Red Sparrow, Volume 1 - Jason Matthews

An impossible-to-put-down, highly commercial espionage thriller written by a CIA insider. In today's Russia, a state intelligence officer begins a fatal double life, recruited by the CIA to ferret out a high-level traitor in Washington; hunt down a Russian illegal buried deep in the U.S. military and, against all odds, to return to Moscow as a spy.

nNow a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton n A great and dangerous spy-game is being played today between Russian intelligence and the CIA. Very few people know about it, but Jason Matthews does, and his thrilling Red Sparrow takes us deep inside this treacherous world. He's an insider's insider.

And he is also a masterful storyteller. I loved this book and could not put it down. Neither will you.

--Vince Flynn n nIn the grand spy-tale tradition of John le Carr ...comes this shocking thriller written with insider detail known only to a veteran CIA officer. n nIn present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a Sparrow, a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency's most important Russian mole.

n nAs the action careens between Russia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States, Dominika and Nate soon collide in a duel of wills, tradecraft, and--inevitably--forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but those of others as well. As secret allegiances are made and broken, Dominika and Nate's game reaches a deadly crossroads. Soon one of them begins a dangerous double existence in a life-and-death operation that consumes intelligence agencies from Moscow to Washington, DC.

n nPage by page, veteran CIA officer Jason Matthews's Red Sparrow delights, terrifies and fascinates, all while delivering an unforgettable cast, from a sadistic Spetsnaz mechanic who carries out Putin's murderous schemes to the weary CIA Station Chief who resists Washington cake-eaters. Packed with insider detail, this novel brims with Matthews's life experience of espionage, counterintelligence, spy recruitment, and cyber-warfare. Brilliantly composed, Red Sparrow is a masterful spy tale.

Authentic, tense, and entertaining, this novel introduces Jason Matthews as a major new American talent.n