The Partisan: The explosive debut thriller for fans of Robert Harris and Charles Cumming

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Ik was heel nieuwsgierig naar die prachtige cover van De Partizaan. De schaakstukken, verwerkt in de titel en de opmerkelijke zin : In elk spionnenspel telt elke zet … 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. Zelf ben ik absoluut géén fan van oorlogsverhalen, maar De Partizaan heeft me van mijn sokken geblazen. Wat een indrukwekkende plot. Uiteraard heb ik de kern van het verhaal opgezocht met bibberende benen. Stel je voor dat dit écht een plan was… Het geheim van dit spel is dat je in andermans schoenen moet staan. Je overweegt altijd wat je tegenstander wil’

Dr. Zhivago meets James Bond in [this] ambitious debut. . . . Fans of intricate Cold War–era spy thrillers will be enthralled.”— Publishers Weekly , Starred Review I don't know how the author was able to pull it off, but I'm glad he wrote this book and kindled the imagination with a fictional Lithuanian post-war freedom fight on an international arena. Of course I'm buzzing about Lithuania, but there's everything else you'd expect from a cold war story: Moscow, London, Austria, Spain; KGB, MGB, MI6, Mossad, etc. If I were to have any slight criticisms against this book they would be that sometimes the chapters jump around time periods and locations slightly too frequently (and that some may find it hard to keep up) however it does not detract from the main story. Additionally, I wish that Michael and Yulia were given slightly more time to develop as characters however this is not a major criticism as they still worked well in the way that they were written.De partizaan suist in een jachtig tempo, springt doordacht tussen tijdperken en oorlogsgebieden. Om meteen te herlezen. The story is very complex, and some patience is needed in the early stages, but Worrall steadily and skilfully knits his various strands into a compelling whole that comes together in a series of stunning finales in Spain, London and Sweden. The second half of the book is particularly suspenseful, as the twin storylines in 1961 and 1944 reach their violent conclusions and Worrall offers some unexpected final twists.

Meanwhile, there is also tenderness and youthful romance in the chess sections of the story where English boy Michael meets Russian girl Yulia at a tournament in London. She is the daughter of Sergei (mentioned in the opening quotation), whom she knows to be somebody important, something to do with military secrets. He writes about chess in the newspapers. She and her father pretty much communicate through chess. The Russians sadly lost over twenty million people during The Great Patriotic War, so justly cannot in reality be considered anything other than victims! Russische Joelia en Britse Michael leren elkaar kennen tijdens een schaaktornooi. Aantrekkingskracht door verliefdheid, onbewust (on)wetend over elkaars wereld.

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.