1975: Ted is desperate to escape his working class roots, and the expectation that he will follow his father into the fishing industry in Harwich. Encouraged by praise for his writing skills, from one of his teachers during his formative years, Ted decides to have a stab at the life of a London journalist. London life is not quite what Ted had in mind though, and despite only rising to the dizzy heights of a seedy bedsit, he has got himself into debt, and has been driven to borrow money from his mother's holiday fund which he feels terrible about.
However, things are looking up, because Ted has managed to miraculously grab himself a job as a film reviewer for a small magazine, and has every intention of making a success of the role, despite his lack of experience. When he is offered the chance to head to Bucharest to interview a famous Romanian film director, Ted grabs the opportunity with both hands, but he soon discovers that things are far from easy for a Western journalist in an Eastern Bloc country at the height of the Cold War. Everyone is watched closely behind the Iron Curtain and treated with suspicion, but somehow Ted's naivety and the fact that he hails from the decadent West gets him noticed by the security services, which makes his first big break something of a disaster.
Although Ted's boss is not particularly happy with him when he returns to England, Ted is soon off again to report on a film festival even further into the lion's (or is it wolves?) den in the heart of Moscow. Since he has already become a person of interest in the eyes of the security sentinels, his movements are watched very closely by both sides as soon as he lands in the USSR. Ted is now, quite literally, in Cold War spy country and his life is about to get very complicated indeed...
The Starlings of Bucharest is the second novel in the Moscow Wolves series, and although different in feel to the first book, The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt, it is every bit as wonderfully immersive. There is a lot more dark humour this time around (the security reports are a delight!) and we have a complex set up influenced by the goings on in both Romania and Russia to spice things up.
Sarah Armstrong has as wonderful way of dropping you right into the tense Cold War atmosphere of the 1970s, but she comes at her subject in a way I have not experienced before, and I like it! Her protagonists are not the usual characters you expect to see in an espionage yarn. In this case, Ted is completely unprepared for the reality of Moscow life with its threats, be they real or imagined, and he makes terrible blunders while trying to negotiate these strange surroundings, but he is also struck by the opportunities that exist for people with a working class background who want to prove themselves in the Communist world. This makes him ideal prey for those with an ideological agenda, especially the KGB - and it helps that he has a few money problems at the same time. Ted is heading for danger... but no spoilers from me!
I love the way Armstrong explores the side of Cold War politics that we seldom see in spy thrillers: the exploration of class and sex in the world of political change is particularly intriguing. But more than anything it is the way she approaches her subject as a whole. Yes, we have the violence associated with any story that focuses on a political system that is based on fear and oppression, but this happens in the wings in her books. Instead she chooses to show us the more insidious, velvet glove side of the business, rather than the blunt instrument to the head - the subtle manipulation of the vulnerable and disaffected, the gentle persuasion, the way temptation can be used to direct someone and sway them to your cause. This is glorious, intelligent writing about games within games, that keeps you interested in a way that pure violence never can.
There is so much to admire in this book, just as in the first Moscow Wolves novel. Much of this can be read as a standalone story, with characters cropping up from the first book, but you do really need to have read book one to understand quite what is playing out on the Moscow stage, and where the ending takes you. Everything is beautifully set up for the next novel, and I cannot wait to read it 304 Ho,hum. Not really my kind of book. Slow-paced, understated. I feel that this period of time has been well covered by other writers eg Le Carre, Len Deighton, Ian Fleming and this book adds little. The naive and innocent Ted slowly has his eyes opened to what is happening around him. However, it was not a particularly engaging tale and none of the characters were very likeable. Charlotte Philby, grand-daughter of old Kim Philby, found the book 'a thrilling read' which rather made me think I was struggling through another book altogether.
Apparently this is #2 in the Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt series....you have been warned! 304 There seem to be distinct and separate periods that attract the writers of the espionage thriller. There’s the many WWII-set novels of the likes of Alan Furst or John Lawton or the hyper-modern techno-thrillers of Charles Cumming and the acolytes of the Tom Clancy brand. You can see the sense of both approaches. The period thrillers have the advantage of spycraft unencumbered by the advances in modern technology and the benefit of a (more) morally ambiguous antagonist. The modern ones benefit from the use of that same technology to the point of fetishisation (if not a downright exaggeration that sometimes pushes these works into the realms of SF) and a sense of ‘ripped from the headlines’ cultural zeitgeist.
What seems to be less common are thrillers mining the rich potential of the 1970s high-era of the Cold War. There are a few, of course, but they appear to me to be rather few and far between. You can understand why, of course. It’s a period dominated by the Smiley novels of John Le Carre — and in particular the superlative Karla Trilogy. The comparison is inevitably unfair but I suspect unavoidable and Sarah Armstrong does great work here in breaking this inadvertent literary monopoly.
Not that The Starlings of Bucharest is in any way derivative or a mere copy of other works. It very much breaks its own ground and has some interesting things to say particularly on Britain’s class divide and how that could potentially be leveraged by Soviet agents. It’s a refreshing innovation in a genre that’s usually dominated by the machinations of various stripes of emotionally stunted public schoolboy.
Indeed, it’s the brief UK-set sections of the novel that really shine to me and Armstrong is brilliant at capturing the sense of cultural decay and the brooding atmosphere of incipient street violence in urban England of the mid-to-late 1970s. By contrast, the early Bucharest section never seems to lift off the page and while entertaining enough in terms of getting the plot going has little more vibrancy or life than your average Wikipedia page. The longer Moscow section fares a little better and Armstrong has clearly done her research but it never feels like anything more than that — research. There is little in the way of emotional connection to place felt by any of the characters, even those who are natives; nor is there much more than a cursory sense of cultural dislocation displayed by the central protagonists. Or at least certainly not to anything like the same level of the UK sections.
In fact, I think I would have liked to see the book lean more into the class conflict. The comparison and contrast between class consciousness, from the working class point-of-view, is raised more than once but seems somehow tentative and that Armstrong more than once seems to pull her punches. Which is a shame because it is an aspect that potentially lifts the novel from being a mere period piece to giving it a real cultural currency and a connection to the modern zeitgeist.
Part of the issue, I suspect, is that this conflict needs to be demonstrated more through character than it is in the novel. Take, for instance, the character of Christopher, the British embassy official in Moscow. He’s a pivotal character and one very much in the Le Carre mould. And yet he feels just too sketchily drawn. There’s a clear ambivalence between Christopher and Ted Walker, the central protagonist, one which both men explicitly state but which is only occasionally demonstrated through actual interaction. I’d have liked to have seen just a few of the character flourishes that made characters like even second-tier Smiley characters like Bill Haydon or Jerry Westerby leap from the page.
It’s a problem that I feel affects the characterisation of Ted also. The book drags not in plot but in having a rather plodding and, well, occasionally boring central protagonist. For someone with ambitions to become a Fleet Street journalist of the 1970s, Ted seems to display an alarming lack of nous or self-awareness. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. The character of the ingénue caught in the machinations of the far more devious individuals and institutions around them can often be used to great effect in these kinds of narratives and yet feels slightly lacking here.
Perhaps a useful comparison might be with Graham Greene’s 1978 novel The Human Factor. Both books explore what might drive an apparently upright individual to become a traitor to their country but the Greene benefits from having the author’s trademark cynicism and scabrously ironic scalpelling of its central protagonist. Starlings, I feel, could have benefited from a similar treatment, perhaps offering the reader some of the seething resentments and contradictions in character that Ted is still too young and self-obsessed to provide himself.
But despite the flaws of this at times rather flat characterisation and sense of locale, this is nonetheless a relentless page-turner of a novel and I’d certainly be very inclined to read more, especially from the intriguing direction hinted at in the next book. 304 I really enjoyed this book, it was a slight change to what I normally read. I hadn’t realised that this was a part of a series with The Starlings of Bucharest being the second book. I didn’t feel I had missed out on anything except maybe towards the end I wondered whether a character or two mentioned there may have been in book one. But I really do hope that in book three we see more of Ted as I was left hanging at the end and need to know what happens next.
It’s 1975 and Reginald Edward Walker more commonly known as Ted is in Bucharest on an assignment for a magazine that writes reviews for foreign films. But this time his boss has sent him to interview a famous film director Mircea Dragan, Before going to the Moscow film festival. Ted had never even heard of Dragan until he was sent on this job. The biggest problem he finds is that he has a constant shadow following him and waiting for him Vasile is his interpreter but it feels like he is so much more, it’s hard to know whether to trust this man or not. The story being set towards the end of the Cold War. Bucharest doesn’t seem like a good place to be. Ted is out of his depth he’s a naive 22 year old , with aspirations of becoming a journalist, his writing had been praised by a schoolteacher, and that had encouraged him to try. You get the feeling his life so far has been pretty sheltered. He has only recently left his parents home to venture out on his own. But he left with no job and in debt. His father is a fisherman ready for retirement, Ted has previously helped out with the fishing, his parents had hoped he would stay and continue fishing. But he wanted to do more with his life, he wanted to escape from his working class roots. Hence the move to London. Despite having no qualifications he had landed the job working for Mr Benstrop.
He had expected to do the interview required and then come straight back home, but for some reason his flight has been cancelled, he is still waiting to do the interview and getting very frustrated at the delays. Can he trust Vasile? Who is this Marku that Vasile has taken him too? What does he want of Ted? Then why is the Romanian Ministry of the Interior watching and listening to Ted? Vasile tries to set Ted up with a beautiful woman but he had been warned of such things before he even arrived in Bucharest. He feels everyone is watching him, and realises it’s not easy being a Westerner behind the Iron Curtain. Is he paranoid or is he really being watched?
Ted can’t wait to get away from Bucharest, he’s not sure if his boss will now send him to Moscow after being delayed getting back by a few days, the charges added to his hotel bill. Benstrop is not impressed.
Despite not having any experience at journalism one thing Ted is is very attentive at everything around him. He notices it all. The descriptions of Bucharest and then the comparisons with London at that time are quite striking the author has obviously done research on this.
Who is Benstrop’s wife really? Who is playing who? It’s not long before Ted is told he is going to the Moscow film festival, but his finances are stricter this time with food vouchers and the hotel paid in advance. Who is this Mr Attridge? Is it just a coincidence that Ted meets him at the airport each time he leaves London and when he returns? Already he has drawn attention of the security services, Ted’s movements are watched and tracked carefully by both sides from the minute he arrives in Russia. Things may start to get a little more complicated for Ted.
Why is a vulnerable adult report sent to Moscow before Ted arrives? Ted is terrified that Vasile will pop up somewhere in Moscow so is quite relieved when he doesn’t, but he finds himself taking in the different clothed people, are they watching him or following him? Or is he being really paranoid? He now has two weeks in Moscow to go and watch the foreign films being shown and to write reviews on them. It’s not long before he meets Alan Sullivan a Brit like himself and Ursula Koskinen who is from Finland, they had been meeting for the two weeks at this film festival for eight years, Ted enjoys being with the two as he feels safer, as well as it being good to have someone guide him. Until one day Alan doesn’t turn up for their usual meeting, Ursula is distraught. Then Christopher from the British Embassy is involved, saying he will look into it. But again can he be trusted. Ted doesn’t like him.eventually Alan is found, apparently he isn’t well and is being sent back to England. Is he really ill? Why can’t either Ted or Ursula see him? Christopher is warning Ted who he can and can’t talk to, if he has a conversation with someone he is then asked what the person wanted.
If you like an espionage thriller then you will enjoy this, so many strands to follow to try and piece together what is going on. I was engrossed. I like Ted, I’m not sure he has what it takes to be a journalist but as he is still young and has time to grow. He is observant, but he just doesn’t ask enough questions, he’s not pushy enough.
This is well researched, well plotted espionage thriller, but I need the next book now and maybe I need to read book one, as this one is left open, making the reader wanting more answers. There are so many things left hanging at the end of this book. who is trying to recruit Ted? What does Benstrop’s wife know? Then there’s Eve who seemingly comes to Ted’s aid, but what does she want in return? The letters that Ted has what do they say? Ted is just so unprepared for Moscow, is he imagining the threats or are they real? There are times he thinks he being followed by people in grey coats but is it just that lots of people dress like that? Or should he be alert? Could the KGB want to recruit him? With his naïveté could he fall into a trap, after all he needs money. He sees opportunities but are they good or bad?
I look forward to see what happens in the next book. Is Ted going to be safe? The writer has dealt with Cold War politics well, exploring class and sex in a time when the politics are changing. Ted has had some warnings by strangers on what to avoid, but were the warnings enough, you take someone as naive and vulnerable as Ted is, use his fear, to gently manipulate him without him realising he is being manipulated in any way because he is so trusting, like dangling a carrot in front of him, but will he or won’t he be swayed? This is very cleverly done.
A well written and well plotted spy thriller, I need to grab book one to read before book three is out, as I feel a couple of things may make more sense if I have read the first of the Moscow Wolves series. The stage is perfectly set for book 3 and I look forward to reading it.
304 What a wonderful read, a great twist on the usual Spy Novel. This story focuses on the Character Ted Walker, a Journalist/ Writer who works for a film magazine. He starts off in Bucharest before before going to the Moscow Film Festival. Whilst in Bucharest, things didn’t seem right, Ted would return to his hotel room and, although he couldn’t put his finger on it, something didn’t fit.
I thought this was a wonderful read, not your usual Spy Novel/ Story, showed a different take/ twist on what we have come to expect, especially in the 1970’s Communist Era Eastern Block and Russia. By the time you get to the ending, it left you guessing and having questions too.
I did smile on occasions having stayed in a Communist Style Hotel in Romania and Ted’s travel experiences/ observations around London after spending time in Moscow. 304
Sadly, this was a disappointment, especially after having much enjoyed 'The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt, but I found Ted Walker too bland and ineffective to much care about him or his problems. Apart from the evocations of Bucharest and Moscow, for me the only high spots were mention of Harwich and Dovercourt where I grew up. 304 Please allow me first to ask one simple question: will Ms. Armstrong bring Ted Walker back soon in another installment of her stunning series Moscow wolves? Because she definitely left me hanging and begging for more.
The Starlings of Bucharest is the suspenseful and at times menacing story of a young and naive Englishman navigating the treacherous waters of Eastern Europe in the mid 70s. An aspiring journalist, Ted is send first to Bucharest in order to interview a famous film director then on to Moscow to attend an international film festival. Yet unbeknownst to him,Ted may soon fall into a dangerous trap that could change his life forever....
Redolent of the Soviet paranoia that permeated Western Europe between 1975 and 1989, this incredible novel takes the reader into the murky and often absurd world of espionage and counter-espionage so prevalent during the last years of the Cold War. Very atmospheric and full of great historical details, this book was unputdownable and kept me guessing until the end & unfortunately beyond... So yes I do hope that Ms. Armstrong will be kind enough to bring back Edward Walker into my life once again!
A fiendishly clever novel to be enjoyed without moderation!
Many thanks to Netgalley and Sandstone for giving me the chance to read this wonderful novel prior to its release date 304 A spy novel which has a different take on things compared to the more modern spy stories out there, just like the Le Carre books this one is less about the action and more about the intrigue. Armstrong introduces us to Ted a young man struggling to get by and having lived quite a sheltered life he is rather out of his depth in Bucharest and Moscow. The uniqueness of this book is down to the reader having as much of an idea of what is going on as Ted does, people on both sides of the Cold War are working on Ted, he doesn’t really have anything to give so why are they putting in so much effort?
One of the things I most liked about this is reading about all the odd things happening to Ted, only seeing it from his point of view and then reading the reports from the spies about the moves they made on Ted and their opinions of his actions, it is surprising just how much you can miss about what is going on in the background. Every now and then there would be a scene that made me think of Tom Hanks in The Man with One Read Shoe, those weird little things happening around Ted and him think he is losing his mind. The more time that Ted spends in Moscow the more alert he becomes, spotting more and coming to the right conclusions…Ted seems to grow up across these pages, a surprising coming of age story.
I really enjoyed this story, there are some very good characters and the plot kept me captivated. It was difficult to get my head around the fact it was based in 1975…imagine being able to survive on £5 a week!?! I wonder how much a curly wurly was in those days, I bet you wouldn’t need a loan to buy one. Armstrong does a fantastic job of transporting the reader back in time to 1970s Moscow and one interesting thing about Armstrong’s description of Moscow is how dull and grey it feels when Ted first gets there and by the time his trip is coming to an end the place has become so vivid and full of life.
This is the second book in this series and whilst you don’t need to have read book 1 to understand this one, I can guarantee by the end you’ll be wanting to get yourself a copy…there are a few characters that make a brief appearance and I get the feeling their story might have been covered in book 1. A fantastic story full of mystery and intrigue and will have you guessing at what threat is real or not. This is the first time I’ve read Armstrong and I’ll certainly be looking out for more in the future.
Blog Tour book review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021... 304 Definitely more of a thriller than a mystery as such. I haven't read the first book, but this one worked fine as a stand-alone. I was wondering about reading the first one after this book, but the final scene here pretty much killed that idea.
I didn't find the initial Bucharest scene particularly relevant to the story, but then again I didn't think it was all that interesting, so wasn't paying full attention. When Ted arrives in Moscow, meeting all the new people, was when the story came alive for me. Some of them are spies, and some of them may not be, it was difficult to tell who was who in that regard when I went back and thought about it afterwards.
The book's greatest strength is its main character, Ted, who comes across as a very likable fellow, who's naivete is actually necessary for the plot. Maybe it was the narration, but I did lose track that he was only 22 years old. As someone who has traveled internationally quite a bit, it was interesting to see his wide-eyed wondrous expression at his first big foreign city adventure.
It was interesting that the author includes KGB reports periodically, as a contrast to Ted's direct observations of events. I'd like to think that the agent who befriends him at the end, actually did grow to like him. Much is made of the surliness of the hotel and restaurant staffs, but I think I would grow to resent dealing with westerners every day who have unlimited access to western goods.
A note on the audiobook: I had a bit of trouble with Ted's accent at the beginning, but grew used to it as time went on. Christopher, the British diplomat, had an appropriately haughty upper class accent. The Russian accents were done well enough so as not to seem exaggerated.
Verdict: three stars means it's a perfectly adequate book, and I'd certainly be interested in another featuring Ted as the main character. Continuing the series with a new individual? Maybe.
304 Although this is a stand alone novel, for those (like me) who adored The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt it is a double delight to meet some familiar characters again, seen from a very different angle. The prose is beguiling - deceptively clean and simple - Alice Munro meets John le Carre.
I first visited Russia in 1977 and Romania not long afterwards; this novel took me right back to the strange dichotomy for western visitors lifting the iron curtain and peeking east. On the one hand the lack of advertising billboards, traffic free streets, clean and beautiful public spaces coupled with a feeling of complete personal safety was delightful. But the drab clothes and houses, the terrible food and service, the empty shops, the obvious ‘minders’ who either followed or ‘befriended’ visitors, the relentless propaganda and absurd restrictions became wearying.
Sarah Armstrong evokes that strange cold war era and colours it in with textures and colours and scents and emotions. And luminous, fully developed, complex characters.
Ted moves to London to get away from the working-class fishing community he was born into. Hoping to train as a journalist, he moves to London and slides into debt. Things look up when he is given the opportunity to go to Romania to interview an art film director and then attend a Moscow film festival.
But others are watching him. And listening.
“The threats people hold over us are most often imagined. We even create them for ourselves.”
What struck me most forcefully was the sinister brilliance with which the security services fished for recruits. First identifying potential by observing the quarry in minute detail: how they dressed, spoke, ate, drank, flirted; itemising their possessions; listening in to their calls; examining their waste-paper. Then selecting the bait to match the target – beautiful temptress or tragic parent and finally reeling them in through their hidden desires, ambitions or weaknesses.
There has never been a better book on the art of listening. It’s a textbook in the art of manipulation. Or, what we call in the west, management of people.
“I never knew I had anything to give, anything anyone wanted.”
Poor Ted has never been listened to before.
Haunting and resonant, I can’t wait for the next book in the Moscow Wolves series.
304
Ted wants to be a proper journalist rather than a film critic, but at least the travel is good. He arrives in Bucharest to interview a renowned film director, but suspects the man he sees is an imposter. His guide, Vasile, has involved him in a more interesting story about a missing girl, a puzzle Ted aims to solve while he s in Moscow at the 1975 International Film Festival. In Moscow, though, the mystery deepens, and Ted finds himself asked to do more than a few dubious favours. The Starlings of Bucharest