The Gripping Novel You Need to Read Before Summer Ends (and More)

A mere boss could never threaten Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova, heroine of the thrilling new novel Palace of Treason. Author Jason Matthews, a real-life retired CIA man, deploys words the way a film director uses special effects, expertly intermingling intrigue, action and exotic locales to produce and intricately plotted, unputdownable tale. Dominika is the superhero at the center, a double agent disillusioned with her corrupt country and feeding info to her CIA_operative boyfriend. She is every bit as devious and charismatic as that other great fictional spy, George Smiley—but a lot more athletic. From the book's opening scenes we know we're in for the sort of the genre delight in, and enough geopolitics to make us okay with skipping the nightly news to devour just a few more pages.