Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Red London by Alma Katsu in exchange for an honest review. Alma Katsu is such a great writer and so far I've enjoyed everything I have read. This was a very good spy thriller that pulled you in and made you feel like you were part of the story. I really enjoyed it and now need to go back and read more by Katsu.

An intense and engaging edge-of-your-seat thriller, Red London is an uber-realistic espionage tale that feels ripped from the headlines. Alma Katsu leverages her extraordinary national security experience to deliver a spy novel that puts you in the middle of an operation with vital global implications. It’ll have you sweating out every action, every conversation and every move until the final page is turned.

CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan is in London on a new assignment to handle Russian asset and war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko, when MI6 (and an old flame) asks for her help on another case involving Russian Oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg whose home was just attacked. Lyndsey goes undercover to befriend Rotenberg’s wife Emily to find out who might be behind this suspicious attack and what they are after. Entering a den of mistrust, subterfuge and danger, Lyndsey has her hands full successfully completing her mission and not blowing her cover. With time running out and Mikhail in the Kremlin’s crosshairs, Lyndsey will have to go all-in and take necessary but perilous risks to ensure the CIA and MI6 get come out ahead in this battle between geopolitical superpowers.

Crafted with extreme care for details big and small, Red London isn’t about non-stop violence with guns blazing in the streets for 300 pages (though it has its share of heart-pounding action). Rather, this book takes the time to properly set up the operation, to cultivate sources, to conduct proper research, and to establish critical decision points before taking the next step…presumably like a real-life espionage operation. It puts you in the head of an undercover agent, giving a glimpse into the crucial moments and split-second judgment calls they need to make while in stressful situations. And there’s no rulebook or certainty of outcome to guide them. All in all, it’s quite fascinating!

Espionage thriller fans will want to get their hands on this book ASAP upon release. Kudos to Alma Katsu for a stellar story that is captivating, exciting and mentally stimulating from start to finish.

Red London, the newest Red Widow mystery from Alma Katsu, is set in a world that is both post-Putin and post-Ukrainian war. It focuses on the relationship of Russia’s new (and fictional) government with its oligarchs. And, of course, on Russia’s relationship with the world. Lyndsey Duncan finds herself smack in the middle of all the conflict and uncertainty as she works a case with her employer, the CIA.

When Lyndsey starts settling into a London routine, a curveball comes her way. Its sender is her former paramour, who works for England’s MI6. They need her help with a case surrounding one of the Russian oligarchs. Naturally, Lyndsey’s thrown for a loop. But she and the Agency agree to go along with the plan to infiltrate the oligarch’s household, using a tenuous connection to his English wife.

There’s plenty at stake as Lyndsey balances her CIA responsibilities with this MI6 project. If she’s caught, the oligarch most likely will kill her. And the Russian contact she’s working for the CIA can’t know about the other project. Every few hours, Lyndsey slides from one identity to the other, which amps up plenty of suspense. The conclusion is equally solid and startling.

My conclusions
As with Red Widow, Katsu draws on her former career with the CIA. She makes the tradecraft feel real, including Lyndsey’s many long jaunts around London, switching identities to thwart anyone tailing her.

But what’s most compelling is how Lyndsey connects with Emily, the oligarch’s wife. Neither woman is used to having close friends, and their dance is more like an awkward waltz than an effortless tango. They can’t fully trust each other, despite human nature’s desire to do just that.

Once I started reading, Red London drew me in quickly and left me guessing with every plot twist. It’s a timely thriller that rings with truths drawn directly from the headlines.

It helps to read Red Widow first to meet Lyndsey and learn more about her story. They are a perfect pair.

Acknowledgments
Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and the author for a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this honest review. The expected publication date for this book is March 14, 2023.

I was so excited to get an advance copy of the next Lyndsey Duncan series from netgalley.com!

Lyndsey is now in London where she is tasked to start supporting her new Russian asset. But things take a slight detour quickly when she is asked to make friends with the wife of a Russian oligarch to see if she can be turned.

As the story unfolds we get even more insight into Lyndsey's past and present as she interacts with current bosses, old flames, and current targets. That insight into the spy and intelligence world from a female protagonists perspective is one of the things I find more fascinating about this series ad couldn't put it down for the last 25%!

While all the threads for this story were addressed and resolved, I loved that it still ended on an incredible cliffhanger and I can't wait for the next chapter of the saga!

I was so excited to get approved in NetGalley for an eARC of Alma Katsu’s Red London. I read The Hunger recently and quickly became a fan.

Full disclosure: Being a new fan of Alma Katsu, I was unaware until I was 25% into reading Red London that it was a sequel to Red Widow (which I had not yet read). I was, however, able to fully enjoy Red London as a stand-alone and did not ever feel that I was missing plot points.

Alma Katsu does a superb job of grabbing your attention right from the beginning. You are given an intense starting scene and then you follow alternating character viewpoints until you get to the big finale. From start to finish you only get a tiny glimpse of information here and there - just enough to keep you wanting more and never really knowing exactly what is going on. It is a true page-turner.

I developed a connection to the main characters . The relationships between the main characters and their internal struggles never felt like unnecessary fluff plot. Every word/action/chapter had meaning to the storyline and the ultimate ending.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Red London and I am pleased to rate it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!

This one is an action-packed thriller that does not disappoint. This is number 2 in the Red Widow series, although I felt I knew plenty of the story without reading the first one. Though now I might go back and read it.

CIA Agent Lyndsey arrives in London focused on handling her newest asset, a Russian war criminal. While there Lyndsey uncovers things aren’t exactly what they seem amongst the rich and powerful. Can Lyndsey figure things out before they end in a not so fortunate way?

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. I was expecting something fast paced and unputdownable but that is not what I got. This one started out slow and it built carefully before coming together. The author does a beautiful job of crafting a fine story, but for me the pacing was not to my liking. I really enjoyed reading this spy thriller and would read another from this author – just need to adjust my expectations first.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher, Penguin Group – Putnam, for my e-copy in exchange for this honest review. Check this one out March 14th for a great espionage fiction!

Red London Alma Katsu
Alma Katsu shows her skill a writing once again. Her newest espionage thriller is another gem. She writes in other genres too, but she is adept at conjuring up interesting plots and subplots and character development. Looking forward to the next after being left on the cliff’s edge!

Lyndsey Duncan is a CIA agent sent to London as a handler for a Russian war criminal. Once there, she is recruited to befriend the British born wife of a Russian oligarch believed to be involved in shady doings. Once the relationship blooms, the pressure is on to turn the wife into an asset to uncover what her oligarch husband is involved in. I enjoyed this spy thriller because it felt real and not some insane Hollywood fantasy of what a CIA agent does. Lyndsey is also a strong character.

This is second in the series, I did not read the first nor have I read anything by this author before. It was fine as a standalone, but now I think I’d enjoy reading the first.
The first half of this CIA/MI6 spy story is devoted to background on the various players mostly set in London. It was a slow start for my liking. There is no doubt who the bad guy is from the onset, it’s more about turning targets into assets for information. The story contained many current themes of Russia, Putin, Ukrainian war, oligarchs, wealth and power. It was very timely and relevant.
Lyndsey AKA Lynn is tasked with handling a new Russian asset, Tarasenko, for intelligence. She has a stained past with the agency involving another agent, now finds herself working with him again. Her primary mission is Tarasenko, yet most of her time is spent on the unrelated recruitment of a possible new asset.
Emily is a British woman who married an oligarch for security. Now she’s trapped in an loveless, abusive web of international consequences. Lyndsey targets Emily hoping to turn her against her wealthy husband. It becomes a classic cat and mouse game, who’s using who. There were times you aren’t sure who’s on which side. Complicating matters there’s a private investigative firm pursuing similar goals without the constraints of doing it legally.
Emily is both sympathetic and conniving, she succeeded escape from a dead end situation only to become a captive in her own home. I had very mixed feelings about her. Meanwhile Lindsey broke protocol, kept making poor choices, ill-advised decisions, trusted the wrong people and might still have her job. Yes, it’s fiction so I’ll give her a pass.
The action really amped up as the pieces of the plot came together, it was a strong ending with drama, tension and thrilling scenes.
Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advance reader copy of “Red London”, (Red Widow Volume 2) by Alma Katsu and to G. P. Putnam’s Sons. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

In Red London, the highly-anticipated sequel to Red Widow, CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan has been stationed in London to help out with an evolving situation involving a Russian oligarch who may or may not be on the outs with the new president. One of my most-anticipated novels of the year, I’m happy to report that it lived up to my high expectations.

I thoroughly enjoyed Red Widow (2021), Katsu’s first espionage thriller, so I was very pleased when it was announced that the author was bringing back one of the characters from that novel, Lyndsey Duncan. After I was lucky enough tog et a review copy, I dove right in. Katsu’s written another excellent espionage novel, further developing the protagonist and her background, and also expanding readers’ understanding of the world in which she lives and operates.

Duncan, who was brought in to CIA in Red Widow to hunt down a mole at Langley, has her own baggage with the Agency — specifically, a past dalliance with a British agent. After the tense events that make up the previous book, Duncan is looking forward to being back in the field (albeit in relatively cushy London). At the beginning of Red London, she’s only recently arrived in London, still finding her way in the new city, still learning her neighbourhood, and beginning to manage a new asset in Russia.

There has been a shift in Russian politics, following “the Ukraine fiasco”, and Putin has been replaced by a new strongman (if wishing made it so…). The new Russian leader has a different set of loyal oligarchs, and is intent on cementing his power and position. This puts some of the previous leader’s favourites in the crosshairs. After a series of curious events involving one of Russia’s London-based oligarchs, Duncan is tasked with getting close to Mikhail Rotenberg’s wife, Emily — a member of the British aristocracy, albeit from a family whose fortunes are rapidly dwindling. The marriage isn’t what Emily had imagined when it first began, and CIA and British Intelligence think she’s a potential asset against the new Russian regime. It’s a risky mission, but one that Duncan feels confident she can accomplish. It’s also a mission that brings Duncan back into contact with Davis Ranford, the man with whom she had an affair, and the reason her career with CIA has been somewhat disrupted.

Through her experiences getting to know Emily, and the various other characters who come into her orbit, we learn a bit more about the world of international espionage and politics, and also the Russian oligarchic diaspora — their shifting allegiances, the murky agendas of its members, and the risky existence that many of these people live.

As with the previous novel, Katsu’s writing is great, and knowing that the author has worked for CIA in the past adds a feeling of verisimilitude to much of the tradecraft mentioned in the story. (It’s not all romantic and flashy, some of it seemed to be damned inconvenient — especially the dry cleaning). Katsu does a great job of balancing detail and story, never allowing the former to get in the way of the briskly-plotted and well-told story.

If you are a fan of espionage fiction, then I highly recommend you give Katsu’s Red Widow and Red London a read. I really enjoyed this book (as well as the previous one in the series). The end of this book also strongly suggests that there’s a possible third novel in the works — and I, for one, am very eager to read it.

It seems that books I almost DNF become the books I stay up late at night reading. Spy thrillers are my favorite because I feel like I’m watching a James Bond movie. I enjoyed this a lot and I’m glad I ended up finishing it.

Red London is the second book in a series. Red Widow was the first book and even though I didn’t read it, I wasn’t lost while reading it because Katsu really took the time to give enough information on each character's background. The characters and issues from the previous book are still present in this book and I liked how the readers get the continuation of the story.

I enjoyed the plot a lot. This book goes into an alternate universe where the war in Ukraine is over and Russia gets a new president. It’s set in London and we see a universal dynamic between Russia and the rest of the world. I think one complaint I had was the long chapters. I’m not a big of long chapters.

I’m hoping to read the first book before the year ends. I have a feeling there’s going to be a third book considering this one ended on a cliffhanger. I’m really excited about it!

I have loved the previous books I've read by Alma Katsu - they have a spooky horror type vibe to them. However, this was more of a detective-style-solve-a-mystery thriller. It wasn't really my style and thus, I didn't continue reading. I loved the characters and the writing, and definitely recommend reading it if you enjoy conspiracy theories and secret agents.

The book was well written. But what I originally thought would be a spy thriller about oligarchs and the Putin regime became something much different.
In fact it was mainly about spousal abuse and bad decisions made by Emily.
Katsu seemed to change her mind about the plot after the Russian invasion of the Ukraine .

I loved "Red London" as much as I loved "Red Widow" and hope the author continues this series. The main character Lyndsey is a sharp, talented and committed intelligence professional who finds herself in London undercover working The author has a keen understanding of her subject area. This series is a winner!

Highly recommended! Alma Katsu's latest spy thriller picks up where RED WIDOW left off--Lyndsey Duncan is in the middle of connecting with her Russian assets when she's called in to befriend the wife of Russian oligarch who's on the outs with the current president of Russia (Putin's successor). Juggling her undercover persona becomes more difficult when a former agent shows up, hired by an independent contractor. Add to those complications the fact that the head of the operation is the man with whom her past relationship led to her professional reprimand.
I enjoyed Lyndsey's POV and all the details of her tradecraft, but the perspective of Emily (the oligarch's wife and second POV in the book) was not as interesting. Overall, great plot twists and character development! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A very excellent book! I really enjoyed the plot and it was very interesting and very easy read. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers!

I’ve been a fan of Alma Katsu’s since The Hunger, her wonderful Donner Party & zombie mashup. It was a unique offering on several levels, both with the horror and the history, and her prose was absolutely brilliant. My enjoyment of that novel prompted me to partake of some of her earlier dark fiction, as I was craving more of that same vibe. And while those older stories didn’t quite grip me as solidly as The Hunger did, I was still impressed with her narrative voice and plotting.

The same holds true with Red London. It wasn’t quite as good as I was expecting it to be, but it was still a solid read, chock full of what Mrs. Katsu does best (descriptive prose). I’m a sucker for a good old-fashioned spy thriller, one with shifting alliances and tenuous tiers of trust, and Red London manages to be incredibly timely while also hearkening back to some of the classics of yesteryear, which I am certain was no easy feat. It seems like everyone wants high-tech thrillers with global catastrophe-level mayhem these days. I, for one, generally prefer a tale to be a little more grounded. A little more plausible.

Red London nails this perfectly. Yes, it’s still a thriller that spans several countries, but the intrigue and action are smaller in scale while being grander in personal stakes and relatability. It’s a delicate balancing act, but one that Katsu handles with ease.

Told in third-person present continuous tense, Red London is a slow-burn, multi-POV espionage/thriller, and the sequel to 2021’s Red Widow. This is a pretty solid book, clocking in at 352 pages in paperback. I’m not sure the word count but trust me…it’s a lot.

As with all my reviews, I will attempt to keep spoilers to a minimum. My reasoning for this is two-fold; first, I firmly believe that books of any and all genres are simply more enjoyable when the reader goes in blind, stripped of all preconceived notions and expectations; and second, out of respect for the author, who put countless hours of time and effort into crafting spine-tingling tales. Robbing the stories of their intended impact, in my opinion, is a great disservice to the person who penned them. So, if it’s not mentioned in the official synopsis, I will do my level best to avoid mentioning it here.

One of the things I liked most (and sometimes least) about Red London is the level of detail given to even the most basic functions of tradecraft. There is both a science and an art to deceiving people for a living, and Alma Katsu explores every nuance. Like any set of highly specific and repetitive actions, tradecraft is equal parts exhaustive and exhausting, a sort of tightrope tedium of constant vigilance carefully hidden under a mask of nonchalance. These parts, while occasionally overexplained, are handled deftly, pulling the reader right into the intrigue. It’s actually amazing how many books (and movies and shows) get the fundamentals incredibly wrong, so it was refreshing to have some accuracy for a change. Emphasis on some...there are still creative licenses taken, but they are few and far between.

As a main character, Lyndsey Duncan is both compelling and relatable. She’s no superwoman, has her moments of internal ugliness, and contends regularly with doubt and self-recrimination. Things don’t always go her way. But it’s in those instances when she resolves a tricky situation (or emotion) where she shines, where her training and natural ingenuity come to the fore. It takes a rather unique mindset to be a spy, a kind of casual OCD that would tear most folks’ nerves asunder. Lyndsey straddles the line with finesse, if not with perfection, and that is what makes her an easy character to root for.

The other main POV character is Lyndsey’s target, Emily Rotenberg, unhappy wife to a Russian oligarch. As a mother to two young children, Emily finds herself in a very precarious position once her husband’s misdeeds against the Russian ruling party become known. As much as I could sympathize with some of what Emily goes through in the novel, her willful ignorance made her a difficult character to really feel for. This was, I feel, by design, so I was willing to accept the fact that I simply did not really like her. Which happens, of course. Not every POV character needs to be likeable, relatable, or someone you want to see succeed.

The remaining cast are a motley bunch, from CIA handlers to other Russian millionaires, and from live-in nannies to former coworkers and flings. They all fill their intended purposes and niches well, but because Red London is ultimately Lyndsey’s and Emily’s tale, the rest of the cast are painted more in broad strokes. That’s not a dig against the book at all; there end up being a lot of moving parts near the end, and additional POV characters would have only slowed down the narrative.

And, on that note, we now get to the parts that I struggled with. Remember that tedium that I mentioned earlier? Well, some of it seeps into the narrative itself, making parts of Red London feel overcooked. Detail is good…too much detail slows things down. And there are times where there is a LOT of detail here. Some of which could (and since my ARC was an uncorrected proof, undoubtedly be) edited out. We get a metric ton of internal character dialogue and thought-processes; a byproduct of the continuous present tense prose.

My other major gripe with Red London is the sheer amount of repetition. Again, much of this will be edited out, but there is a LOT of reiteration. We hear time and again how Emily doesn’t have any friends, unless they are friends by her husband’s design, in which case they’re not real friends. Sometimes we get points like that repeated multiple times in the same chapter. As my editor likes to say: “trust your reader”. Mentioning details like that once every few chapters is fine, but several times in the same chapter, and then again in the following chapter, is just too much. Again, this is an uncorrected proof, and I have to imagine that the final version will be trimmed up and streamlined.

And that’s really what made me only “like” the book instead of “love” it. With the tense it was written in, it should have been a very, ahem, tense affair. But so much detail and overexplaining ground the gears a bit, robbing much of the tension and urgency away.

But that’s not to say Red London isn’t worth a read. It absolutely is. Alma Katsu is a wonderful author, and always manages to find fresh ways to spin an existing trope or genre. I just wish it had a little more oomph.

I really enjoyed this book. The writer used to work for the intelligence services so the book seemed somewhat realistic. The villain was so evil you wanted him caught and punished. I also liked the fact that the wife and children ended up being ok. I would read more books by this author.

London….spies….oligarchs….and a female CIA officer tasked with obtaining information that might prevent a new geopolitical alliance from forming.

Lyndsey Duncan, last seen in Red Widow, has arrived in London to handle a new Russian asset. She is on shaky ground with her bosses, having crossed a line in her last overseas mission, but is determined to use her considerable skills on this new assignment to regain their trust. She is soon asked to do MI6 a favor (by the former lover who figured in her overseas debacle).….get to know Emily Rotenberg, the British born wife of a Russian oligarch , to ascertain whether she can be persuaded to provide information on her husband’s dealings. As Lyndsey develops a friendship with Emily, concern mounts over the monies handled by Emily’s husband Mikhail, his relationship with the new Russian leader (who ousted Putin from power after the failure in Ukraine), and the looming presence of China looking to make new political partners.

A well-crafted tale of the world of espionage and national security, with an extremely capable woman in the pivotal role. Female protagonists in the fictional realm of espionage can be hard to find, and ones written by a woman even more so. Like Stella Rimington and Francine Matthews, Alma Katsu’s writing is informed by her career dealing with intelligence and foreign policy. Readers of those women’s works, as well as fans of well-written tales of espionage in general will enjoy this novel and the character of Lyndsey Duncan. Given the state of the world today, the specter raised in this novel of new alliances between our country’s enemies is frighteningly realistic. I highly recommend this novel, and thank NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy.

Alma Katsu has written a second novel featuring CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan. There is a lot of intrigue in both novels, but Red London is less dramatic as it gets bogged down in a marital dispute. When it all comes together, Katsu is at top form and kept my interest as much as she did in Red Widow. Duncan works mostly by herself, but is often the focus of other spies. I look forward to the next novel.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.