Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Charlie Muffin is a funny name for a spy and Charlie Muffin is a funny kind of spy. You won't find him wearing an Armani tux or behind the wheel of a sports car, he's more of the ruffled hair, Hush Puppy shoe wearing type of spy. His newest adventure, RED STAR RISING, is Brian Freemantle's fourteenth book featuring Charlie going back to 1977, when the cold war was very deep, very dark and very real.
Over the years Charlie has fought, and won, as many battles against his own agency as he has against the Russians and in RED STORM RISING he's back on the familiar battlefield with his only weapons his instinctive paranoia and his almost Holmesan clear view of events. Charlie is dispatched to investigate when a dead body is found on the grounds of the British Embassy in Moscow. Soon listening devices are discovered at the embassy and it becomes apparent that there is a security leak among the staff. Charlie must somehow get past the roadblocks put up by the Russians, the CIA, the incompetent embassy staff and from within his own agency to uncover the truth. A truth that goes much deeper and is far more frightening than even Charlie can imagine.
Brian Freemantle is an often neglected giant among espionage writers easily ranking with John LeCarre and Graham Greene as among the best England has ever produced and RED STAR RISING is a fabulous book. The mystery elements are very well handled with enough red herrings to fool even the most avid reader and the spy-craft elements are, as always, first rate. While some of the supporting cast may be a little weak it all "feels" right and they all serve their purpose moving the story along to its frankly sensational and, for long time readers of the series, heartrending conclusion.
I loved this book and hope you will, too. It's not often hidden treasures such as the Charlie Muffin books come to a reader's attention, I hope that those new to this series will gain as much enjoyment from it as I have over the last thirty years. With Mr. Freemantle now in his seventies this may one of the last times we meet Charlie Muffin, I have to say that I wish that just once Charlie could catch a break as he deserves more than a run down Vauxhall flat, a bottle of whisky and bad feet...
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