Red to Black by Alex Dryden is a story about what has happened in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. The story centers around two characters, Finn and Anna. Finn was with MI6 and Anna with the KGB, and the two have developed a romantic relationship.

The story opens with Anna sitting in a basement reading journals, trying to find Finn. The entire book is told from her point of view, which gets a little bit odd at points. For instance, there are moments where the story is only about Finn at that point with Anna no where in sight, and she is still narrating. How does that work? Does she have ESP (or ESPN as a friend in high school used to say)? I mean, the KGB's good, but not that good...right? I mean, I should hope so--Otherwise, the U.S. has been in deep trouble for a long time and the Soviet's were being incompetent for over half a century by not listening to their intelligence service. I doubt that's true; therefore, Mr. Dryden has a bit of a logistics issue.

Another issue was grammar and spelling. That's the editor's fault. Moving on....

Anna's character could be a bit irritating just because she was so slow and could be a bit selfish. This is more than made up for with Finn--he's the must have dreamy British spy with a devil-may-care grin. Absolutely lovely. As for Anna, she's not intolerable, just slightly annoying. I can easily look it over, though. After all, I have noticed men have difficulty writing likable female characters (it's not their fault; we're the complicated sex).

This story was very entertaining, all of my criticism aside. I believe a good book or story must be entertaining above all else. Otherwise, it's a failure. This is why I loathe Hemingway, the old drunken bore. So, I give this story three and a half stars out of five. I really do recommend it. It was very fascinating with interesting points about politics tied in.

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