Having been wowed by DAMASCUS STATION, the first book in David McCloskey's series of the same name, I was keen to read the latest book. Whereas the Syrian tale was set some years ago, the current read is right up to date during the Russia-Ukraine war. MOSCOW X is the headquarters for a group of CIA spies desperate to wage war against Putin’s ability to buy weaponry.
MOSCOW X starts with a bank raid. A Russian bank is held up and the thieves walk away with billions of dollars worth of gold bullion. No shots are fired. The reason is that the heist is committed by the Russian State. The bagman for Putin, Vassily Platonovich Gusev, nicknamed Goose, holds such power that he can open vaults, buy shipyards for a fraction of their worth, and cream off profits – the last secretly but almost expected. Now he wants to wreck a wealthy old family, and appropriate their assets, all in the name of the war effort. Some things never change.
CIA officer Sia Fox works from a desk in London, as a lawyer and private commercial banker. Artemis Aphrodite Proctor is a CIA operation leader, and Sia reports an interesting communication. A woman named Anna Agapova in Petersburg wants help moving large sums of money for clients. The CIA believes this is some of the stolen assets. Anna turns out to be married to Vadim, Putin’s private banker. She despises him; they married to join their family businesses. Now Anna’s father is being extorted by Goose, and Vadim is in a hot seat.
These are not people whom you’ll support instantly. Just about everyone has violent fits, snaps at underlings, or takes lovers during their marriage. Or all of the above. They don’t live in normal society and can never relax. To balance all the chaos and cellphone tapping we meet a more normal businessman, if anyone here is normal. Max Castillo owns a bloodstock farm run as a family business in Mexico. However, they are indebted to the CIA for their seed capital, as Max found out when he was old enough, and they are a front for spies to meet wealthy targets. Max shouldn’t get any more involved, but he does, selling a horse to Anna’s family’s stud farm called Rusfarm. Going over to deliver the horse in person, with Sia, seems like a piece of cake, but that could not be further from the truth. The tension builds and I was constantly expecting violence, meeting it, having to put the book down and come back later. But I did come back, wanting to know the outcome.
The detail is great, as always. You’ll turn off the location tracking on your phone. You’ll be astounded at how much alcohol is drunk. And the bitter Russian winter pervades everything. MOSCOW X reeks of cruelty and bullying, of defiance and wealth. We meet strong women and handsome horses, spies and technical snoops. David McCloskey has me already looking for his next book.
A daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin. But can Langley trust the Russian at its center?
CIA officers Sia and Max enter Russia under commercial cover to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London law firm that conceals the wealth of the superrich. Max’s family business in Mexico—a CIA front since the 1960s—is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple to target Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife, Anna, who—unbeknownst to CIA—is a Russian intelligence officer under deep cover at the bank. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max’s only hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own.
Careening between the horse ranch in northern Mexico, the corridors of Langley, and the dark opulence of Putin’s Russia, Moscow X is both a gripping thriller of modern espionage and a raw, unsparing commentary on the nature of truth, loyalty, and vengeance amid the shadow war between the United States and Russia.
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