The Silent Sisters by Robert Dugoni

Review

I started reading the book a month ago, I was moving through it very slowly, there were a lot of things in it that annoyed me, so now I’m giving up at 30% and no longer reading.  Yet Dugoni is a good writer, as he has proven in several books that were not about spies.

This book is the third in a series.  Unfortunately, or maybe luckily, I didn’t read the first two.

The biggest problem with the book is that it is full of stereotypes.  In Western countries, every Russian is thought to be stupid, violent, and the mafia is everywhere.  Except for those who are spying for Americans for some reason.  They are the good, the heroes.  The leaders of Russian counter-espionage are fat, lazy, idiots, alcoholics and sex addicts.  The American protagonist, on the other hand, defends the oppressed,  he is black, tall, handsome.  I do not understand why a black agent should be sent to Russia?  Wouldn’t it be more logical for a mid-tall white who could fit in better with the locals and not have to paint himself white?  But really, what's the logic of sending a black there?  And why does he automatically accept the assignment?  He is not young, has a family, and his physical characteristics make him unfit for this mission!  Or are there so few agents in America that even he is the most suitable?

What he does at the bar the first night in Russia is simply incomprehensible.  A spy can't be such an idiot!  I don’t hook up with the locals while I know the room is being cameraed!  And while he has all sorts of disguises, he forgets to put on his gloves while drinking his beer!  Why did he go to the bar at all?  If I were a spy, I would definitely not go out for a beer in an enemy country.  After all, the goal would be not to draw attention to myself.

But the biggest problem with the book is that I felt like the writer hadn’t gotten information about what Russia is like, how spies, anti-spies work.

Nor did I understand why the Russian text had to be written phonetically and then translated into English.  Maybe it would have been enough to write only English or the Russian text in Cyrillic letters.  So, writing the text twice is pretty confusing.  Especially that phonetic writing is confusing and often flawed as well.

But the previous ones are just highlights of what I think are the flaws in the story.  I could have written much more than that.  And because of these, the book is more of a fantasy than a spy thriller.  Because it has little to do with reality.