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Traitor’s Kiss

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Traitor’s Kiss

By: Gerald Seymour
Narrated by: Christopher Kay
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About this listen

Officially, the Cold War is over, and the hand of friendship has been exchanged in public. In private, though, the intelligence war continues. A British trawler strays into Russian waters. On its return, the captain has a package for British Intelligence. For the next four years, a high-ranking Russian naval officer provides MI6 with priceless information. But suddenly he goes quiet. Clearly under suspicion, the decision is made to get him out. But his controllers in London know nothing about him.

©2003 Gerald Seymour (P)2004 W.F. Howes, Ltd. Espionage Historical Fiction Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense War Russia

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All stars
Most relevant  
The story was excellent had to work to follow the characters which adds to the experience

Story was excellent

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Excellent portrayal of the ghastly ****s behind the scenes on all sides. Thank goodness for the technician, just as he emerged I was about to abandon all hope of even a sliver of redemption for anyone. Seymour delivers again.

Gripping and relentless

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Potentially the plot idea should translate into a really good read, but the reality is somewhat less than it should be. There are long passages of ‘filler’ where the story gets shoved aside for (what must be) 6 or 7 pages at a time while we listen to some character’s internal monologue. In the right hands this can be very good but for Gerald Seymour in 2003 it just becomes a section you wish you could skip. (I’ve just looked up a list of Seymour’s other books and Traitor’s Kiss is his 21st published novel, so you’d think that by this point he’d be a bit firmer with himself when it comes to editing.)

‘Moscow Rules’ comes up in the early chapters but with no real explanation. Le Carré invented ‘Moscow Rules’ and you need to be familiar with the George Smiley books to know what’s really entailed. A little explanation would be useful for those readers/listeners who might not be compulsive spy-novel readers.

The narrator tries hard with a very large cast but is not helped by an inability to do a credible Russian accent. This is cruelly exposed by the large number of Russian characters in the book.

Overall, I was entertained but with misgivings until we got to the end. Suddenly it was over! (As another reviewer has said, the ending is predictable.) After all the excitement and tension the book wrapped itself up very quickly, went on to the epilogue and it was over. Maybe Mr Seymour had reached the requisite number of pages, or maybe it was teatime but this felt really rushed and after nearly 19 hours we were somewhat shoved aside in a brusque manner.

Maybe if I’d read this or listened to it 20 years ago I might have been more impressed, but with some of Le Carré’s best novels in those years and the emergence of Mick Herron, this book shows it’s age and is a bit creaky in it’s joints.

Feels old fashioned.

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a great story beginning to end. kept the attention. characters well developed. captured the details and fleshed them out so well: even about the Baltic coast and Russia the details are fact based.
narrator was perfect.
and there's such a strong lesson and message about leadership....

a fascinating listen

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Loved the complexity of the story it was interesting and credible it built to the finale

A complex and interesting plot

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Christopher Kay gives his usual polished performance, making all the characters live.
The story is good but too long drawn out for my taste. The characters have depth and individuality reinforced by their individual voices bestowed by Mr Kay

Superb reading

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So well narrated by an Ian Richardson soundalike. Intense, detailed Le Carre/Brian Freemantle'esque spy dramatic adventure. Tense, well written, well scripted to keep the listener on their toes right to the very end.

The length of the book allows total immersion in the Matryoshka doll plot.

It's years since I've had a Gerald Seymour book, and will certainly investigate what else is on Audible.

SO ENJOYABLE LOVED IT

A Matryoshka Plot

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Is there anything you would change about this book?

Far too much time is spent on ancillary and often irrelevant details that have no material part of the story, often seems like just padding! Some additional interest, alongside the main story line, can often enhance a book, but Seymour over does it to the point of boredom

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Predictable !

What does Christopher Kay bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

No comment

Could you see Traitor’s Kiss being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

No comment

Okay but

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Thoroughly enjoyable with plenty of characterisation, maybe too much at times. But all makes sense in the end.

Well worth the the time

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