The Helsinki Affair, the riveting fourth novel from Anna Pitoniak, brings a female perspective to a classic Cold War spy narrative and explores the complex, loving loyalties between a daughter and her father.
Pitoniak (Our American Friend) opens her novel with deputy CIA station chief Amanda Cole, ambitious and bored with her posting in Rome. When a Russian source tips her off that U.S. Senator Bob Vogel's life is in danger, Amanda urges her superiors to take action. They refuse, and Vogel ends up dead. As Amanda digs into the case, she uncovers corruption, blackmail, stock-market manipulation, and a potential link to her own father, career agent Charlie Cole.
Pitoniak weaves a riveting double-helix narrative that toggles back and forth between Amanda's childhood in Helsinki, when her parents' marriage broke up, and her present-day efforts to chase down the people responsible for Vogel's death. Charlie, now pushing paper at Langley with retirement in his sights, is forced to confront his past mistakes (personal and professional) as Amanda probes for answers. Pitoniak paints a nuanced portrait of their loving father-daughter relationship, but lets her characters be complex: Amanda's impatience and Charlie's moral cowardice get some airtime. Amanda's investigation also gets help from an unexpected quarter: Kath Frost, a no-nonsense agent whose sharp mind and unvarnished perspective make her a valuable colleague (and a lot of fun to read about).
Twisty and engaging, The Helsinki Affair is both a female-centric thrill ride full of spycraft and a sensitive meditation on love and conflicting loyalties. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams