The Red Defector

by Martin Gross

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425128938
• ISBN13: 9780425128930
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Cold War potboiler.

Author Martin Gross promulgates a number of interesting theories about Russian society in the pages of this international thriller. Some of these theories are probably true, while others should be taken with several grains of salt. Moreover, some of the events depicted in The Red Defector go beyond being just highly improbable and venture into the realm of the totally implausible, defying common sense along the way. Still, if one is willing to cast such criticisms to the side, The Red Defector holds its own as a pretty good example of Cold War fiction. Certain hardliners within the Soviet elite are not pleased with the recent emergence of the USSR's new policy of East-West cooperation. So they engineer a series of murders and assassinations aimed at returning their country to less enlightened times. Alarmed by these troubling events, the US President dispatches John Davidson, retired CIA chief of counterintelligence, to Russia for the purpose of uncovering and exposing the reactionary forces conspiring to destabilize the Soviet government. Once Davidson arrives in Mother Russia he is very surprised to find he has an unexpected ally. General Gregori Zuchenko, head of the KGB. The Red Defector has several very interesting subplots that together make for compelling reading. While some of the subplots are concerned with the US and the USSR trying to get or keep the upper hand in the nuclear arms race, others involve internal conflicts within the USSR itself. Included among the issues addressed are the pervasiveness of Russian antisemitism and the inherent difficulty in maintaining Kremlin control over the far flung Asian republics. This is a fast paced, interesting novel which has the added advantage of being geopolitically substantive. Recommended to spy genre fans and Cold War buffs.