The Partisan: The explosive debut thriller for fans of Robert Harris and Charles Cumming

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De verwijzingen naar schaken en schaakpartijen komen regelmatig terug in De partizaan. Toch lijkt het schaaktoernooi waar Joelia en Michael elkaar ontmoeten naar verhouding van weinig belang. Het lijkt de bedoeling te zijn dat het verhaal gelijkenis heeft met het spelen van het middenspel en eindspel van een schaakpartij. Joelia’s vader leerde haar om in het middenspel zo snel mogelijk alle stukken uit te ruilen en te offeren. In het boek lijkt dit juist onderdeel van het eindspel uit te maken. Pas op het laatst vallen de meeste slachtoffers. These are the players, who, along with a jolly KGB-fixer type, run around over the course of the story trying to... actually, trying to explain the plot is hard... It involves the girl's father trying to leak Russian nuclear game theory strategy to the West while a pedophile sociopath Russian intelligence bigwig tries to stop him. Meanwhile, the partisan woman pops in and out throughout, as the sociopath Russian is on her list of people to kill... There's quite a lot going on -- the young man's father is also a bigwig in British intelligence, the Russian girl's mother is in Krushchev's inner circle, and the jolly KGB guy and the sociopath have a lengthy shared history, etc... It could have done with some streamlining.

Once Greta took the girls, Vita and Riva, foraging for mushrooms in the deep woods. Just to show them which were poisonous and which were good to eat. She knew what to look out for: a blue stain in the flesh, pink gills, or a white ‘skirt’ halfway down the stalk. I don't know how the author was able to pull it off, but I'm glad he wrote this book and kindled the imagination with a fictional Lithuanian post-war freedom fight on an international arena. Of course I'm buzzing about Lithuania, but there's everything else you'd expect from a cold war story: Moscow, London, Austria, Spain; KGB, MGB, MI6, Mossad, etc. Two young prodigies from either side of the Iron Curtain, Yulia and Michael, meet at a chess tournament in London. They don’t know it, but they are about to compete in the deadliest game ever played. I thought the way the multiple threads and timelines were handled and drawn together was impressively handled by a first time author. Although it does require a little patience and concentration to follow all the threads until they come together, it is well worth the effort. The main characters are fascinating and well depicted, particularly Vassily, Greta and the hideous Karpov. I would have liked to have got to know Michael and Julia a little better as well as their parents to have a better feel for everyone’s motives and driving forces, but there is so much in the novel already that it would have been difficult to fit in much more character development. Overall, it is an exciting historical thriller which will delight fans of Russian history and Cold War spycraft, particularly while Russia is once again flexing it’s expansionist muscles with its war in Ukraine. Want eenmaal iedereen zijn plaatsje kreeg in het boek, bleek het voor mij ook gemakkelijker om alles te begrijpen en te genieten van het boek.

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Immersive, intriguing, and intelligent - incredibly impressive, up there with the best in the genre' Lee Child True, there were some good female characters who played pivotal roles without taking over everything as sometimes happens when people misinterpret what a 'strong' female character is, but a lot of the rest wasn't fantastic. Greta, the Partisan of the title, is a merciless killer who learnt her trade in the forests of Lithuania during the Second World War. She is on a mission to avenge the atrocities carried out during and after the war, hunting down Nazi and Soviet war criminals, and a British traitor. Her search is deeply personal in nature and it is her need for revenge that is at the heart of the narrative. And he was right. As their story continues from one tournament to another, the activities of their parents is central to the theme. The political intrigue moves around Europe, and nobody is safe from the powerful figures managing the spies and assassins.

In 2004, ‘Greta’ is relating aspects of her life during World War II to Indrė Žukauskienė. Now elderly, Greta had been a resistance fighter. She, and two Jewish girls Riva and Vita, had hidden in the Lithuanian forests. Greta sought to avenge their deaths at the hands of German Nazis and has pursued and eliminated Nazis ever since. But Greta is also hunting an influential, elusive Russian she failed to kill during the war. Maxim Karpov, now holding a senior position in the Kremlin, was responsible for killing an entire village of Lithuanians whom he suspected of aiding the partisans. This fatal (blame everything on the Russians!) flaw really started to twist my melons, as I think the author is egregiously trying to make a point about Putin and the Russia of today! Now, the scene is set, fascist fanatics and lunatic Nazi's are torturing and murdering across most of the continent and beyond, but who does the author choose to become his novel's baddies? Yeah! You guessed it, THE RUSSIANS! The Cold War as a game of chess. You don’t need to know anything about how chess is played or how players sacrifice pieces to gain an advantage. That’s because you will see in real time how the Cold War players sacrifice their real players when necessary. The powers-that-be may even say Sorry, but you know why you have to go. You play the game, you take your chances. The story is very complex, and some patience is needed in the early stages, but Worrall steadily and skilfully knits his various strands into a compelling whole that comes together in a series of stunning finales in Spain, London and Sweden. The second half of the book is particularly suspenseful, as the twin storylines in 1961 and 1944 reach their violent conclusions and Worrall offers some unexpected final twists.Her mother, Anna, was the first woman to join the Politburo, so Yulia is carefully guarded at all times. When she attends the chess tournament, she is constantly escorted by two menacing men, who actually sleep in her suite at the hotel. There’s money in there. The same as last time. You’ll recognise my uncle’s handwriting. His memory failed him when it came to Lithuanians who joined the SS, but he was good on other nationalities. I want you to confirm all the names he wrote down and add as many others as you can…every name you add helps keep yours off the list.” After a moment, he crossed the street and thought: This morning, I was a schoolboy. Now I’m following a group of Russian spies into a hotel. When I go through these doors, nothing will ever be the same again.” Dr. Zhivago meets James Bond in [this] ambitious debut. . . . Fans of intricate Cold War–era spy thrillers will be enthralled.”— Publishers Weekly , Starred Review

The Russians sadly lost over twenty million people during The Great Patriotic War, so justly cannot in reality be considered anything other than victims!The style of writing is strange in parts For example, “her eyes were a dramatic shade of green, with a hint of the Central Asian steppes in them”. And there’s more: “Michael leaned in so close to the girl that he could hear her eyelashes when she blinked”. Sure, spies may have supernatural powers but … The author also adds to the near confusion by starting a chapter with a previously unmentioned event and then proceeds to explain said event as the chapter moves on, so it eventually does become relatively clear as to what's going on! Men who are also on the radar of Vassily, perhaps the Soviet Union's greatest spymaster. A man of cunning and influence, Vassily was Yulia's minder during her visit to the West, but even he could not foresee the consequences of her meeting Michael. The public knows only the official faces of governments and the military, but the real power lies with other slippery government officials like Vassily, a Soviet official who manages to travel freely, but nobody knows exactly why.

Men who are also on the radar of Vassily, perhaps the Soviet Union’s greatest spymaster. A man of cunning and influence, Vassily was Yulia’s minder during her visit to the West, but even he could not foresee the consequences of her meeting Michael. It is at times a difficult read in that there are scenes of torture and violence. I admit to skim reading some of these sections, just to get past them. Although obviously written before the war in Ukraine, it does reflect some of the atrocities we’re seeing in the news now. En toch…. blijft het verhaal boeien. Dat komt gedeeltelijk door de personages maar ook omdat je wilt weten wat er aan de hand is en of de hoofdpersonages het zullen overleven. De personages zijn voldoende tot leven gekomen en vooral Vasili blijkt diepere gronden en motieven te hebben. Zijn achtergrond en kwaliteiten zijn dusdanig dat ze de nieuwsgierigheid van de lezer vasthouden. The ending of the book was also a bit of a disappointment. In several ways. Some of what some characters did just makes very little sense beyond doing something that sounds dramatic when explained, but not when shown. Other aspects are very Hollywood and thus highly unrealistic. Ik was heel nieuwsgierig naar die prachtige cover van De Partizaan. De schaakstukken, verwerkt in de titel en de opmerkelijke zin : In elk spionnenspel telt elke zet …Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. De flaptekst ( die ik normaal nooit lees) deed me uitkijken naar een spannend verhaal. Het liefdesverhaal van Yulia en Michael, twee tieners elk aan een andere zijde van het IJzeren Gordijn, die elkaar leren kennen via een schaaktornooi in Londen. Vasili, de grootste spion van de Sovjet-Unie blijkt één van hun trouwe bondgenoten, maar dat blijkt Greta een verzetstrijdster, die jaagt op heel wat gevaarlijke mannen, ook te zijn. Je wordt met deze historische spionagethriller meegesleept van Cambridge tot Moskou. Van het oostfront in de Tweede Wereldoorlog tot de Koude Oorlog. Wordt dit het dodelijkste potje schaken ooit? At some points this story can be difficult to read, it references torture and the cruel nature of war. This however, is important to the plot and is extremely compelling. Maar door de spanning in het verhaal bleef het me wel steeds prikkelen om terug verder te willen lezen. Tijd zal ook wel tegen gewerkt hebben, zodat ik het verhaal niet snel genoeg kon verwerken. Daarom maakte ik de keuze om hem verder te beluisteren, in plaats van het boek verder te lezen. Hierdoor kon ik andere huishoudelijke taken wat aangenamer maken en kon ik gelijktijdig wat binnenkwam ook beter opnemen. Her father used to say that with mushrooms, as with people, a skirt was a sign of impending danger.”