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

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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.

The Russians sadly lost over twenty million people during The Great Patriotic War, so justly cannot in reality be considered anything other than victims!First thing that caught my attention was the name. Partisans were the freedom fighters of Lithuania, during German and Soviet occupation. De verwijzingen naar schaken en schaakpartijen komen regelmatig terug in De partizaan. Toch lijkt het schaaktoernooi waar Joelia en Michael elkaar ontmoeten naar verhouding van weinig belang. Het lijkt de bedoeling te zijn dat het verhaal gelijkenis heeft met het spelen van het middenspel en eindspel van een schaakpartij. Joelia’s vader leerde haar om in het middenspel zo snel mogelijk alle stukken uit te ruilen en te offeren. In het boek lijkt dit juist onderdeel van het eindspel uit te maken. Pas op het laatst vallen de meeste slachtoffers. Ik laat me niet meer zoveel sturen door een cover en een titel of wat er omheen geschreven staat. Maar bij deze heb ik me er wel door laten leiden. Ook al weet ik dat niet steeds de juiste keuze is. De flaptekst ( die ik normaal nooit lees) deed me uitkijken naar een spannend verhaal. Het liefdesverhaal van Yulia en Michael, twee tieners elk aan een andere zijde van het IJzeren Gordijn, die elkaar leren kennen via een schaaktornooi in Londen. Vasili, de grootste spion van de Sovjet-Unie blijkt één van hun trouwe bondgenoten, maar dat blijkt Greta een verzetstrijdster, die jaagt op heel wat gevaarlijke mannen, ook te zijn. Je wordt met deze historische spionagethriller meegesleept van Cambridge tot Moskou. Van het oostfront in de Tweede Wereldoorlog tot de Koude Oorlog. Wordt dit het dodelijkste potje schaken ooit? The Cold War as a game of chess. You don’t need to know anything about how chess is played or how players sacrifice pieces to gain an advantage. That’s because you will see in real time how the Cold War players sacrifice their real players when necessary. The powers-that-be may even say Sorry, but you know why you have to go. You play the game, you take your chances.

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. 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.’ 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. The author highlights Russian atrocity after Russian atrocity, like the British and Yanks never committed any atrocities?! Gies peace!! I got this book right when Waterstones had it for sale, a bit earlier than elsewhere. It had sounded quite promising with strong female characters, espionage, chess and international politics set during the WWII and Cold War eras.I thought the way the multiple threads and timelines were handled and drawn together was impressively handled by a first time author. Although it does require a little patience and concentration to follow all the threads until they come together, it is well worth the effort. The main characters are fascinating and well depicted, particularly Vassily, Greta and the hideous Karpov. I would have liked to have got to know Michael and Julia a little better as well as their parents to have a better feel for everyone’s motives and driving forces, but there is so much in the novel already that it would have been difficult to fit in much more character development. Overall, it is an exciting historical thriller which will delight fans of Russian history and Cold War spycraft, particularly while Russia is once again flexing it’s expansionist muscles with its war in Ukraine.