Our American Friend takes readers on a journey of espionage, love, and political intrigue. Journalist Sofie Morse, disillusioned after covering President Henry Caine’s administration, is invited by First Lady Lara Caine to write her biography. Lara, a Russian-born former model, shares her secretive past, drawing Sofie into a tale of Cold War espionage, betrayal, and a doomed romance with dissident Sasha, whose influence reshaped her life. Anna Pitoniak alternates timelines between 1970s Paris, where Lara’s youthful idealism clashes with Soviet realities, and Sofie’s present-day efforts to understand Lara’s motives. The story’s global settings—Moscow, Paris, and Washington, D.C.—and complex characters add depth. The novel’s structure can feel disjointed, especially in audio […]
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The Helsinki Affair: A Spy Thriller that Misses its Mark
I always get excited for a new spy thriller, but The Helsinki Affair didn’t quite hit the target. The setup was intriguing—Amanda Cole, a CIA agent in Rome, gets a tip about a planned assassination of a US Senator. The premise promises high stakes and international intrigue. However, the execution was lackluster. Amanda’s quest to unravel an international conspiracy after the assassination takes us on a whirlwind tour from Rome to Helsinki, yet the storytelling felt bogged down by too many details and awkward sentence structures. The narrative’s frequent point of view switches, especially noticeable in the audiobook, added to the confusion rather than the suspense. Halfway through, the novel […]
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