In this, the final novel in a high-impact trilogy, Jason Matthews seeks to take the story in a new and interesting direction, while tying up some loose ends and leaving others to dangle without resolution. Dominika Egorova remains a highly-placed mole in the Russian Government, having climbed the ladder within the SVR and rumoured to be the next director. In an early chapter flashback, Dominika remembers using her wiles and other newly honed ‘Sparrow’ assets, and has been able to secure a mid-ranking female US Navy official, which could prove highly useful in the years to come. In the present, Dominika has been able to work with a North Korean nuclear scientist who has admitted that the country is on the verge of creating the necessary weapon to wipe the United States off the map. While conferring with others inside the Russian Intelligence inner circle, as well as President Putin, Dominika learns that her long-ago victim of sexpionage may hold a larger role in the overall Russian plot to bring down their former Cold War enemy, having sold this nuclear technology to the North Koreans. For the time being, it’s all about silently waiting, hoping to learn enough to send along to her CIA handler, Nate Nash in order to prepare for the worst. Dominika agrees to make a covert trip to America, where she can hopefully identify the mole’s Russian handler and allow Nate to extinguish that asset. Worried that Nate might be getting too involved in Dominika’s missions, he is sent to an obsolete American Embassy, only to realize that the Russians are wreaking havoc in an attempt to send a message and locate him through back channels. This serves only to strengthen Nate’s willingness to bring the Russian Intelligence community to the ground, through Dominika’s deception. Having curried enough favour with Putin, Dominika is handed the directorship of the SVR, but cannot shake that someone may be keeping a close eye on her. She is put in a precarious position when approached by a Russian ally, one that could place Nate in the crosshairs of a kill order that cannot be neutralized without compromising her own status. The chase is on to remove the Russian mole, who is positioning herself to be named into the American president’s Cabinet, where there is no end to the secrets she will be able to ship back to Russia, thereby leaving the country open for destruction. Nate has been able to remain one step ahead, but luck is finite and Dominika can only do so much! Another brilliant novel that furthers the complex espionage that Matthews has come to make all his own. A trilogy that impresses many, especially those who love a traditional novel of spy games, with an ending that is second to none. Highly recommended to those with the patience and interest in deep-rooted spy novels, à la John Le Carré!

I started this trilogy just over a week ago because of all the hype it was getting online. It was a slow start, but I had to remind myself that I am not one who normally reads well-crafted spy novels, which seek to forego the superficial banter and develop over time, enriching the reading experience. This novel offers a thorough review of the information to date and provides the reader with an impactful culmination of all in a high-stakes game of spying and trying to destroy the enemy. Nate Nash and Dominika Egorova may come from different spheres but their dedication cannot be discounted, especially towards the latter chapters of this book. Matthews offers up the most intense and impactful Nash yet, as he tries to get the Russians to come to their knees and lose everything, though that is surely not done in a single act. Matthews adds the complexities of Nash’s inability to treat Dominika simply as a mole and someone who is going to help bring Putin’s tsar-lifestyle to an end. Dominika’s secret synesthesia continues as an integral part of her character and is used throughout the narrative quite effectively, especially to allow the reader to better understand the emotional banter taking place in a realm (espionage) where the players remain neutral. Dominika’s struggle both to stay alive and to resurrect her ‘Sparrow’ persona with Putin creates a worrisome connection that could backfire at any moment. Matthews personalises the story by filling the narrative with his own experiences within the CIA. The reader can feast on a methodical understanding of the world of espionage with results dependent on the risks undertaken. Extensive mention of cultural dishes throughout the piece is complemented by Matthew’s addition of basic recipes embedded at the end of each chapter, which has been a central part of all three novels. Lighter fare in a novel full of dark plot development. I know this was a trilogy and the end has come, but I hope Matthews has more up his sleeve. Trust me, once you read these books, you will as well!

Kudos, Mr. Matthews, for another stellar novel. This series has won me over and I hope to spread the word to anyone who will listen.

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A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/248185-a-book-for-all-seasons

Read the review of the Red Sparrow Trilogy at my blog


The Kremlin's Candidate is an excellent conclusion to the Red Sparrow Trilogy. It has a great story, intricate plotting and an ending that will stay with you long after the book is over.

Without getting too much into spoiler territory, let me just that The Kremlin's Candidate is an exploration of the various themes that pertain to Dominika - her upbringing, Sparrow school, her rise in the SVR - from other spy agencies' perspectives. Her character development is also brilliant.

The book is good till the final act and the climax catapults it into greatness category. I found the ending to be almost Le Carre-like. It is realistic, brutal and essentially, the world moves on.

I found this, the final entry in what became a trilogy, to be a bit more predictable than the previous entries. Mr. Matthews needed, I suppose, to end this story without question. The entire trilogy I found quite entertaining and the time consumed worth the effort.

Intense, gory, no-hope novel; exactly what I expected, but not the how.

Former CIA operative Jason Matthews sold the movie rights and a contract for a sequel to his debut novel, Red Sparrow, before it even hit the stands in 2013. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence, who's gotten moderate-to-high praise for her work, and Lawrence Edgerton, who could not have been more miscast as Nate Nash. Matthews won an Edgar award for best first novel by an American in 2014. Palace of Treason was released in 2015 and the third book of the trilogy beat the movie to the punch by a few weeks, coming out in February 2018.

The "Sparrow" of the title is Dominika Egorova, a world-class ballerina whose career was cut short by an injury. Since her mother requires expensive medical care that the average Russian citizen can't pay for, Dominika goes to work for her uncle in Russian intelligence. He maneuvers her into the Sparrow School, where male and female operatives are trained to seduce targeted foreigners and provide blackmail material used to get them to provide information on their own countries. On assignment, she begins a recruitment of Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer. They realize their mutual attraction and Nate eventually convinces Dominika to serve Russia by betraying its corrupt leaders and spying for the United States.

By the time of The Kremlin's Candidate, Dominika and Nate's affair is a poorly-hidden secret to his superiors. But since she has begun rising in the Russian intelligence hierarchy, they do not stop the pair from occasional meetings. The problem now is that with the recent passing of the CIA director, a weak president is narrowing his list of choices for a successor, and one of them is a longtime Russian mole. Should that person get the job, Dominika would be immediately exposed and arrested.

Red Sparrow was a great debut novel, even mining Dominika and Nate's respective attempts to recruit each other for humor as neither of them were aware that the other was working on them for that purpose. Through it and Palace of Treason, Dominika began to rebuild the humanity crushed out of her at the Sparrow School and in the brutally sexist ranks of Russian intelligence services. Candidate is still good but a much weaker ending than it should have been. Matthews has produced some 1,400 pages of book, but he doesn't really have 1,400 pages of story, and Candidate is where that shows the clearest. There's a pointless sojourn in Macao and a horrendously complicated final act in a Vladimir Putin-owned villa when the jaws of the trap seem ready to close on Dominika and Nate. For whatever reason, Putin alone among real-world characters is not replaced with a stand-in and his weaving into Dominika's plotline seems lumpy and badly stitched together. The flow of the first two books is not present, with uninteresting retreads in the role of villains and coincidental plot elements that do not fit well together.

The "Red Sparrow" trilogy is a good one because Matthews writes well and knows his tradecraft from time in the field, and because in Dominika, Nate and some of their immediate circle he's created some great characters a reader wants to root for. But ending their story after Red Sparrow alone or trimming the three books into two would have strengthened it significantly.

Original available here.

Not as good as the first two but still entertaining.

Third in a Russian spy series. The story is quite engaging. The editing is atrocious. I read this as an ARC and am hopeful that someone at the publisher will intervene and slice the excess prose and gratuitous Putin boudoir scenes like a counter-man at a goyische deli stripping the fat off a pastrami brisket.

We’ve made it to the end of Dominika and Nate’s story, and we’re waiting to see how the story ends in The Kremlin’s Candidate by Jason Matthews.

The book picks up where Palace of Treason left off. Dominika is flagged for promotion into the upper ranks of the Russian government. She’s caught wind of a plot to replace Putin with a mole that has been working for the US for over fifteen years.

Like all good spy stories we get a lot of deception and seduction. The story is tied up nicely. I wish I could offer a bit more information, but the story is a bit convoluted and can be hard to follow. All in all, I’m glad we can mark it off the TBR list and move onto other books.