The Collaborators by Michael Idov: exhilarating age-old spy game – book review –

If sophisticated espionage, bone-crunching thrills and spills, a cast of authentic characters, and a storyline full of sparkling dialogue and geopolitical intrigue floats your boat, then set sail with this all-action spy romp from novelist, director and screenwriter Michael Idov, a Latvian-born American who was raised in Riga under Soviet occupation.

The Collaborators – Idov’s electrifying debut spy thriller – is a truly globetrotting adventure that manages to criss-cross both classic and surprising locations from Berlin to Portugal, Latvia, Belarus, and a 1980s Jewish refugee camp near Rome.

Pitting present-day Russia against the CIA, Idov opens a tantalising door into a secretive world and the what-ifs of espionage as we follow Ari Falk, a brilliant young intelligence officer hot on the trail of Russian-born Paul Obrandt, and his hook-up with the billionaire financier’s feisty heiress daughter, Maya Chou, who believes he staged his own death.

Working with the CIA’s National Clandestine Service in Riga, the capital of Latvia, Falk is posing as a media investor and likes to dress down and ‘stay undefined or misdefined.’ His job is to help Russian opposition journalists find and run stories that are damaging to the Kremlin, and his latest ‘hiring’ is Anton Basmanny, an openly gay blogger known for asking local officials absurd and embarrassing questions in impromptu street video interviews.

But one of his recent takedowns involved a high-ranking Russian defence official who was sacked as a result, leaving Anton’s life at serious risk and Ari the critical job of getting him out of the country and to safety. A flight is hastily arranged and Anton loaded on to a plane, but Ari’s plans are altered by a dramatic intervention on the journey to Istanbul.

Meanwhile, US-Russian tech billionaire Paul Obrandt, who runs one of Southern California’s largest investment funds, is reported dead after his apparent elaborately arranged suicide in which, it’s claimed, he jumped off his yacht off the coast of Portugal.

Totally unconvinced that her Russian-born father would do something like that, his brash and troubled 23-year-old heiress daughter Maya leaves the family mansion in Los Angeles for Portugal to find out what has happened to him. And as she risks her life to solve the mystery and locate the billions of dollars that have gone missing from his investment account, her path crosses with Falk... and together they travel the world in an increasingly blood-soaked hunt for the truth.

Idov – who has worked on numerous film and TV projects including Londongrad, Deutschland 83, Leto and The Humorist – uses his screenwriting talents to create an explosive, fast-paced and superbly plotted thriller that is as visually exciting as it is verbally entertaining.

Ari – complete with his on-trend Weezer T-shirts – and aspiring actress Maya, the two charming protagonists with a shared Jewish background, prove to be an irresistible and dynamic partnership as the (not always suppressed) chemistry of their budding romance threads perfectly through the perilous subterfuge and heart-thumping action.

And not content to impress us with his dazzling cinematic scenarios, Idov provides fascinating insider intelligence work detail, and a host of devilishly clever twists to keep the pages turning and readers on their toes.

High on energy and bursting with youthful joie de vivre, this is an exhilarating age-old spy game that guarantees fast and furious fun from first page to last!

(Simon & Schuster, hardback, £18.99)