PHANTOM ORBIT

This intensely interesting spy novel by WASHINGTON POST foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius makes for a gripping audiobook. The setup: Volkov, a mathematically gifted, socially awkward Russian student doing graduate work in Beijing in the '90s, falls for a lively American girl. She abruptly dumps him and disappears. (But why?) Decades later, the world's balance of power among Russia, China, and the U.S. may depend upon the fact that the girl once gave Volkov her parents' home address in Massachusetts, and he kept it. Ballerini uses fairly generic foreign-sounding accents to suggest the otherness of the Chinese and Russian scientists and spymasters, but it works fine. He is attentive and expressive, letting Ignatius's all-too-believable and frankly terrifying scenario keep the listener in thrall. B.G. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2024]