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

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The Partisan impresses with the breadth of its scope and its seemingly accurate depiction of the various historical events that it covers. There is also a great deal of poignancy and sadness in Worrall’s portrayal of the horrors of war and the brutality of the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The characters are fulsome and credible, and very engaging.

The public knows only the official faces of governments and the military, but the real power lies with other slippery government officials like Vassily, a Soviet official who manages to travel freely, but nobody knows exactly why. 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. No one is safe from the highly powerful people controlling the agents and assassins as political intrigue sweeps across Europe. This excellent and intricately plotted first novel culminates in an exciting climax. It mainly takes place in the sixties during the Cold War, with glimpses of World War II, focusing on the role of partisans in the Lithuanian forests. Even a grandmaster can only think so many moves ahead. A machine sees all the way through to the end. All the different possibilities.’If you're a fan of Len Deighton and John le Carre then this nerve-jangling thriller is for you...The characters are skilfully drawn and complex threads masterfully combined into a gripping read Yours The author also adds to the near confusion by starting a chapter with a previously unmentioned event and then proceeds to explain said event as the chapter moves on, so it eventually does become relatively clear as to what's going on! I don't know how the author was able to pull it off, but I'm glad he wrote this book and kindled the imagination with a fictional Lithuanian post-war freedom fight on an international arena. Of course I'm buzzing about Lithuania, but there's everything else you'd expect from a cold war story: Moscow, London, Austria, Spain; KGB, MGB, MI6, Mossad, etc. Ik was heel nieuwsgierig naar die prachtige cover van De Partizaan. De schaakstukken, verwerkt in de titel en de opmerkelijke zin : In elk spionnenspel telt elke zet …

Maar door de spanning in het verhaal bleef het me wel steeds prikkelen om terug verder te willen lezen. Tijd zal ook wel tegen gewerkt hebben, zodat ik het verhaal niet snel genoeg kon verwerken. Daarom maakte ik de keuze om hem verder te beluisteren, in plaats van het boek verder te lezen. Hierdoor kon ik andere huishoudelijke taken wat aangenamer maken en kon ik gelijktijdig wat binnenkwam ook beter opnemen. The story shifts between the 1940s, the 1960s and 2004, between Lithuania, Germany, Russia, England, and Spain and involves multiple characters. While wanting to race ahead to see how the story finished, I had to slow down to understand and absorb its complexity. The ending of the book was also a bit of a disappointment. In several ways. Some of what some characters did just makes very little sense beyond doing something that sounds dramatic when explained, but not when shown. Other aspects are very Hollywood and thus highly unrealistic. Zelf ben ik absoluut géén fan van oorlogsverhalen, maar De Partizaan heeft me van mijn sokken geblazen. Wat een indrukwekkende plot. Uiteraard heb ik de kern van het verhaal opgezocht met bibberende benen. Stel je voor dat dit écht een plan was… Ik had het niet zo gemakkelijk om in het verhaal te komen. Reden hiervoor was dat ik van in het begin overstelpt werd door verschillende namen en hun achtergrond, plaatsen, settings waardoor ik precies mijn plaats in het boek niet kon vinden.

It was unlikely that the Russians would try any thuggery in a busy London thoroughfare in broad daylight, but you never knew. In the mid-1950s two agents from what was then the Ministry of Internal Affairs had attempted to snatch her in Paris while she was walking down a shopping street much like this one. Be bold again if you want to, my little friends, she thought. I splashed your blood all over the white paving stones that day, and I will do it again.” Want eenmaal iedereen zijn plaatsje kreeg in het boek, bleek het voor mij ook gemakkelijker om alles te begrijpen en te genieten van het boek.

First thing that caught my attention was the name. Partisans were the freedom fighters of Lithuania, during German and Soviet occupation.

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The story is very complex, and some patience is needed in the early stages, but Worrall steadily and skilfully knits his various strands into a compelling whole that comes together in a series of stunning finales in Spain, London and Sweden. The second half of the book is particularly suspenseful, as the twin storylines in 1961 and 1944 reach their violent conclusions and Worrall offers some unexpected final twists. There are numerous threads and characters that slowly begin to connect with each other, but they may prove to be a challenge for readers to keep up with, so attention to detail is essential to understanding the various twists and events that unfold. Young Michael Fitzgerald secures a place at King's College, Cambridge, a talented chess player, he falls in love with a true chessmaster, the Russian Yulia Forsheva, at a London tournament. Her powerful mother, Anna's position become markedly more precarious when it is assumed that Yulia's father, Sergei, has defected. The difficult Romeo and Juliet relationship is facilitated by Vassily, an adept spymaster caught up in the divisions, intrigue, and machinations taking place within the Politburo, and the deadly European ambitions of Maxim Karpov. The connecting parts of the narrative conclude with a nail biting finale set in Valencia, can the horrors of a European catastrophe be averted? De partizaan suist in een jachtig tempo, springt doordacht tussen tijdperken en oorlogsgebieden. Om meteen te herlezen. The author highlights Russian atrocity after Russian atrocity, like the British and Yanks never committed any atrocities?! Gies peace!! When the world is accelerating towards an inevitable and catastrophic conflict, what can just four people do to prevent it?