The Scarlet Papers: ‘The best spy novel of the year’ SUNDAY TIMES
£4.70
THE BRAND NEW BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL WITH THE HIGH-STAKES THRILLS OF SLOW HORSES AND THE ADRENALINE-SOAKED EXCITEMENT OF BOX 88
**SUNDAY TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH**
‘A breathtaking thriller. A classic in the making’ PETER JAMES
‘A shot in the arm for thriller fans’ THE TIMES
‘Hugely impressive and compelling’ WILLIAM BOYD
‘Look out for The Scarlet Papers . . . Engrossing’ STEVE CAVANAGH
‘The most impressive espionage debut since Mick Herron’s Slow Horses’ DAILY MAIL
‘Magnificent’ LITERARY REVIEW
‘Superbly constructed and written with flair. This might be the best spy novel of the year’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘The Cold War is given a new twist … Impressive, superior spy stuff’ SHOTS MAGAZINE
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VIENNA, 1946: A brilliant German scientist snatched from the ruins of Nazi Europe.
MOSCOW, 1964: A US diplomat caught in a clandestine love affair as the Cold War rages.
RIGA, 1992: A Russian archivist selling secrets that will change the twentieth century forever.
LONDON, THE PRESENT DAY: A British academic on the run with the chance to solve one of history’s greatest mysteries.
Their stories, their lives, and the fate of the world are bound by a single manuscript. A document feared and whispered about in capitals across the globe. In its pages, history will be rewritten. It is only ever known as . . .
THE SCARLET PAPERS
The devastating secrets contained within teased by a brief invitation:
Tomorrow 11AM. Take a cab and pay in cash. Tell no one.
___________
‘Smart, slick and totally gripping . . . The Scarlet Papers is always credible, always startling and almost painfully human. A total triumph’ TONY PARSONS
‘A masterpiece’ TIM GLISTER
‘Grand in scope and packed with fascinating insights’ MICK HERRON
‘An extraordinary novel’ HOLLY WATT
‘Addictive, original and outrageously entertaining . . . Matthew Richardson proves himself a writer of huge talent and skill’ CHARLOTTE PHILBY
‘An epic read!’ JEREMY DUNS
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Additional information
| Publisher | Penguin (25 May 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 3483 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 567 pages |
by J. A. West
Enjoyed the read. Final twist was not really a surprise, but enough intrigue to keep it interesting.
by Malcolm H
A good read if (in my opinion) unnecessarily complex and unbelievable in places. A good buy as a kindle purchase.
by Mr.John F.
The story line is believable, the construct allows you to become an observer. So a good absorbing read.
by Jon Cunningham
A complex spy novel cleverly interlinking historical fact and fiction. At times confusing but ultimately very satisfying. I would thoroughly recommend it
by James Brydon
I have always enjoyed books about spies and espionage, where fiction or factual, and this book manages to straddle both sectors. Although it is clearly a novel, it is peppered throughout with references to real people, many of them involved in one or other of the ‘scandals’ that have rocked the intelligence communities in Britain and America since the end of the Second World War.
Dr Max Archer is an academic, lecturing in political history from the Cold War era, with a particular specialisation in intelligence matters. He is intrigued when he receives what appears to be contact from the almost legendary figure of Scarlet King, one of the few women to rise to relative prominence in the cloistered male backwaters of MI5 during the Cold War years. Scarlet offers a meeting, and Archer can’t resist the lure.
This plunges Dr Archer and the reader into a sinuous tale tracking back and forth between the latter years of the Second World War up to around 2010. There are numerous plot twists along the way (some more effectively managed than others), and the pace never flags. While Richardson doesn’t match the purple prose of John le Carré (well who could?), he does keep a firm hold on the reader’s attention.
This book was high octane adventure, and very entertaining.
by gloria
Fabulous but I wonder if the author realises that his writing mirrors precisely the angst-ridden-twitchy-hang-dog protagonist; do you think he imagines himself in the title role [film, TV ?]. It’s a cracking story in places, words falling over themselves to get into print. The story revolves around Dr Max Archer, a nearly divorced academic of ‘intelligence history’, Scarlet King – legendary MI6 Russia expert and Saul-the-spook. Clearly this author is in thrall to describing in great detail how spookdom works with all the language to match. Disappearing ink, tech gadgets and old fashioned spy craft which is sorely challenging with a new world of digital tracking our every move. How do spies get away with ‘it’? Besides the Russians, who else is at it?
Raking over the the end of World War Two, the US whisking off top Nazi’s to work in the US, the issue of double agents and the rationale for being one are still not revealed even in fiction. ‘He’s a communist intellectually but theory is quite different from fact’. What’s a communist these days? And here, a ‘historians idea of paradise … was Harold Wilson really working for the KGB’. This refers to the 1970s when those that were seeking dialogue with Russia were seen as suspect. Today’s Ukraine / Russia war is the result of US militarism, dismissing diplomatic concerns for decades in favour of NATO’s expansion.
But here, ‘the author’s reading list /name dropping’ incorporates almost all the spy stories with a shocking amount of what sounds like insider knowledge that completely validates this spooky story. In fact, I’m sure his copy editor gave up after a few chapters as the story is too convoluted with glaring lapses in determining fact from fiction. When using actual names, he seems quite sure of his research but there are, those lapses.
The book gave me a headache, wished for breathing space and subtlety. It’s an almost good story but not quite.
by Stephen Silk
this novel went straight into my top three of any genre books i’ve ever had the great fortune to read.
superbly drawn characters, just wonderful storytelling, try putting it down, you’ll come straight back.
by Pensioner Power.
Wow! Didn’t expect it to be so good. It’s a rare book and a rare author that I do not find myself, at some stage, doing a bit of skim reading or even a bit of paragraph jumping, but ‘The Scarlet Papers’ is that rare book. Every word on every page and I still thought it too short.
The back story is well known and I was a little worried that this might have been one book too many in a crowded field, but I was wrong. The plot was superb.
Matthew Richardson joins the rare authors list, along with John Connolly, Edward Wilson and James Lee Burke on the ‘ don’t skip a word list’.
Hugely recommended.