Oh whoa.
If you know me, you know I don't read crime, I don't read thrillers, and I never read Anthony Horowitz. But I picked Russian Roulette up at the recommendation of a very good friend and, well, I'm glad I did.
Yassen is just...such a great character. He's so ALIVE. And the story of his early days in Russia absolutely captivated me. I was expecting the russian stuff in the story to be culturally inaccurate, maybe even insensitive, as I've often found it represented in a disappointingly large amount of western literature- but no. Russian Roulette FEELS russian. There were many little details of life in Soviet Russia that could only have come to Horowitz's knowledge through speaking with natives. He did his research, and though I tend to be bored and creeped out by his writing, well... this book is the exception.
I didn't enjoy the second half of the novel nearly as much as I did the first, but that's only a matter of taste. Guns, fancy cars, expensive hotels, assassinations, martial arts- not my cup of tea. It was suspenseful, I'll give it that. If you're a fan of the genre you'll certainly enjoy it.
To sum this up, Russian Roulette will break your heart, and then amp you up with this...morally twisted anxiety for the story to go WELL. Yassen is a killer. Killing is bad. And yet the story is written in such a way that you still...sort of... WANT his missions to go well...? *shakes head in admiring disgust*
Can Yassen Gregorovitch be called the hero of his own story?