A review by jtduncan16
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

3.0

I read this right around the time the movie was coming out (which I have not seen yet) without really knowing much about it. What proceeded was most like a sexualized Jason Bourne story with both a male and female protagonist. While I’ve read that the depictions of how the CIA operate abroad are accurate, they did make for some long passages about how to detect surveillance.

As thrillers go, this one is passable, with one caveat. The expected double (or maybe triple?) cross happened in a flash without a lot of preamble or internal character monologue – I found this disingenuous and unbelievable, even in the midst of my willing suspension of disbelief required for a Russian spy thriller. Overall a fine part one of a trilogy, but I don’t expect to read the next two books.