I was really looking forward to a a spy novel with some thrills. After the first chapter’s brief action, the modus operandus is scenes with a man and a woman talking. Usually they are in an office, a hotel, some place static. It’s more relationship than plot. There’s very little forward motion to this book. We lose some credibility from the reading too. I like Andrew Wehrlen’s voice (though it was more comprensible with the speed turned down a bit), but most of the Russian words are incomprehensible, and most have the stress on the wrong syllable. AI or a Russian-speaking friend could have fixed this all in a heartbeat. And one character is supposed to be an Afrikaans speaker. That one is completely off. And most of the characters are types: the women beautiful and slightly dangerous, the men rude and very dangerous.
I’ve listened to this book five nights in a row, so I’m not making a quick judgement. Nor do I usually torch books. This might be one of two or three returns in 13 years of membership. [Except Audible will not let me return this since I purchased it for 6.99 on sale and not as an Audible credit).
Maybe this is better read than listened to, but I have the feeling I’d be scrubbing ahead through many of these two-person talk scenes, picking up the main gist then moving on. A difficult listen.