A SINGLE SPY

Narrator Ari Fliakos crafts unique voices and personas for key Russians and Germans in this pre-WWII spy story. Alexsi Ivanovich Smirnov is not a typical spy. Orphaned as a child, Smirnov uses his superior intellect to develop survival skills that so impress the NKVD Russian spy agency that it recruits him to serve as a double agent in the buildup to WWII. Although the audiobook starts slowly, once it moves from Smirnov's troubled childhood to his teenage years and then to his assignment in Germany, the plot, pace, and dialogue never relent. As characters reappear, listeners will appreciate Fliakos's earlier efforts to define every person. By the novel's unpredictable ending, listeners will be completely hooked on Fliakos's every word. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2017]