Review #16: The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak
Title: The Helsinki Affair
Author: Anna Pitoniak
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
# of Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover (Book of the Month)
Part of Series? No
Rating: 3/5 stars
Source: Simon & Schuster
Thoughts: Other Pitoniak novels - I read The Futures about 5 years ago and I read Necessary People right before COVID. I didn’t realize they were both also written by Anna Pitoniak until I read Helsinki Affair. I rated them both four out of five stars and in hindsight I would probably only rate Necessary People four and then give The Futures three. I stumbled upon The Helsinki Affair because I subscribe to Book of the Month – a great way to get into reading and to stay current on what is literally hot off the press.
The Helsinki Affair brings us a classic espionage story, but with strong female leads. This novel takes place in Russia, Italy, London, and Washington DC. We follow along CIA agent Amanda Cole as she cracks a case that has origins in the Cold War. There are a few different webs of conspiracy that need to get untangled, and I don’t believe that all of them were explicitly resolved (easily resolved with two minutes of thought), which is nice in a novel like this. Sometimes it is nice to have to put a few of the pieces together yourself without the author spoon-feeding them. It is definitely a fast-paced read. I love all conspiracies Russian, so I loved the plot. This book is a good palate cleanser that can help you get back into reading since it is fast paced and entertaining. Nothing life changing about this one though. I thought about this book for about 3 days after I read it and then it faded out of my mind pretty quickly.
You will like this if you like: spies, the secrecy of Russia, thrillers, strong female leads, mysteries with complicated plots, multiple timelines, quick reads
The inside cover: “Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA agent, following in the footsteps of her father Charlie. But Amanda’s posting in Rome is a sleepy one. She’s listless and looking for action when, on a hot summer day, it walks right through her door. A lowly Russian operative is desperate, telling her that a US Senator is about to be assassinated on an overseas trip to Cairo. Amanda believes he’s telling the truth, but her superiors do not, and they determine that the best course of action is no action at all.
But when the assassination occurs, Amanda is suddenly thrust into an international conspiracy as she tries to find out why the senator was killed. What did he know that made him a target of the KGB and the Kremlin? Amanda pairs up with fast-talking, take-no-bullshit Kath, a brash older woman, and legendary spy, to get to the bottom of the case. The investigation takes them from Rome to London to Moscow to Helsinki.”
