Customer Reviews

The Venona Cable: A Thriller

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The third Volk novel is very different from its predecessors. It is more cerebral and introspective. While the accustomed violence is present, it plays only a peripheral role in the plot. Volk is arrested when an American film director and long-time Communist sympathizer is found murdered in Volk's warehouse. He is freed to find out the real murderer. A secret cable from 1943 is found on the victim, one of many deciphered by the NSA. It describes the decision by FDR and Churchill in 1943 regarding a Second Front, and was sent by an agent known as "19," giving Stalin an edge in negotiations with the Western Allies.

Among the mysteries is a picture found on the murder victim of himself and Volk's father, who supposedly defected to the United States. The question, of course, is whether Volk's father really defected or was a double agent. Volk never knew his father, and part of his quest is to discover the truth about his father as well as his efforts to uncover the reason for the death of the filmmaker.

The plot takes Volk to the United States where he follows the trail from Los Angeles to Albuquerque to Los Alamos. Along the way there are more murders and attempts on Volk's life. Written with the author's usual intensity, the novel takes an deep look at the past and the present, depicting the craft of spying, looking at the subterfuges of the CIA, GRU and other government agencies, asking who is a double agent and how each side tried to steal from the other to achieve superiority during the Cold War (and beyond?).

Highly recommended

Others, particularly those who read only the first two books in Ghelfi's series, complain about the frequent graphic violence. That's a fair criticism but only part of the story. The novels are deep, well-plotted, complicated, and filled with well-developed interesting characters.

Protagonist Alexei Volkovoy, a Russian commando turned hitman and Kremlin problem solver, is far more than a blood-soaked cardboard character, and in this third novel, we learn more about his past. Volk's father flew a Soviet spy plane to the US in the 1970s in what was either a defection or a carefully-choreographed Soviet disinformation project. Now Volk goes to California to find out which.

Ghelfi's books are fascinating. He's easing up a bit on the violence in this installment, but Volk is still the same menacing character as always. Te story's attraction is really in the complex spy-versus-spy game that Ghelfi unpeels. A well-written, enjoyable novel.

"The Venona Cable" is the third action thriller from Brent Ghelfi.
Russian agent and criminal Alexi Volkovoy "Volk" is back. He's arrested at the Moscow airport and brought to his warehouse. He's shown the murdered body of a former American cinematographer. The victim is Everett Walker. He had been in Moscow for only a short time but was searching for Volk and had a photo of Volk's father, a man who had supposidly disappeared thirty years ago. Volk is questioned by the police, beaten and released so that he could investigate what Walker was doing.

Volk finds that Walker hid a document in his driver's license. He used a sophisticated photographic tecchnique to do so. The document called the Venona Cable revelaed that Roosevelt and Churchill had a meeting called the Trident Conference where they discussed opening up a second front against Germany. Info about the conference came from a secret agent code named "19".

Later, Volk meets former KGB officer Isadora who worked with Volk's father in America. She tells him that his father worked for the aerospace industry at a firm called Loreli Industries.

Capt. Oleg Basoff orders Volk to his office where he tells Volk that Volk's father actually worked for him and that the man was really a double agent. Volk must be on the right track, his boss, General Nonoskaya arranges him to go to America to learn more of his father's activities. However, before he leaves, a police officer named Rykov, tells Volk that he just learned that someone killed Volk's father in 2004 and thinks Basoff had him killed.

When Volk arrives in Albuquerque, he is met by NCIX agent, Elizabeth
Rhodes.

At the Loreli offices, Alfred Reese is protecting information about a new project that he doesn't want Volk to interfere with. He tells his employee, Santorini to take care of Volk. Then the reader finds out who killed Walker and Volk's father.

Volk is an excellent protagonist. He is street smart, tough but still has a tender side when with his girlfriend Valya. He is emotional about his father and shows a longing for the childhood he missed sharing with him. Volk is also admirable in his loyalty to his country.

The action paced plot is complex yet works well. The various agents are well depicted and are properly dealt with.

Ghelfi's two previous novels with Volk, "Volk's Game" and "Volk's Shadow" were both well received and have been optioned for film. This fine novel should join the ranks.

Well done and recommended.

The murdered corpse of elderly American cinematographer Everett Walker is found in a Moscow warehouse. The Russian police charge master criminal and espionage agent Alexei "Volk" Volkovoy with the homicide for several circumstantial reasons one of which is he made pornographic videos at the "studio".

Additionally Walker was blackballed by Hollywood in the 1990s due to the release of the previously Top Secret Venona Cables that incriminated him with many spies. He had come to Moscow seeking Volk. The American possessed a microdot of a decrypted 1943 cable concerning a meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt and a photo of Walker with Volk's disgraced father, Stepan, who mysteriously vanished in 1974. Volk knows the only way he can prove his innocence is to investigate his father in order to ascertain whether Stepan was a GRU military intelligence operative or a traitor. With only Valya at his side, he quickly realizes both the Russians and the Americans are clueless as to whom the genuine agents were, who were the moles, and who were the triple/double crossers, but each side wants Volk stopped from uncovering the truth.

This action-packed thriller grips readers from the opening moment when Volk realizes how much trouble he is in and how little time he has to extract himself from pending disaster. Readers will enjoy his latest exploits as he struggles to stay one step ahead of the Russian and American police and espionage groups. The ties to 1943 are brilliantly forged as Volk learns that the sins of the father are often carried on the backs of their offspring.

Harriet Klausner

One of the best new writers to appear in the thriller/action genre during the last two years is Brent Ghelfi. For those of you who aren't familiar with him, he's the author of the exciting "Volk" series--Volk's Game and Volk's Shadow. His first two novels introduced ex-Russian Army commando, Alexei Volkovoy (a.k.a. Volk), who now works undercover for the Russian government, specifically the General, and has managed to infiltrate the Russian mafia. Of course, the General still uses Volk for outside work and counterintelligence operations, which is like using a chain saw, instead of a pair of scissors, to cut a piece of paper because Volk takes no prisoners. This character is a human wrecking machine, and you don't want to get in his way, or hurt any of his friends, not if you want to be around to see sun come up.

In The Venona Cable, the third book in the series, our slightly tarnished Russian hero has to confront the possibility that a dead man in Los Angeles may have been his father, a former Russian Air Force pilot who was later recruited by the GRU and then defected to the United States by flying a highly secret test plane out of the Soviet Union just before Volk was born. It all starts when Volk returns to Moscow from Macao after killing Lachek, the man who tortured him in Volk's Shadow. The ex-soldier is arrested at the airport and then taken to an underground dungeon where he's held in isolation for a week, during which time he's informed about the dead American and that he's the only suspect in the case. All of this information, however, is delivered in between beatings by the Russian guards. Fortunately for Volk, he's rescued by the General and released from prison before being permanently injured. When he finally meets with his superior, he's given a file on his father. What Volk realizes after reading the information is that his father may have been a double agent, planted in America by a former Army officer named Bassoff, so that he could spread disinformation that was mixed in with classified material. Along with that is the revelation that there's still a Russian double agent (#19) in the United States, someone who's been delivering secret intelligence to Russia for over sixty years. With the subtle agreement of the United States government, the General sends Volk to America so that he can find out something about his father and hopefully something about Agent 19.

When Volk arrives in America, he soon realizes that not only does someone want him dead, but also just about every single person that he comes into contact with during his search for information. Because Volk seems to be the common denominator in all the murders that take place after his arrival in the United States, it isn't long before the LAPD and the FBI are after him, not to mention the one person who wants him buried before he can discover the true identity of Agent 19. It's going to take all of Volk's survival skills and instincts to match wits with a spy who always seems to be at least ten moves ahead just like a true master of chess.


In the Venona Cable, Brent Ghelfi has successfully created a Russian character that comes alive in every aspect on the written page His writing style is straightforward like a .44 Magnum bullet coming out of a barrel. There's no poetry of words here, but rather a compelling story about one man's search to understand the father he never knew. This novel will lure readers in with a powerful beginning and then force them to face the dark side of humanity with each new page, until the ending is reached with a clearer understanding that the things wrong in life can be made right, if only in our minds. The third book also continues this powerful series with its mesmerizing lead character, delivering everything that one could hope for in a fast-paced thriller. This isn't a rollercoaster ride of an adventure, but rather a nuclear explosion of excitement and suspense that will make any reader an instant fan of Volk. So, if you're a lover of hardcore thrillers, but haven't read any of the books in the "Volk" series, then do yourself a favor and head to the nearest bookstore to pick up a copy of Volk's Game or Volk's Shadow, or The Venona Cable. You won't be disappointed. Highly recommended to those in need of something different to rattle their normal reading existence.

Those who have read the two previous Volk novels will find this one more thoughtful although still full of the violence and action one expects in this series. The plot is more complex and quite pleasingly so. Especially impressive for me was the moments when we're given the perspective of the antagonist Alfred Reese at various points culminating in a climactic chapter in which the two perspectives are alternated.Others have gone into more detail of the plot, but I suggest finding it for yourself. This isn't exactly a roller coaster of a novel, but there aren't very many points at which you'll feel like putting it down.

Yes Volk is back!!!!! if you don't know who Alexei Volkovoy is, you are missing
the best character and best series in fiction today.Volk's Game, Volk's Shadow,
now, the best author in fiction today has given us, The Venona Cable. a new Volk
book, filled with the stuff the best thrillers are made of.
Volk is like no other fiction character you have ever come in contact with.
Run to the book store and do yourself the biggest favor you have ever done
when it comes to reading, buy all of theses.You will not be disappointed.
Then from now on to your friends, you will use one word, "VOLK". enough said!!!

This author writes very well, not least because he moves his characters right along. There is no marching in place or tangential political rants interrupting the story arc. In fact, this book suggests that the practice of international espionage is its own realm, wherein personal rivalries and enmities transcend national rivalries and political systems. There is no ultimate winner here.

The Venona Cable departs from the storyline established in the first two Volk novels. Instead of battling with his past in the context of a present conflict, Volk is battling with his father's past, seeking to learn the truth about the man he never knew. When Volk's father defected to the United States, was he a traitor or a double agent working for Moscow?

Volk is dispatched to the US to learn why an American was murdered in Volk's Moscow warehouse while attempting to deliver to Volk a copy of a World War II era cable (one of the Venona cables which, if you Google the subject, will lead you to an intriguing real world story of espionage). While in the US, Volk must unravel the secret of the cable, its connection to current day spy networks (both Russian and American), and its relationship to his father. The story is therefore more in the vein of a conventional spy thriller than its predecessors. The violence in this novel is toned down a bit (although there's still a fair amount of mayhem as Volk repeatedly fights for his life), Volk's partner Valya and his boss the General play backstage roles, and American spy Brock Matthews, who turns up only collaterally in the first two novels, plays a central role in this one.

As do the first two, this novel works nicely as a thriller, maintaining a steady pace that increases to a frenzy as the novel nears its end. The Venona Cable would be an enjoyable read without having read the first two Volk novels, but you would have deeper insight into Volk's character if you read the first two before reading this one.

The Venona Cable is Brent Ghelfi's third book to feature Russian crimminal and sometime goverment agent, Volk. I was really looking forward to this book. The first two books had non stop action from the first page to the last page. Volk was a single minded killing machine in the first two books. Once he was assigned a case he followed up on it logicaly. He went from A to B and just killed the bad guys along the way.
Volk in the Venona Cable is very different. He is much less violent, more thoughtful. The character just feels watered down, softer.
This book is still an okay read, but it is less action adventure novel and more like a police procedural.
This is a very well written book, but it is fairly slow paced. I hope that Ghelfi brings back the old violent Volk.