Read @ Joe’s

Title: The Collaborators (2024) Author: Michael Idov Publisher: Scribner Book jacket: This spy thriller features a brilliant young intelligence officer and a troubled heiress who stumble into a global conspiracy that pits present-day Russia against the CIA. Joe says: The Collaborators effectively provides what any good spy novel promises: an entertaining piece of legerdemain.

The Collaborators effectively provides what any good spy novel promises: an entertaining piece of legerdemain. From Moscow to Riga and Lisbon to LA, Michael Idov’s latest involves CIA media handlers, GRU financial tactics, old school war horses, and, why not, a day actress from central casting. Although saddled with a requisite stairwell shootout along with a motorcycle chase sequence, the true intrigue in this story is the slow reveal of the three-card monte hand. So yes, The Collaborators is a truly good spy novel.

Disaffected millennial (and oh, ain’t they all) CIA officer Ari Falk is thrown into a personal crisis following the death of a recent asset he was attempting to get to safety. Looking into that disastrous event, Falk discovers two more supposed deaths – apparently a husband and wife. Or are they simply missing? As he looks into the connection, Falk runs into LA heiress Maya Chou, also reeling from a death – that of her father’s. Maya likewise realizes that perhaps her father is not dead after all. Falk and Maya soon realize their quest might be one in the same.

Within The Collaborators, Idov presents a deep look at recent Russian history sandwiched with reasonable CIA paranoia. His writing style couples the bookish grace of John Le Carré combined with a glorious sarcastic quality that makes Mick Herron books so damn enjoyable. Falk is not James Bond nor is he Jason Bourne. He worries. He plots. He over thinks – a lot. If anything, Falk’s compassion is similar enough to Herron’s stalwart character River Cartwright, as is their shared scorched earth mentality when things don’t go right.

Idov tempers the attractive spy game with a significant back story on Maya’s father, billionaire Paul Obrandt, a Russian-Jew ex-pat whose Rumpelstiltskin qualities has him spinning gold out of lies. Idov’s story weaves through financial trickery and telecom wizardry while managing to keep it all entertaining.

The Collaborators presents a different kind of spy novel. There is no mustache twirling from the shadows. The sought-after New World Order is not one of authoritarian rule. Yet the stakes are equally high and the pain within is all-too real. Idov has Ali Falk constantly deliberate, but true to the genre, much of that happens on the run. Falk is fast thinking enough to bring truth to the fictional layout while sardonically winking at the elaborate ploy Idov has so masterfully cast. 

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Thanks to Scribner for the advance read and the wonderful trip through Europe.