Customer Reviews

The Moscow Club

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hey, a new story. In this category of books, it is getting a tough to find something new but this was. I think this has been one of the author's best books, if not the best. The story is very believable and tight. It had it all, a great story, good characters, wonderful action and a quick pace. This is just a good old exciting book. The author peppers the book with plot twists that keep the reader on his toes. This author writes in a way that is tight and slick that keep you interested through out. Great detail of the way the Russian government works (or doesn't). Sit back and enjoy this book.

Charlie Stone is a CIA analyst who is asked by his boss to find more information on a document reference called "the Lenin testament". Charlie is reluctant to pursue this, even though he is aware that both his father and another old family friend might be able to help him, because of old scandals within his family.

However, against his better judgement, he does follow up this information, which leads him deeper and deeper into a conspiracy involving people in high places in both the USA and Russia - where people's motives are not what they seem.

Finder has crafted a well written, well paced and enjoyable post cold war novel with this book. It's a what-if situation that could have happened in Russia - but if it did we would probably never know about it. His use of terrorists as scare-mongers to initiate official action is almost eerie in the light of events over the last few years, yet this book was written in 1991, when terrorists did not have the cachet they have now.

With a great story and characters you care about this book is worth picking up to read if you enjoy a good thriller.

The Moscow Club is Joseph Finder's first novel. It is the work of a writer who hasn't yet mastered his craft. Finder's writing style too often depends on clichéd expressions: a house of cards falls, a character knows something like the back of his hand, and secrecy is for the birds. Chase scenes read like descriptions of the chases in bad television shows. Sex scenes are sophomoric. When those flaws aren't cropping up, however, Finder's style is fluid, making the novel easy to read.

The plot resembles a generic Ludlum conspiracy: the good guy learns something he isn't supposed to know, the bad guys try to kill him, and as the good guy works to save himself by learning the whole truth, everyone who helps him dies. The characters are undistinguished, lacking in personality; Finder spends little time trying to make them interesting. For the most part, the story is credible, although the main character pulls off some James Bond style gymnastics that don't fit well with the novel's general identity, as if Finder is trying to be Ludlum and Fleming and Le Carre all at once.

Setting aside those criticisms, I would recommend The Moscow Club to fans of espionage thrillers. The intricate plot is logically consistent, the pace (while a bit erratic) gains velocity as the novel progresses, and the interweaving of Russian and Soviet history adds interest to the story. While much of the plot is predictable, the novel is never boring and Finder rewards the diligent reader with a nice surprise at the end. The Moscow Club is an uneven but worthy first effort by a writer who sharpened his skills in later novels.

If you enjoy Crichton, Ludlow, Sheldon and want an author that not only captures your attention, but makes you think, while being entertained and has entwined all kinds of surprises?-Read the Moscow Club! Not only do you not want to put it down, you are afraid to finish it! Why? With the fear of not knowing how long you'll have to wait for his next book! Finder is now my favorie author! His books are entrancing and he is obviously well versed. As a travel affectionado, and having been in Moscow during the days when hotel rooms were bugged... Maybe this is why his book the Moscow Club is so entralling. I enjoy his style of writing so much and I love to read! Keep writing Mr. Finder because in my opinion... YOU ARE THE BEST!

I was really disappointed after reading the reviews. I'd describe the writing as trite, superficial and filled with cliches. No serious character development. Not in the same league with Lecarre or even Furst. Reads like a first novel, which of course it is. Maybe his later work is better.

Joseph Finder knows his stuff! I am an avid reader who reads 1-2 novels a week. After polishing off several Grishams and Pattersons, I was looking for something new. My mom gave me an old copy of The Moscow Club. I could not put it down. The details that Finder weaves through the story are amazing and the pace is breathtakingly quick. There are no places to take a breather and I am still tired from missing way too much sleep. I am about finished with his second book, Extraordinary Powers, and it is just as fine. Time to order his third....

It's a shame that such a book is out of print. When I read The Moscow Club, I was litteraly flipping the pages one after another. It keeps you alert all the time because you never know what is going to happen. An excellent way to kill time while you're on a boring trip.

Hey, a new story. In this category of books, it is getting a tough to find something new but this was. I think this has been one of the author's best books, if not the best. The story is very believable and tight. It had it all, a great story, good characters, wonderful action and a quick pace. This is just a good old exciting book. The author peppers the book with plot twists that keep the reader on his toes. This author writes in a way that is tight and slick that keep you interested through out. Great detail of the way the Russian government works (or doesn't). Sit back and enjoy this book.

As a longtime reader of cold war spy thrillers, I stumbled across "The Moscow Club" when it was first released in paperback in 1991. It's out of print now, but worth looking for.

This is, bar none, the best, most engrossing spy novel I've ever read. Not only is it brutally realistic and eerily prescient (it was written just months before the Soviet Union fell), it's also the most accurate representation of Soviet/Russian politics I've ever read, and I'm a former Soviet Studies major.

This is true can't-put-it-down novel. Intelligently written and probably a lot more real than we want to think--the concept that a few wealthy and powerful individuals really run the world isn't that far off--the fact that it was Joseph Finder's first novel is pretty impressive. His other books have been good, but nothing matches "The Moscow Club," which is not only a non-stop thrill ride, but also the most intelligently-written political thriller I've ever picked up. Nothing Tom Clancey has written even comes close to the brilliance of Finder's "Moscow Club." Don't miss it!

Despite having exams to study for I could not put this book down for 3 days straight! As a student (and always will be) of Russia and Former Soviet Union I found it engrossing. Stone and his race across 3 continents against assassination of Cold War leaders and himself really built up to an excellent climax. Even better was some of the juicy tidbits of Soviet culture he put in there. However, Finder's accounts of the Katyn Forest were quite fictionalized. Perhaps, this was already in the press before the Soviet Union confessed to and reveal how it was perpetrated? He also speculated too much on Stone's reasoning that no matter what happened Russia would never let Ukraine be independent. Again this is hindsight and this was the classic Sovietologist belief at that time. One problem I had was the CIA-KGB conspiracy, this has been so beaten to death already. Has anyone ever seen the movie "The Package"? This sounded too much like too many overbaked KGB-CIA Kennedy assassination theories already out. At any rate if you enjoy reading about the FSU (glasnost period) and love a good thriller, I highly recommend this book.