As a means of self-preservation, she suggests that she be sent into training for the spy service. He might feel he has to kill her to keep the secret, which would be damaging to Putin if revealed. Dominika knows she is now a danger to Egorov. She seduces Ustinov as she is having sex with him, he is assassinated, which shocks and horrifies her. Initially upset with this assignment, Dominika tells herself she must make sacrifices in order to gain safety and security. He asks her to seduce a man named Ustinov to try to find evidence they can use to put him in jail. Her only hope is her uncle, Egorov, who is a shadowy player in the world of Russian intelligence.Īt 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. This leaves her and her mother badly exposed, without a means of support, and at the mercy of the government. As she is waiting to audition for the Bolshoi, a rival dancer arranges to have Dominika attacked. Disillusioned with the Russian government, her parents keep their opinions to themselves in order to survive and to offer Dominika a chance in life.

Using her ability to aid her interpretation of the music, she becomes a talented and promising ballerina. Dominika Egorova was born with a condition known as synesthesia, which causes her to see music. As a result of the debacle, Nate is reassigned to Finland, a career-ending move. Nate gets Marble onto the subway, evading the team, and preserving the CIA’s most important asset. When a Russian sweep search arrives, Nate and Marble move quickly to evade them, putting a disguise on Marble. 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. The CIA has been running Marble for fourteen years. 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. Nathaniel Nash, known as Nate, works with a team of CIA internal ops officers in Moscow.

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.

Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews