Black Wolf by Kathleen Kent

 

Black Wolf by Kathleen Kent.

Published 16th February 2023 by Aries, Head of Zeus.

From the cover of the book:

A dazzling new spy thriller about a female CIA agent whose extraordinary powers lead her into the dangerous heart of the collapsing Soviet Union - and the path of a killer that shouldn't exist.

Minsk, 1990. The Soviet Union is crumbling. The scavengers and predators are gathering, eager to pick the meat off the bones of a dying empire.

THE SPY: Melvina Donleavy is part of a US trade delegation... and on her first undercover mission with the CIA. Mel has a secret skill: she is a 'super recogniser', someone who never forgets a face. She is the CIA's early warning system, on watch for hostile agents trying to extract fissionable materials from the moribund USSR.

THE SERIAL KILLER: On the streets of Minsk, women are being strangled. Many more have disappeared. The Soviet Union is not a gentle place for women and too many men are capable of such violence, but the truth is worse: just one man is responsible. Worse still, the authorities will never admit to his existence - serial killers, after all, are a symptom of capitalist decadence. And now he has a new target...

THE SPY HUNTER: Chairman of the BSSR's KGB, recipient of the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, the Order of Lenin, the Medal for Valour, the Order of the Patriotic War and the Order of the Red Star. They say you never hear his footsteps until he's carrying your coffin. And now he has a new target...

The Cold War may be coming to a close, but Mel is in danger of being obliterated by its fallout. Whichever way she turns, the wolves are gathering.

***********

It is 1990 and the walls of the former USSR are coming down in the spirit of glasnost. As part of President Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms former states of the Soviet Union are begining to break away from Mother Russia, but she still holds them fastened to her apron strings.

A USA trade delegation has just arrived in Minsk, apparently to forge closer economic ties with Byelorussia, but this is a front for a CIA mission to gather information about rumoured secret plans for a nuclear weapon programme in partnership with Iran. Posing as a lowly secretary to the delegation, Melvina (Mel) Dunleavy is on her first mission, and unknown to her fellow agents she has a secret task of her own - one that is the real reason for their presence in Minsk. Mel has a very rare skill, because she never forgets a face, and as a 'super-recogniser' she is well placed to spy out the Iranian nuclear engineers they fear may be helping Byelorussia in its dangerous aims.

If keeping their true intentions secret in a country that has them under constant close scrutiny was not taxing enough, Mel and her colleagues soon learn that there is a serial killer on the loose in Minsk who is targeting women, which adds an extra level of danger. The Svisloch Strangler seems unstoppable, especially since such crimes cannot even be acknowledged in this 'perfect' communist society. However, he is very real indeed, and he is watching...

Meanwhile, the infamous Chairman of BSSR's KGB, Martin Gregorivich Kavalchuk, known as The Black Wolf, knows more about this little delegation than they are comfortable with. He has earned his nickname for a reason: they say you never hear his footsteps until he is carrying your coffin, and he is determined to find out Mel's purpose...

Black Wolf is a cracking thriller set in the unsettled days of the break-up of the USSR. Kent fixes her story in a time and place that allows her to spin an authentic tale about intelligence gathering against a backdrop that is rich in atmospheric elements of the powerful shadow cast by the Cold War, and of a foreboding about the rise of terrorism in the Middle East. The threat of nuclear capability in unstable hands underpins this story, and Kent uses the impact of the Chernobyl disaster to perfection in exploring both the political and human parts of this novel.

In an absolutely genius twist, this is not just a gripping spy caper, but also one of the most exciting serial killer hunts that I have read for a very long time. Evoking vibes of Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 and The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Kent plays Mel as something of a Clarice Starling character who becomes embroiled in the search for the dangerous Svisloch Strangler - a killer whose existence cannot be spoken about. The killer lurks in the shadows, stalking his prey, while also hiding in plain sight, and the suspense is delicious as Kent keeps you guessing about their identity. There are a lot of well contrived red herrings here, and I spent the whole time with my heart in my mouth, concerned for Mel's safety.

I love the way Kent combines all sides of Mel's past in the espionage and crime storylines, which works beautifully. You do have to put to one side the passing thought that surely her CIA mission is more than enough to occupy Mel when she starts going off-piste, but once the threads play out tying the two storylines together, you get an idea of where Kent is heading - and when the payoff comes, it results in an intriguing partnership with a tasty hook into a possible next adventure.

This compelling story kept me feverishly turning the pages from start to finish. It has all the hallmarks of the first part in a new series, and I have my fingers crossed that book two will follow in short order!

Black Wolf is available to buy now in hardcover and ebook formats.

Thank you to Aries for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review,  and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author: 

Kathleen Kent’s debut novel, The Heretic's Daughter--about the author's 9X great-grandmother who was hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692-- made the New York Times' Bestseller List the first week of publication. It has since been published in 17 countries, and was followed by two more bestselling historical novels, The Traitor's Wife and The Outcasts. Her 7th novel Black Wolf, a Russian spy novel, will be released 16/02/23. 

She was Edgar Nominated for her contemporary crime trilogy: The Dime, The Burn and The Pledge. The Washington Post writes, “Raymond Chandler praised Dashiell Hammett for taking crime fiction out of the drawing room and into the streets. With Betty Rhyzyk, Kathleen Kent brings those mean streets to life as excitingly as anybody has in years.” 

She has written short stories and essays for D Magazine, Texas Monthly and LitHub, and has been published in the crime/horror anthology Dallas Noir. In March 2020 she was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for her contribution to Texas literature.