Alma Katsu is a top-flight writer of supernatural suspense, with classic novels like THE FERVOR, THE DEEP and THE HUNGER to her credit. In 2021, she introduced readers to a completely different type of thriller, RED WIDOW. Here, she was allowed to really spread her wings and lean strongly on her experience as a senior intelligence agent for 35 years with several U.S. agencies. Her follow-up espionage tale, RED LONDON, is even better than its predecessor.

"What allows the book to rise above RED WIDOW is the intimate way that Katsu threads together the minute details about the espionage world that only someone on the front lines would know."

This time around, CIA Agent Lyndsey Duncan is on a mission that is being co-managed by Britain’s MI6 involving some deep cover work to investigate Russian oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg, who is presently residing in London. To do this, Lyndsey must become fast “friends” with Mikhail’s British wife, Emily. This will be especially difficult as Mikhail’s antennas are finely tuned to anything out of the ordinary following an attack on his property by enemies looking to kill him and his entire family. Were it not for a safe room in their upscale London house and the efficient work of his security team, there is no doubt that Mikhail would be no more.

With Mikhail realizing that the worst is yet to come, Lyndsey finds her opening by sidling up to Emily at a charity event. Emily is an easy mark as she feels somewhat frightened and isolated by the dangers her husband has brought to her family and could really use someone to lean on. Lyndsey utilizes Russian asset and war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko to fill her in on all she needs to know about Mikhail --- most importantly, to learn that he is not at the top of Putin’s Christmas card list.

Lyndsey is able to get close enough to Emily to become her confidant and then some. However, two issues might throw a monkey wrench into Lyndsey’s plans. The first is the sudden emergence of a second “friend,” Dani, who Lyndsey immediately recognizes as a fellow graduate of The Farm in the U.S. Dani was also an agent with a promising career that came tumbling down on a botched mission for which she took the fall. Now, operating with a private agency, Dani has some leeway to move around in ways that Lyndsey cannot and with far less oversight. The second problem is that Mikhail is coming on to Lyndsey in a big way and has directly asked her to become his mistress.

While navigating all of this, Lyndsey also must ensure that she is able to keep Mikhail, Emily and their children safe before a second attack against them is successful. When Tarasenko makes Lyndsey aware that orders for Mikhail’s immediate arrest have come out of Russia, she knows she has no time to waste.

What allows the book to rise above RED WIDOW is the intimate way that Katsu threads together the minute details about the espionage world that only someone on the front lines would know. This, coupled with a fine blending of interpersonal relationships, makes RED LONDON an outstanding and immensely readable thriller.