First thing that caught my attention was the name. Partisans were the freedom fighters of Lithuania, during German and Soviet occupation.

Fast-paced, intriguing and deeply atmospheric. The Kremlin sequences in particular are mighty evocative. Tom BradbyMen who are also on the radar of Vassily, perhaps the Soviet Union's greatest spymaster. A man of cunning and influence, Vassily was Yulia's minder during her visit to the West, but even he could not foresee the consequences of her meeting Michael. Placed under threat by Karpov, Yulia has to rely on her former body guard ‘Vassily’ a fixer and an agent in the GRU, Soviet army intelligence, and a rival of Karpov’s. The public knows only the official faces of governments and the military, but the real power lies with other slippery government officials like Vassily, a Soviet official who manages to travel freely, but nobody knows exactly why.

The author also adds to the near confusion by starting a chapter with a previously unmentioned event and then proceeds to explain said event as the chapter moves on, so it eventually does become relatively clear as to what's going on! As mentioned earlier, the Cold War was like a game of chess. But in this case, you don’t need to know anything about chess as you will witness in real time how the Cold War participants sacrificed their real players when necessary for their advantage, just like how chess players sacrifice pieces to gain an advantage. Like chess, the cold war participants played their game and took their chances.

The ending of the book was also a bit of a disappointment. In several ways. Some of what some characters did just makes very little sense beyond doing something that sounds dramatic when explained, but not when shown. Other aspects are very Hollywood and thus highly unrealistic. A dazzlingly confident debut...Whether he's evoking the Spanish Civil War, the scheming and counter-scheming in Khrushchev's Kremlin or two brainy teenagers falling in love, Worrall rises impressively to every challenge The Sunday Times (Thriller of the Month) In de proloog maken we kennis met een vrouw die in opdracht van de Israëlische geheime dienst Nazi oorlogsmisdadigers om het leven brengt. Het is dan 1960. In het hoofdstuk dat volgt, kijkt diezelfde vrouw vanuit het jaar 2004 - terug op haar leven. Ze moordt niet alleen omdat het haar vak is, maar ook omdat ze nog wat appeltjes heeft te schillen met de mannen die haar Joodse vriendinnen in 1944 om het leven brachten. Daarnaast worden, tijdens het hoogtepunt van de Koude Oorlog twee jongelui verliefd op elkaar. Zijn vader heeft een topfunctie bij de Britse Geheime dienst. Haar moeder gooit hoge ogen bij het Russische Politburo. De twee ontmoeten elkaar tijdens een Europees schaaktoernooi; het is liefde op het eerste gezicht. De twee hebben alles over voor hun liefde. Maar zullen zij slagen bij elkaar te komen in deze gevaarlijke tijden? Hun liefde en leven is inzet in een complex spionagespel dat zijn wortels heeft in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. This fatal (blame everything on the Russians!) flaw really started to twist my melons, as I think the author is egregiously trying to make a point about Putin and the Russia of today! Even a grandmaster can only think so many moves ahead. A machine sees all the way through to the end. All the different possibilities.’

Set in the summer of 1961, around the time of the Cold War. The story revolves around the four main characters, Yulia, Michael, Greta and Vassily. The timeframes continually moving and the various characters make this book a little confusing until you get in to it. The plotline is complex, so it needs all your attention to keep you focused. It can be hard to read as there's some scenes of torture and violence. It covers the years: 1940s, 1960s and 2004. This is a really good debut novel. In the Soviet Union, if you get tired of reality, a new one will come along and replace it. Every new leader ushers in a glorious new past.’ Greta, the Partisan of the title, is a merciless killer who learnt her trade in the forests of Lithuania during the Second World War. She is on a mission to avenge the atrocities carried out during and after the war, hunting down Nazi and Soviet war criminals, and a British traitor. Her search is deeply personal in nature and it is her need for revenge that is at the heart of the narrative.These are the players, who, along with a jolly KGB-fixer type, run around over the course of the story trying to... actually, trying to explain the plot is hard... It involves the girl's father trying to leak Russian nuclear game theory strategy to the West while a pedophile sociopath Russian intelligence bigwig tries to stop him. Meanwhile, the partisan woman pops in and out throughout, as the sociopath Russian is on her list of people to kill... There's quite a lot going on -- the young man's father is also a bigwig in British intelligence, the Russian girl's mother is in Krushchev's inner circle, and the jolly KGB guy and the sociopath have a lengthy shared history, etc... It could have done with some streamlining. Now, the scene is set, fascist fanatics and lunatic Nazi's are torturing and murdering across most of the continent and beyond, but who does the author choose to become his novel's baddies? Yeah! You guessed it, THE RUSSIANS! At some points this story can be difficult to read, it references torture and the cruel nature of war. This however, is important to the plot and is extremely compelling.