Random Things Blog Tour – Book Review – A Loyal Traitor by Tim Glister

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“Prologue – Stalin was dead, and Khrushchev was gone”

Genre: Spy Thriller

Number of Pages: 304

Date of Publication: 10 February 2022

Publisher: Point Blank

Rated: 4/5

My Review Summary: A cleverly written 1960’s spy thriller

📖PLOT SUMMARY FROM GOODREADS📖

Duty or honour. Which would you betray?

It’s 1966. London is swinging, and the Cold War is spiralling.

Clear cut lines have faded to grey areas. Whispers of conspiracies are everywhere. Spies on both sides of the iron curtain are running in circles, chasing constant plots and counterplots. And MI5 agent Richard Knox is tired of all of it.

But when Abey Bennett, his CIA comrade in arms, appears in London with a ghost from Knox’s past and a terrifying warning that could change the balance of power in the Cold War for good, he has to fight to save the future.

He must also face an agonising choice: who will he believe, and who will he betray – his duty to his country or his loyalty to his friends?

💭THOUGHTS💭 

This was an interesting book. It had everything that I could want from a spy thriller, plus a captivating blurb, however it took me quite a while to get into. Once I did get into it I enjoyed it, which is why it ended on a 4 star rating. 

The writing was very detailed and descriptive, and had a good pace to it. There was a good balance of storytelling and conversation between the characters, which kept the story moving. I did get a bit confused at times and had to re read bits (it was a complicated story set over a time period that I am not overly familiar with), but I got there in the end.

At the beginning you were introduced to a number of different people and their respective storylines, with additional characters and storylines being brought in throughout the book. As the story progressed the characters storylines were cleverly woven together and the suspense was built. It was at this point that I really started to get into it. After all the suspense and cliffhangers and the story came to an end, there was a calm summary of what had happened, which I appreciated. 

The book itself was set into two sections with the whole story happening in the first section and a summary/debrief in the second.

The chapters were either short or very short, which meant that you could cover more storylines. Some of the longer chapters were clearly split so that you could see different points of view, which I quite liked. There was so much detail packed into just a few pages. The short, but detailed, chapters set a good pace for the book without anything feeling rushed. 

Once you finished a chapter you were never quite sure which storyline you were going to end up reading about next, which added to the suspense and kept my interest. Gradually questions were being answered, but then more questions were suddenly added in! A lot of the chapters towards the middle/end of the book ended on cliffhangers so you were compelled to carry on reading to see what was going to happen next! 

The characters were excellent. They were all believable and their personalities helped to add suspense and questions to the story. You never knew who you could trust!

Each character had chapters dedicated to their background which was nice. You felt like you understood where they were coming from even if you weren’t entirely sure of their intentions. 

Lastly the settings. Whilst there were a number of different settings they were only briefly mentioned as the focus was really on the characters and what they were doing. Detail wasn’t wasted on the surroundings.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It took me longer to get into than normal, but once I got into it, it was a good read. 

⭐Rated 4/5⭐

The Author

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