Palace of Treason: A Novel (2) (The Red Sparrow Trilogy) Mass Market Paperback – June 28, 2016

It has been about eight years since Jason Matthews “The Red Sparrow” (RS) was published with some fanfare. I read it early on and liked it, but not enough to rush out and buy the second book of the trilogy when it was introduced. During the pandemic year three events related to RS occurred and as a result I decided to read #2, “Palace of Treason” (PT). First I finally began to notice trailers and ads for the movie version of RS, starring Jennifer Lawrence. Very appealing, glossy, eye-catching. The, Matthews passed away as the result of illness. The obits were very complimentary of his writing career and dwelt considerably on his years as a CIA agent; I had under-rated him. I decided to watch the movie RS and liked it, particularly the scenery, the leading actress, and the plot. While it occasionally fell back and relied a bit too much on the current popular millisecond action scenes, it did so with a frequency barely tolerable to a 70+ year old. I did not care at all for the casting of the leading man who all too often appeared to be coming off a week-end drinking binge, but it not deter me from my decision.PT is too long, by at least 150 pages. But there is a lot of good spy stuff here. Matthews has clearly injected the basic plot with a lot of genuine CIA action, particularly training to recognize tailing by a team of 20+ agents. Some of it is predictable, and there seems to be too many missions that get fouled up at a critical moment. The basic storyline is that he is an agent for the CIA and she is an agent for the Russians. He “turns” her, or does he? She comes under suspicion by Putin and other Ruskie bad guys, but manages to convince the “red (pun) team” that she is loyal to Mother Russia….more than once. It’s interesting to me that the author manages to weave this basic plot through more than one book, though it really started to feel a tad old by the end of PT. And the author did seem to have painted himself into a corner 100 pages or so from the end of PT such that there was only one possible climax.This is a 3 ½, not a 4 star. And Matthews was a good solid spy fiction writer, not quite a Deighton, LeCarre, or Littell but close. Will I read #3, “The Kremlin Candidate”? I don’t know.

Well crafted plot with beautiful turns of phrase to the point where it is almost overly literary. The characters are nicely drawn, characters you care about, individuals with nuance. The spying, for both Main Enemies, sounds like stuff real spies would concern themselves with these days, highly specific real world information quests etc. done with a (sometimes dubious) team, not lone wolf James Bond preventing a laser weapon on the moon. I also like that the Russian leader in THIS novel does not have an alias, if you mean Putin, say Putin.The romance was pretty good, tempered by realism of the situation of the main characters too.This book and its predecessor Red Sparrow has improved my life in one unexpected way: the recipes at the end of each chapter commemorating a food item eaten or mentioned in that chapter. I made Old Lady's Beet Soup the other night, it was fabulous, I will try some others. One action filled chapter had, unusual in this series, no eating... but an expanding bullet turned a villain's brains to 'gazpacho', so there's a gazpacho recipe... I may skip that one.Is a cookbook on the way? A restaurant, perhaps, with a spy themed decor and an eclectic global spy themed cuisine? I would gladly eat at the Red Sparrow were one to open in my state!

There are many complimentary quotations on the books cover, which all fail to mention the most important thing about it: that it sucks beyone any capacity of words to convey.The writing style, like that of the two earlier books in the series, is gag-worthy, but with a new twist: in this book the author begins to use rare and unfamilar words (undoubtably found with the “synonyms” function) instead of the standard vocabluary of the earlier books; presumably this is to sound erudite, but instead it sounds artificial and pretentious.The villains (as in the prequels) are cardboard cliche’s: all are physically deformed and psycholgically creepy (if Russian). American bad guys are arrogant, liberal, and Intellectuals. As always, whenever the lead character is mentioned, attention is called to her massive breasts (finally, here, the actual dimensions are given). There is also reference to the small size (both physical and phallic) of the Russian dictator (Putin).

This novel is essentially a continuation of the author's first book, Red Sparrow, which I initially read. It made a good enough impression on me to justify purchasing his second one. The plot centers around a CIA agent and his attempt to turn and run a Russian agent as a spy for the U.S. The good points I liked about the the book are 1.) there is a reasonable level of suspense in most parts of the story and 2.) spy craft details and techniques are well presented. The aspects I didn't care for are 1.) I felt the author didn't portray realistic characters as they appeared more like caricatures with extreme qualities of beauty, strength, wisdom, cruelty 2.) the author makes a point of mentioning a specific food dish in each chapter and then presents the recipe for that dish at the end of the chapter which seems eccentric to me 3.) the sex scenes are overdrawn 4.) the Russian agent sees auras of color surrounding everyone which she is constantly interpreting and having dialogues with spirits 5.) there were parts of the book I skimmed over and thought the story line and writing could be tighter.The ending for this book leaves open the possibility of continuing the story in a future novel but in consideration of the negative points above, I doubt if I would be willing to buy it.

When you’ve written a successful book, the temptation is to write the same book again. Palace of Treason is very similar to Red Sparrow - we re-engage with Nate Nash, dashing young CIA officer, and Dominika Egorova, Russian SVR femme fatale. They continue to have ill-advised physical relations with each other and with anything else with a pulse. We know this will not end well.More baddies and moles pop up from nowhere. Some of these baddies are delightfully grotesque if somewhat caricatured. And just like in Red Sparrow, Jason Matthews has no difficulty in killing off leading characters.Dominika continues to see auras. The pace continues to be slow. There is more repetition including, perhaps necessarily, some rehearsing of events of the first novel. There is also some disconcerting jumping of timelines as points of view alter - creating some situations where the reader has already been told the outcome of an episode that is then set out in some detail. This feels clumsy.And The Palace of Treason is just as salacious as Red Sparrow.But also like Red Sparrow, the plot carries the clunky writing and expository dialogue. This is very much a sequel - it would probably feel weird if you read this one first - but if the first one floated your boat (it didn’t float everyone’s boat) then this probably will too.

I really enjoyed this book.At 530 pages it's long but kept me riveted throughout. Set in Washington, Moscow, Paris and Athens "a dangerous place, part Balkan, part Mediterranean, part Beirut" there's clandestine meetings in dark places, treachery, violence and sex. Typical spy novel! I think it was the Guardian that called it "more Ludlum than Le Carre" and I agree, though to be fair, that's more comment than criticism. I liked the CIA handlers Gable and Bemford [though not, for some reason, Nate] and wonder what their real life counterparts made of it - worried by its authenticity [the author used to work for them] or smiling at its fiction? And if the Russian president ever gets to read it, I'd love to see his reaction to one bit in particular!! There are weaknesses - Felony, Eva and the Moscow Head of station spring to mind - but overall it's engaging and well-written. Even though you can see it coming, I think you'll love the last line, which is interesting given that Matthews is working on his next novel. I look forward to it.

The plot is about an impossibly accomplished, fit and good looking female double agent within the Russian establishment, fairly clever plot and plenty of action and inevitably violence, but this is not continuous through the book. There seems to be flat areas in the book where the author appears to be padding out the background history of some of the protagonists which I found a bore and didn't add to the plot. I started to skip through quite a few paragraphs and come the end of the book there I had no feeling that I had missed out on things. Despite only giving this 3* I would like to see a film based on this book as it would be able to leave out all the dull bits.

What a read, I was totally engrossed in this book having only just finished Red Sparrow I dived straight into this and was hoping it would live up to the first instalment, I was not disappointed.This is a fast paced spy story set in Washington, Moscow, Paris and Athens there are loads of heart stopping moments , double crosses, violence and sex. We see the main characters develop well and feel that we are in touch with what they are doing. I'm glad to see that the receipts are still being added at the end of each chapter a nice touch from the first book, which I would recommend that you read and then quickly follow on with this and the next which I cant wait to read.

I just read this and Matthews debut novel Red Sparrow and I greatly enjoyed both and luckily I took some time off work and weather was bad so I read the thing straight through with only a few hours sleep it was that good. I'm pleased the little quirke of displaying the recipe of whatever food the American and Russian characters have been enjoying at the end of each chapter has been retained. I've attempted two already and it saves on a cook book. This book was even better as the characters developed further and Matthews succeeded in informing the reader of the unique pressures that intelligence officers on all sides are up against. Quite often the barriers are internal such as bureaucracy, budgetary and also the egos and limitations of the politicians directing them as well as their opponents who are often devious, audacious, cruel and sadistic and often not accountable. I really enjoyed the one liners, some of which I will use next time I'm out for a beer and even some of the crude but very well worded descriptions the authour uses about the sexual habits of some of the CIA's assailants and the bemusement of the women concerned. I think I'd watch what I'd say about Putin though Jason unless you like something spicy in your tea mate! . Again a great read and this author's two books I have enjoyed as much as others written by the likes of Michael Connolly, Peter James, Lee Child, and Andy Mcnab. He should get better and better too and I hope the Nat and Dom develops further.