Red Star Burning
A Thriller
-
-
3.8 • 6 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Britain's MI5 tolerates Charlie Muffin because he's their best field agent. What none of his colleagues knows, though, is that he is married to Natalia Fedova, a colonel in the FSB, the Russian intelligence successor to the KGB. It's a secret that could land her in front of a firing squad, and him in jail for life. Worst of all, their daughter would then end up in a Russian state orphanage.
But a frantic call from Natalia has brought their secret out, and Charlie must lead a combined MI5/MI6 mission to rescue her. He soon realizes that his higher-ups have other priorities than his family's safety. Charlie will have to outwit not just the Russians but his own government as well to protect the lives of his wife and child.
Clever, unpredictable, and exciting, Red Star Burning shows why Brian Freemantle has been widely praised as one of the greatest living espionage novelists.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freemantle's dry satirical wit, aimed directly at the pomposity of intelligence bureaucrats and politicians, lifts his 16th thriller featuring spy Charlie Muffin (after 2010's Red Star Rising). Muffin goes undercover in Russia to extract his own wife their marriage has been a secret up until now and return with her to London. His wife, Natalia, a colonel in Russia's intelligence agency, the FSB, has long wanted to defect, and her knowledge of her country's secret affairs would be a huge intelligence coup for Charlie's employer, MI5. Meanwhile, Charlie's bosses, led by the unctuous Gerald Monsford, have their own extraction operation going on, and the unwitting Charlie is merely bait to distract the Russians' attention. Though the plot suffers from a surfeit of talking and a paucity of action, Muffin's a smooth operator, who with any luck will take on a more exciting challenge in his next outing.
Customer Reviews
Red Star Burning
Charlie Muffin, can't wait to see how you get out from under the Russians. Good read.