Red Sparrow

The first in a series of modern-day espionage novels, Red Sparrow (2013) draws on author Jason Matthews’s own experience as a CIA operative.

Nathaniel Nash, known as Nate, works with a team of CIA internal ops officers in Moscow. Tired, Nate is about to meet with the CIA’s most important asset in Putin’s government, source code-named Marble, a major-general in the SVR, which took the place of the KGB. The CIA has been running Marble for fourteen years. Nate is determined to keep Marble alive and working for the CIA; Marble turned because the Russians would not allow him to take his wife to America for cancer treatments. When a Russian sweep search arrives, Nate and Marble move quickly to evade them, putting a disguise on Marble. Nate gets Marble onto the subway, evading the team, and preserving the CIA’s most important asset. As a result of the debacle, Nate is reassigned to Finland, a career-ending move.

Dominika Egorova was born with a condition known as synesthesia, which causes her to see music. Using her ability to aid her interpretation of the music, she becomes a talented and promising ballerina. Disillusioned with the Russian government, her parents keep their opinions to themselves in order to survive and to offer Dominika a chance in life. As she is waiting to audition for the Bolshoi, a rival dancer arranges to have Dominika attacked. Her foot is broken. Shortly afterward, her father dies. This leaves her and her mother badly exposed, without a means of support, and at the mercy of the government. Her only hope is her uncle, Egorov, who is a shadowy player in the world of Russian intelligence.



At her father’s funeral, Egorov approaches Dominika to ask her to help him with a job for the Russian secret service, promising to take care of her mother. Dominika agrees. He asks her to seduce a man named Ustinov to try to find evidence they can use to put him in jail. Initially upset with this assignment, Dominika tells herself she must make sacrifices in order to gain safety and security. She seduces Ustinov; as she is having sex with him, he is assassinated, which shocks and horrifies her. She feels betrayed by her own country.

Dominika knows she is now a danger to Egorov. He might feel he has to kill her to keep the secret, which would be damaging to Putin if revealed. As a means of self-preservation, she suggests that she be sent into training for the spy service. Her uncle agrees. Excelling during the training, finishing at the top of all her classes, she expects a career as an officer; however, Egorov informs her she is being sent to Sparrow School, where she will learn to be a seductress. Having no choice, Dominika is trained to seduce men, gleaning their secrets.

Sent to Helsinki to seduce Nate to learn the identity of Marble, Dominika uses her beauty and all of her skills to catch his eye and seduce him. She works on finding a way to get the information from him despite his training. However, she finds herself liking Nate, and they fall in love. Nate is warned that Dominika is a threat, but he ignores this, pursuing the relationship.



When an operation run by the SVR involving an American mole goes wrong, Dominika is arrested and tortured under suspicion of having been turned. She refuses to confess, however, and is eventually released. She is put back to work and sent to General Korchnoi, who leads the SVR’s Americas division.

Korchnoi is revealed to be Marble. Feeling that he is at the end of his career, Korchnoi lays the groundwork for Dominika to replace him working with the Americans. He plans to have Dominika turn him in as the mole, thus gaining for herself unimpeachable credentials as a loyal servant.

Dominika is crushed, as she regards Korchnoi as a mentor; she feels badly treated by the Americans for being placed in this position. When Korchnoi is arrested and is convinced that Dominika has been arrested in retaliation, she agrees to go along with a prisoner exchange to save Korchnoi, but tells the CIA she will break ties with them after he is safe. The swap initially seems to go as planned, but at the last moment, the Russians shoot Korchnoi. Dominika is enraged by this, but no indication is made of how this will affect her decisions going forward.