Red Sparrow
By Jason Matthews
Dom’s Book Club for April, 2018

It’s not like anyone misses the fear and the outright danger we experienced during the Cold War. Americans actually built bomb shelters in their backyards, and I have memories of doing nuclear attack drills in elementary school. Weird.

So, no, we don’t miss that stuff. But we certainly have missed Cold War spy novels. They became staples of the bestseller lists, with hit after hit from Ian Fleming, John le Carre, and Frederick Forsyth. As long as the adventures rested within the covers of a book it was cool.

But even though the old USSR dissolved, it doesn’t mean there isn’t tension between the USA and Russia. And who better to tell a tale about CIA involvement with Russian spies than a former real-life CIA officer? Jason Matthews served for more than three decades, and brought his years of intelligence work to the world of spy writing.

Red Sparrow is the story of a young Russian woman who is brought into the Sparrow program, basically a division trained to seduce their targets into revealing information. In this case, Dominika Egorova is assigned the job of beguiling Nathaniel Nash, a CIA officer working to penetrate Russian intelligence.

As in most good spy fare, you get a healthy dose of action, danger, double-crosses, and sex. This was Matthews’ first novel, and it won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

The movie that recently hit theaters (starring Jennifer Lawrence) has garnered mixed reviews, but the novel upon which it’s based has been lauded as a pulse-pounding winner.

It’s our selection for April. If you stop by The Tattered Cover Book Store and mention Dom’s Book Club they’ll happily give you a 20% discount on this title.

Happy reading.