Red to Black

by Alex Dryden

Book Overview

"Red to Black has more in common with the elegantly paced books of John le Carr than it does with Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. But readers who appreciate a healthy dose of real-world worries in their spy novels won't complain."
--Richmond Times-Dispatch

Gorky Park for the Putin era, Red To Black by Alex Dryden could have been ripped from recent headlines. At once a spy thriller, a love story, and a chilling look at a dangerously...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062085875
• ISBN13: 9780062085870
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.3" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Creating More Shivers in the Cold War

Alex Dryden has crafted an intense and riveting novel of espionage and romance. Finn was the British agent assigned to Russia with the cover job of Secretary of Trade and Investment for the British government. However in the higher circles of Russian espionage it was suspected he worked for MI6. The Russians arranged for Finn to meet Anna, the enticing and beautiful young colonel in the KGB, now known as FSB. Each government expected their agent to be spying on their adversary to obtain information they obviously would use against the other. The opposite agencies each encouraged a romance in hopes their counterpart would become so emotionally involved they would drop some highly guarded secret into their lap. What neither agency counted on was ... the pair began to respect each other's role and developed genuine feelings of love for the other. They each produced credible reports for their bosses about the activities of the opposite side, just enough to quell any suspicions but what they really longed for was to live ordinairy lives - to be no longer under the scrutiny of their agencies. The author provides excellent character development making Finn and Anna feel very real and well fleshed out both in personality and family backgrounds. It is after Finn is removed from his role and returns back to Britain, retired from his espionage work, that the action really begins. He becomes a renegade agent, clandestinely researching the clues he obained about who holds the true power in Russia. He researches how money is laundered from the Russian Mafia and other wealthy Russian millionaires and billionaires into Western European banks, trying to discover who holds the real power in Russia. As the saying goes "follow the money". Throughhout his career and even as a "feral agent", Finn maintains contact with a secret source of information, one who is among the powerful ruling elite of the new Russia and goes by the name of "Mikhail". He comes to Finn's aide during his time of greatest need ... It is a fascinating journey to see how Anna manages to escape from her controllers and the Russian secret agency to hook up at last with Finn in an attempt to create a normal life. She receives help from a totally unexpected source from her past. Their journey of love is fraught with danger both from the British and Russian sides, which they understand comes with the territory. The ending is powerful, explosive and very memorable. This book would make a great film. It is most highly recommended. Erika Borsos [pepperflower]

An absolute must read!

If you are wondering about the melt down of America's economy vis a vis Wall Street, along with other vehicles of Russian's looting of Europe and America such as Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and the rest of those criminals READ THIS BOOK. It blew my mind to realize just how helpless we the average American truly are. This work exposes Russia's relentless "long game" of destroying Europe and how we are next on the list. You need only look at the Ukraine today and see what Russia has done to those poor people. The KGB's so-called "ex-president" Vladimir Putin is evil beyond belief. What he orchestrated in Russia over decades is so criminal that one's heart aches for the average Russian. The favored few loot and destroy and then bail out to other countries and live high on the hog while their former fellow citizens live in constant fear while they starve to death. A BBCA Newscast on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009, exposed the devastation caused by Russia's iron grip and destruction on innocent people in the Ukraine. A dying child with a brain tumor can't even get surgical care because her parents live in dire poverty. The expose revealed that there is little if any medicine, and the hospital featured in the story was filthy beyond belief with sick children lying in beds next to stacks of diseased, bloody and contaminated diapers and other rubbish. This type of scenario can be seen worldwide as well. The Rothschilds and the Illuminati of Russia, Germany, and other countries are pressing for one world order and total dominance with Russia as the head of the Reptile devouring the world. America is their ultimate target for total domination. News media revealed that Russian military ships are patrolling the east coast of the USA today. This factual expose disguised as fiction will chill your heart and bones. If you are really interested in learning about the centuries old history of the Illuminati, read David Icke's books, specifically "Children of the Matrix", and "Global Conspiracy". There are countless DVDs and books on the Illuminati elite called "The Bilderberg Group". For those who love "spooks" watch the brilliant MI-5 DVD series and see the reality of what citizens of Great Britain deal with on a daily basis by being constantly observed on CCTV, as well as how their lives are manipulated by MI-6 players on the international field. Fiction? Hardly. Just as George Orwell predicted in the 1940s, so many of these events described in this book are coming true in the here and now. People foolish enough to dismiss Dryden's book as "fiction" are like ostrich burying their empty heads in the sand so they don't have to look at the subtexts of these works. As Nostradamus did centuries ago when threatened by the church for writing his prophecies, he also disguised them in riddles, metaphors and transposed letters. His prophecies have come true for decades now, and even die hard skeptics are starting to wake up and smell the coffee as it were. T

good spy & love story

Dryden's Red To Black is an excellent espionage yarn, in the vein of the older LeCarre books. It features interesting and believable characters, very well written dialogue, a plot of relentlessly increasing menace, and a very good sense of history and historical context. Dryden's main characters are Finn, a British spy, and Anna, a colonel in Russia's SVR, who is tasked with keeping an eye on Finn's activities. Naturally, they fall in love, and now each of them is playing a very serious game, with multiple often conflicting roles to play. Finn's rogue tracking down of a monstrous conspiracy forms the main thrust of the story, but there is enough great background, not-especially-disguised commentary on very recent history as concerns Russia/Putin and the rest of the world, and characters leading to substantial subplots to keep the reader turning pages. It's an excellent spy thriller and recommended to fans of the genre.

Very Historical Spy-Thriller Romance +++

"Red to Black" seems to be a spy-thriller romance that is loaded with apparently accurate deep real-world Russian and KGB/SVR history -- that is appropriate for this novel. Some folks may be a bit put-off by the regular doses of detailed history, names and data. As for me -- this novel has equally regular waves of spy-thriller romantic personal adventure -- spot-on to flesh-out the technical [historical] detail. When this kind of close-up adventure within the big-picture is well-done it can work-out just fine -- as with "Red to Black". Be warned, however, that there is only a moderate amount of grim violence and dark suspense -- as compared to many such spy-versus-spy sagas -- yet maybe even more realistic for that. Much espionage work seems to be just that -- tricky careful investigative work. With current political events unfolding between USA, Europe and Russia there may be added spice to such an interesting novel +++

A SPY STORY WITH EVERYTHING

Alex Dryden has produced a highly readable account of the convoluted lives and circumstances of intelligence workers. The story unfolds around Finn and Anna, both spies. Each find their loyalties conflicting.They know what their countries have asked of them, yet they fall in love. Their romance is not straightforward or simple, however. The reader is never quite sure where the two of them may wind up. Anna, a Russian, has been assigned to find out all she can about Finn, the British spy. They are watched, photographed, and interrogated. The background for this entire adventure is post-Communist Russia.In any system of government their is ample room for deep corruption, greed,murder and a lust for power.If their is any power of redemption at work, it is not to be found in the power players but in peoples hearts. You will not be disappointed in RED TO BLACK.