Didn't care for the book. Too much going on, too many coincidences and caricatures of people.

The Bookworm is a good read that could have been great. Mitch Silver knows how to move a story along. But the book falls short due to too many implausible parts of the plot and, more seriously, the lack of character development so that the reader is left questioning motivations. The ending is particularly troubling, as everything that led to it indicated a troubled couple, in the midst of divorcing, who suddenly walk off into the proverbial sunset together. It was an unnecessary detail that spoils the memory of what had been a good read.

The Bookworm was a great mystery, a bit of a political thriller and a bit of a literary, history fiction book. I received a free copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Lara is a history professor who spent part of her youth in the U.S. where she also went to university. She is brilliant and even was a chess prodigy when she was younger. She is approached by an unknown person with a bag of audio reels from the 1940's with some pretty damning evidence against the U.S. and its role in the fight against Hitler. She is asked to translate the six audio recordings from English to Russian and help the source of the recordings find a book that is the subject of the recordings.

Lara, who is very skeptical about the contents of the recording until something said in the recordings sparks a memory and she begins thinking that the recordings just might be authentic. What is not authentic are all of the people and groups trying to get into her good graces to obtain the book for their own purposes. The Bookworm hints at the two leaders at the center of what is now something that can cause a lot of trouble for both the Russian government and the U.S. government. As she investigates the contents of the recording it seems that a lot of things might be tied together as her twin brother Lev, who has been working in Alaska, stumbles upon another aspect of what just might be a conspiracy, against who is the big question. The Bookworm is a book that appeals to readers of multiple genres and definitely makes me want to investigate more by the author. Review can also be seen at LadyTechie's Book Musings ladytechiesbookmusings.blogspot.com.

This book turns on the parallel lives of twins. One who lives in the US and the other in Russia. Through various coincidences they've been set to due the bidding of the leaders of those countries thinly disguised as Putin and Trump. Additionally making appearances are JFK, Winston Churchill, Noel Coward among other famous names. There were too many coincidences that allowed the author to "name drop" and this really took away from the storyline which is quite intriguing. I appreciated the opportunity to read an ARC from Pegasus Books through NetGalley.

Really two and a half stars.

This is an ambitious thriler--what else can you say about a title that features Noel Coward, JFK, Churchill, Hitler, Nostradamus, thinly viewed caricatures of Trump and Putin, and two of the greatest hoaxes of all time? The main characters are Russian twins, Lara and Lev, she a teaching professor in Russia and he monitoring the Alaskan oil fields. Through a series of convoluted circumstances, they separately become entwined in a conspiracy to perpetuate a hoax on the American and Russian peoples, due to the machinations of the corrupt leaders of each country.

A series of old recordings leads Lara to search for a Bible containing a false prophecy that enticed Hitler to attack Russia instead of England; Lev becomes suspicious of the origins of oil coming from Alaskan pipelines; and all comes together in an improbable series of circumstances that draws Lara's almost ex-husband, a Russian spy, into the mix.

Mitch Silver obviously knows his history and much about the world of espionage. However, a lot of this book just happens, not enough character development and characters who lack believable motives. Lara's decision making at the end of the book is inexplicable, given events with her estranged husband throughout the book.

Silver has all the makings of an enthralling spy thriller; nevertheless, the elements don't quite come together smoothly and believably enough to make this a must read.

Full Disclosure--Net Gallery and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it was the right balance of historical fiction with a modern crime drama. It had a lot of depth to the story but it was hard to follow at times. It was a very enjoyable book but not necessarily an easy read as it needs a bit of time to understand many of the topics.

I liked the main character, Lara and found her to be a strong protagonist with her combination of brains and bravery. There were many other characters in the book and again it takes a bit of time and effort to follow them all. The book jumps between WW2 and the present day in Russia, USA, Germany and the U.K. and it really helps to bring life to the story.

The ending was a quite abrupt and left me a bit confused about what had happened, I thought the book was trying to be a bit too clever and would have preferred more explanations at the end and along the way. I did not enjoy the very last paragraph of the story as I felt it was a cheap ending and tarnished the quality of the book. But it didn't ruin it!

In short, a really good and cleverness er book which I would thoroughly recommend.

What a delightful suspense-filled historical thriller this was. My interest was captured from the very first page. Lara is a history professor in Russia who ends up with 6 Dictaphone cassettes to listen to and things just take off from there. Her twin brother, Lev, works in Alaska and that is another exciting thread. All the different threads were neatly tied in a perfect bow at the end of the book. What a great read!