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A review by usbsticky
The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming
3.0
Not really sure what to rate this book. It was easy to read and follow but unremarkable in every which way. There wasn't much passion in the writing, everything was just so but not much more. I picked this book because I liked some of the author's previous books. In fact, I had to look up the name of the book to write the review on it and look at the pages to remember the names of the characters and I just finished it.
Spoilers below: Sam Gaddis is a Russian studies lecturer at University College of London. He's in need of money and needs to write a book to pay his bills. A journalist friend's death and a seemingly accidental meeting with a dead writer's daughter prompts to him to write a book about the current Russian president Platov.
His investigation leads to him a retired spy who was given a new identity. Everyone involved with that operation starts to die. Gaddis realizes that his own life is in danger unless he finds the truth and exposes it because he will never be safe now that he is known to be investigating it.
The spycraft and the investigation was pretty decent and interesting but all the relationships in the book and the character development seem half-hearted. All of them had a good start but seem to fade away - just didn't hit the spot. Likewise I was only casually engaged in the book. I think in the end I liked the plot but the writing didn't match it.
The only thing I actively disliked was the first chapter. It described an event that happened years ago and the timeline didn't continue into the 2nd chapter so it was a bit of useless reading at the front. After I got into the book, I understood what was going on in the first chapter and had to go back to read it because only then did I understand who those people were. It's like cutting out part of a story in the middle and then sticking it into chapter 1.
Spoilers below: Sam Gaddis is a Russian studies lecturer at University College of London. He's in need of money and needs to write a book to pay his bills. A journalist friend's death and a seemingly accidental meeting with a dead writer's daughter prompts to him to write a book about the current Russian president Platov.
His investigation leads to him a retired spy who was given a new identity. Everyone involved with that operation starts to die. Gaddis realizes that his own life is in danger unless he finds the truth and exposes it because he will never be safe now that he is known to be investigating it.
The spycraft and the investigation was pretty decent and interesting but all the relationships in the book and the character development seem half-hearted. All of them had a good start but seem to fade away - just didn't hit the spot. Likewise I was only casually engaged in the book. I think in the end I liked the plot but the writing didn't match it.
The only thing I actively disliked was the first chapter. It described an event that happened years ago and the timeline didn't continue into the 2nd chapter so it was a bit of useless reading at the front. After I got into the book, I understood what was going on in the first chapter and had to go back to read it because only then did I understand who those people were. It's like cutting out part of a story in the middle and then sticking it into chapter 1.