The Translator by Harriet Crawley, suspense from Bitter Lemon Press

Title: The Translator
Author: Harriet Crawley
Publication: Bitter Lemon Press, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Russia

Description: When the top Russian translator in Britain is knocked off his bicycle into a coma, Clive Franklin gets the call to accompany the Prime Minister to Moscow for top-secret meetings with powerful Russian President Serov. Reluctantly leaving his sabbatical project of translating 27 short stories by Chekhov, Clive travels to a country he loves and knows well, and there he is reunited with a former lover, Marina Volina, now Serov’s interpreter.  She met Clive when they both worked at the UN; she broke up with him abruptly, married someone else, and is now a widow. Marina tolerated the current regime until now: she suspects her foster son was murdered although the police say it was a drug overdose. She is determined to find out what really happened to him and be revenged on his killer. As she and Clive renew their relationship, dodging surveillance and suspicions, the Brits ask her to find evidence of an imminent plot against Great Britain. Of course, this puts her in grave danger, and it is a race against time whether Marina can learn what she needs before her enemy destroys her.

My Impression: This is a fast-paced and entertaining novel that provides a glimpse of affluent (and corrupt) life at the top in Russia and the casual but omnipresent presence of surveillance (against their own citizens, of course, as well as international guests). The visiting British envoys expect to be observed, even in their own embassy, but when a powerful general begins to distrust Marina, he starts watching her every move, hoping to build a case against her, although she is a favorite of the Russian president. For the reader, it is chilling to know she could disappear at any moment.

Although they realize a future is virtually impossible, Marina and Clive share lighthearted as well as frightening moments, encouraged by Serov to run together, training for a marathon. They both particularly enjoy wordplay such as trying to translate proverbs from each other’s language. Clive insists on calling himself a translator:

“The accepted wisdom is that you’re either an interpreter who interprets speech, or a translator who translates text. But in Russian there’s only one word for this skill: perevodchik. Translator. You’re either an audio translator, ustny perevodchik, or a written translator, pismenny perevodchik. I’m both. So ‘translator’ suits me best. Does that make sense?”

Marina’s father was loyal to Serov and she is a trusted member of his inner circle, so she is rightfully bitter when she learns that her foster son was murdered by government thugs and his brother in danger (admittedly, they were extremely reckless and should have known better). Her plot to turn the tables on her enemy and the final twist at the end of the book were cleverly done and kept me reading past midnight.

This was in my last order from Book Depository before it shut down in April. It has not yet been published in the US but I think fans of Red Sparrow and/or the espionage fiction of Charles Cumming would like it (I won't compare it to le Carré because a) he was the master and b) I've only read one of his books). The book has many interesting minor characters as well as vivid descriptions of Moscow and the surrounding countryside.

Source: Copy purchased for my sister’s birthday (yes, of course, I had to read before wrapping - sometimes she says suspiciously, "Did you read this first?"). This is my eighteenth book for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.