The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak is rightly receiving positive reviews for more than one reason. It has a young woman spy character - in spy age terms is almost a baby -, it brings together Cold War and its survivors and also has a very realistic, human-centric plot.
Let´s be honest. Most spy novels I´ve read that were set during the Cold War especially, but not only, do feature super heroes and super vilains. There is black and there is white and there is nothing else in between. Both sides are fierce, unbreakable and do have strong motivations - patriotic or financially, especially when they betray.
The characters in the intelligence-political saga of The Helsinki Affair are emotional - GRU agent crying that his warnings were not considered properly by the Americans - do fail often and may read other people wrong. They didn´t want to be there in the first place, as Amanda Cole who would have rather travel the world first. Or her father, who after a terrible failure hunting him until nowadays, accepts a clerk job with no inner desire to prove his super-hero status.
I´ve read previously Our American Friend by Pitoniak and some topics may relate - especially when it comes to the Cold War context. In many respects though I´ve feel like The Helsinki Affair is better structured and has a better representation of the characters - which are many, treacherous, and way too versatile.
It is a different way to look at and write spy novels, with a more pregnant women characters in the first line - other than enchanteresses or honey traps. Personally, I don´t regret at all the old James Bond spy novels.
Rating: 5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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