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Moscow X by David McCloskey Pub: Hachette Oct 2023 Hardback •Marcel D'Agneau review A risky CIA op in St Petersburg - who is being taken for a ride?

OK an ex-CIA operative writes a spy thriller.  (Author of Damascus Station). We are supposed to believe that his expertise will provide an authorative backdrop to the whole business of spying.  That might be so, but does it work as a novel?  Do the people engaged in spying matter to the reader? The exotic locations in Mexico, St Petersburg and Moscow and trappings of wealth are captured well but just maybe you need to be more interested in horses for this story to work for the reader.

In Moscow X we have a good idea. Putin has all the wealth and power in Russia. Those who claim to represent him get rich too.  So why not, when an opportunity presents itself, find a way to separate some of that money from Putin and sow a high degree of chaos in the upper echelon of Moscow. Langley has intial doubts about the Russian woman at the centre of this plot. The daughter of an oligach who has fallen out of favour of the regime.
She makes contact with Sia who handles and helps hide Russian wealth in London who is in turn a CIA operative. But then again the daughter works for Russian intelligence so who can trust whom?

It’s a great idea but somehow it doesn’t quite convince. The people involved on both sides are genuinely dull. Of course they have great skills with horses, speak several languages and seem to recover very quickly from beatings or torture than you or I might.  They all have rich peoples morals i.e. none; so it is hard to invest in any of the characters.  The reason Le Carré was successful as a spy novelist was because his characters all had flaws and a sense of despair that what they were doing was pointless.  In the movies Michael Caine’s Palmer character is fondly remembered because of his flaws and jaundiced opinion of his bosses as well as the enemy. 

Moscow X is an achievement of world building but it for all the deceptions and spycraft there are no surprises.

© M. D'Agneau March 2024
author of Eeny Meeny Miny Mole

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