Old-style, cold war spy work goes on in this story. It is the time just before Gorbachov becomes President of the Soviet Union and a KGB officer wants to defect and has asked for a particular Intelligence officer to handle his case. It's just that this Intelligence office no longer works for the organisation and is a man who decides himself how things will be done. It's a classic plot, get the defector out before anyone notices and they and their handler are caught.

The muddying of the waters in this case is that the handler, Aleksandar Garin, has form in the Soviet Union for failing to get an earlier defector out of the country and so he is known to the KGB and others. There is also a love interest in the form of a beautiful ex-ballet dancer who now works for the KGB who survives but who is let down by men time and time again.

There is action, quite a lot of it, guns and drugs, and of course leaks in both the CIA and KGB and it is the political turmoil that the Soviet Union is undergoing that Garin takes advantage of to exfiltrate GAMBIT.

All the building blocks are there but somehow it doesn't quite work. I got a little lost with all the Russians involved and the parts they played and somehow the whole storyline was a bit staid, never really got going. I enjoyed it enough to read more of his work but this may not have been the best of his books to start the Vidich reading journey with. I have Beirut Staion on order at the library. Not giving up, yet. ( )

My thanks to the Author publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
This Author is a master of this genre and can be mentioned in the same breath as the legend that is John Le Carre. Beautifully written clever dramatic intriguing and intelligent a real grown up story. The characters and descriptions of time and place leap from the page, cross and double cross, nail biting with some action scenes that were so exciting I found myself holding my breath. A moving story of betrayal family honour love loss and completely totally recommended. ( )

If you are a devotee of John le Carre's spy-thrillers, featuring George Smiley of British Intelligence, then you will love the work of American Paul Vidich, a relative newcomer to the espionage genre. He even has a Smiley-like character in his George Mueller, who has appeared in major or minor roles in all four of his novels - AN HONORABLE MAN, THE GOOD ASSASSIN, THE COLDEST WARRIOR, and now, his latest, THE MERCENARY. Mueller, a veteran of WWII and the OSS, is now a seasoned senior CIA agent, who contracts former double agent Alek Garin to go into Moscow and bring out a KGB defector who holds valuable tech secrets. It is 1985, just before the detente between the U.S. and the USSR. There is distrust and danger, entrapment and escape, torture and intrigue, and even a little romance. It's all in here, and in the most literary and nail-biting fashion imaginable. Garin is a marvelous character, with a suitably shadowy past and scars both physical and emotional, but he knows spycraft. And Mueller is here too, watching and waiting. I have loved the work of Graham Greene, Ward Just and le Carre for years, and have sampled some Eric Ambler too. Well, I'm adding Paul Vidich to that honor roll of masters of spy fiction. He is that good. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )