The Defector by Richard Kerbaj

I think there are times where we glorify defectors too much. Often we get to see the person who realizes they are on the wrong side of history (or a certain Iron Curtain). But what if their reasons are less ideological? In fact…what if they just suck as people both before and after defection?

Say hello to Oleg Lyalin! Sure, Oleg made the “right” choice to run into the arms of the free world. Never mind it happened because he was actually just trying to get a better job back in Russia, that he was a philandering drunk, and was utterly obnoxious as an asset for the West.

He is the title character of The Defector by Richard Kerbaj. Well, sort of. There are so many defectors in this book that it’s hard to pick just one! In fact, it’s part of the problem for the CIA and MI5. Are all of these defectors the real deal or a ploy by the KGB to keep focus in the wrong places? I don’t like revealing too much in spy books so we can leave it there.

Kerbaj does a pretty good job of telling this story with a lot of moving parts. I did feel like he interrupted the flow a bit too much with side stories. He never goes off on tangents that don’t have any bearing on the story. But it did feel like a more focused story would have resulted in a better narrative drive without any slowdowns. It’s not fatal to the narrative, and this is still a must-read for anyone looking for a Cold War spy fix.

(This book was provided as a review copy by Pegasus Books.)

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Recommendation if you like this one:

Ben Macintyre, Redwood