Pitoniak’s engaging, gripping first foray into espionage fiction
IT’S THE CASE OF AMANDA’S LIFETIME, BUT SOLVING IT WILL REQUIRE HER TO BETRAY ANOTHER SPY — WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE HER FATHER.
SPYING IS THE FAMILY BUSINESS. Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA officer following in the footsteps of her father, who was a spy during the Cold War. It takes grit to succeed in this male-dominated world — but one hot summer day, when a Russian defector walks into her post, Amanda is given the ultimate chance to prove herself.
The defector warns of the imminent assassination of a US senator. Though Amanda takes the warning seriously, her superiors don’t. Twenty-four hours later, the senator is dead. And the assassination is just the beginning.
Corporate blackmail, covert manipulation, corrupt oligarchs: the Kremlin has found a dangerous new way to wage war. Teaming up with Kath Frost, a fearless older woman and legendary spy, Amanda races from Rome to London, from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, unraveling the international conspiracy. But as she gets closer and closer to the truth, a central question haunts her: Why was her father’s name written down in the senator’s notes? What does Charlie Cole really know about the Kremlin plot?
I’ve been a fan of Anna Pitoniak’s writing for quite some time — I read an advance review copy of the author’s debut, The Futures, and have been a fan ever since. In The Helsinki Affair, the author offers her first espionage thriller. I really enjoyed this, and I hope it’s a sign of more to come.
Each of Pitoniak’s novels has shifted genre, slightly. The Futures was contemporary fiction, and Necessary People was more psychological thriller. In 2022’s Our American Friend, the author ventured more into political fiction/mystery. In The Helsinki Affair, the author has written an espionage novel that fits in nicely with authors like Charles Cumming, Daniel Silva, and Alma Katsu. I’ve enjoyed each of these versions of the author’s work, and I am very much interested in reading more spy fiction from Pitoniak in the future. It is, however, a little difficult to go into too much detail of the plot, because there are a few twists and turns that would make it too easy to spoil the plot.
Amanda Cole is a young, accomplished CIA officer. She’s spent years building a reputation for herself, in the shadow of her father, CIA near-legend Charlie Cole. The Helsinki Affair focuses on the events that are triggered by a Russian reaches out with information and, maybe, wanting to defect. The Russian has a warning that an assassination is about to happen. When this comes to pass, despite CIA and political leadership dismissing the warning, Amanda invests in her new asset, and the information he can provide. (As assets go, he has a really interesting job, and one you’ll just have read to discover for yourself.)
Pitoniak does a great job of keeping the espionage-side of the story interesting and quite realistic — the spycraft seems accurate, and the author avoids any James Bond-ian action movie set-pieces. This is a story that’s very much about the people involved — especially Amanda and her father, but many of the supporting cast are equally compelling and engaging. Amanda and Charlie spend a good amount of the story balancing their personal and professional agendas, often working against each other (sometimes unknowingly). So much of what happens in the novel is the result of personal agendas and biases, sending characters off on paths that aren’t necessarily the best (for their mission or their health…). The author also does a great job bringing each location to life — the novel bounces around the globe a little bit, as Amanda chases her assignment and manages her asset, and Charlie attempts to clear up past mistakes.
There was one small thing that jumped out at me, though: Pitoniak refers to CIA as “the CIA” — given how many former CIA employees are now writers, it’s become better-known that nobody in the agency refers to it as “the CIA”. (The aforementioned Katsu, for example, is an excellent example of this.) This is a very minor nitpick, and not something that Pitoniak alone does. It’s interesting how this has become an indicator of whether or not an author has experience at the Agency. (Note: Pitoniak is making no claims to this.)
If you’re a fan of the author’s previous work, and have enjoyed how it has evolved over her career, then I think you’ll really like The Helsinki Affair. It has all the great character-work of her previous novels, with an added espionage thriller layered over the top. Yes, the character-focused portions are stronger, but I think with time the spy stuff will also improve. I really hope the author is planning more books in this genre — with returning or new character, I’ll absolutely be reading whatever Pitoniak writes next.
Recommended.
*
Anna Pitoniak’s The Helsinki Affair is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America, on November 14th.
At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any concrete information about a UK publisher. However, there’s an Amazon UK page for a paperback edition coming out on July 18th, 2024, due to be published by Bedford Square Publishers.
Also on CR: Reviews of The Futures and Our American Friend
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via Edelwei