of the Russia Division, and as she and Lyndsey strike up an unusual friendship, her knowledge proves invaluable. But as Lyndsey uncovers a surprising connection to Theresa that could answer all of her questions, she exposes a terrifying web of secrets within the department, if only she is willing to unravel it…

Alma Katsu’s Red Widow is due to be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in North America and in the UK, on March 23rd, 2021. Looking forward to reading it!

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

An Interview with ALMA KATSU

December 23, 2013 Civilian Reader Interview Alma Katsu, Arrow, Descent, Fantasy, Fiction, Immortal Trilogy, Random House, Reckoning, Romance, Simon and Schuster, Supernatural, Taker, Taker Trilogy

A few days ago, a copy of Alma Katsu’s third novel, The Descent dropped through the mailbox. It is the third novel in the author’s The Immortal trilogy, but I didn’t (at the time) know too much about the series or the author, so I took the opportunity to send her some questions.

Who is Alma Katsu?

As a girl, I wanted to have a magical, fantastical life but the outlook was kind of narrow and grim, and I think that’s why I turned to creating my own worlds in fiction. Then, funnily enough, I ended up having a life that was the stuff of fantasy: working in intelligence, traveling, doing all this technical, math-y stuff that I never would’ve thought possible for a little storyteller. Lesson: you never know where life will take you.

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your latest novel, The Descent, is the final part of The Immortal trilogy (to be published by Arrow). How would you introduce the series to new readers, and what can fans expect from this third book?

UK & US Covers

The Immortal trilogy is the story of a young woman, Lanore McIlvrae, who goes to the very ends of the world—really sort of transcends the fabric of reality—for love, only to find out that she shouldn’t have done it, that she was wrong to do it. Just when she’s resolved that she’s going to be unhappy for the rest of her life because she can’t have the man she loves, she finds out that this other man has fallen in love with her, a terrible evil man who is willing to try to change for her if she will give him the chance. And that’s where we are in The Descent: will she give them both the chance to live happily ever after together?

What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

I wanted to write the story of a woman whose love is so strong that it would literally transcend time, but who ends up making a terrible mistake and paying for it for eternity. Great big, tragic love stories in general are the inspiration for the books: Tess of the D’Urbervilles (I’m a big Thomas Hardy fan); Anna Karenina; Gothics such as Dracula. Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire was a big inspiration for The Taker, but mostly for the structure: a character who has lived a long time and under unusual circumstances looks back on her tragic life.

I’ve noticed that as a writer I’m drawn to the same themes over and over and they tend to be tragic: the glory and the tyranny of love, losing your heart’s desire because of a Faustian bargain you’ve made. I’m starting to think about broader themes, too, such as seemingly insurmountable injustice. And I seem to be inspired by specific periods and places in history.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

I am an eclectic reader. I started reading adult stuff very young. Edgar Allan Poe at eight, I think. It was a mix of everything, all kinds of genre as well as more mainstream and literary fiction. That’s probably one of the reasons I mix genres as a writer: as long as the story is great and the characters are rich and fully developed, that’s all that matters.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

For someone who has spent most of her adult life working for the government, where there is no profit motive, understanding the business side of publishing has been quite an experience. It’s not enough to have a great story, to have something that’s really well written if it doesn’t catch on with readers. You see so many really wonderful things that don’t find the readership they deserve and it’s heartbreaking.

I work on my writing every day, in addition to all the promotional things that writers must do. I constantly strive to be a better, more efficient writer. It’s something I learned from my day job, as an analyst: to make improvement a conscious decision. I’m not a fast writer by nature and that’s what I hope to work on in 2014: to do better early drafts so they don’t need so much revision. That probably makes me sound really dull and I’m afraid it’s true.

Books 1 & 2 – UK Covers

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

When I was very young, my sister and I (with whom I shared a bedroom) used to stay up very late into the night telling a never-ending story. We did this for years. She grew tired of it and I suppose that’s when I started writing little stories of my own. Funny, I recently learned from her daughter (all grown up) that she used to do the same thing with her cousin (my other sister’s oldest daughter) whenever they got together. They would make up stories together. It must be in the blood.

Books 1 & 2 – US Covers

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

That’s a tough question for me because I don’t think my books fall into any particular genre. They are similar to books like Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, or The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, or (dare I say?) The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger in that they are mainstream fiction with elements of various genres. In the case of The Immortal trilogy, I would say they’re mainstream fiction with historical, fantasy, romance and supernatural elements in them.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I just came up with the idea of a story that deals with witches in Colonial New England – having grown up in a historical area in Massachusetts and fascinated with witches, I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to come up with a story! I may be in the honeymoon phase, but I’m really excited about it. This means putting aside – again – an idea I have for a pure historical (no magic) set in Georgian times and involving highwaymen. I have a pile of books for research or that one, waiting to be read.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

I’m reading Entertaining Satan as research for the novel I described earlier and I hope to start Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate soon. Also finishing up The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt on audio because I like listening to audiobooks before bedtime. Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries is on deck, as well as Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, and Perfume by Patrick Suskind. And that’s just the books that have come in within the past few weeks. Honestly, there are so many books piled up here it’s a wonder I can get to the door.

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

For a few brief years in the 1980s, in Boston and Washington, D.C., I was a music journalist. I got to interview musicians like the Cars, Joan Jett, the Go-Gos and the Ramones.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

I’m changing day jobs. It’s to a place where I used to work and so I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends again. However, since the traffic in the D.C. area is horrendous, it also means selling our house and moving, which will be an absolute nightmare.

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The Taker and The Reckoning are out now in the UK (Random House) and US (Simon & Schuster). The Descent will be published in January 2014. Be sure to follow the author on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads, as well as check out her website for more information as well.