Review of The Bear is Stirring

[Mutai Marshal]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Bear is Stirring" by Peter Marshall.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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Aldanov, a GRU officer based in Moscow, had an intriguing idea. He would pose as a naval officer on a dating website to find a valuable contact. However, his noble plan backfired when he ended up in bed with Marina Peters, a British Navy officer on the dating website. Aldanov was demoted from his post and sent to an obscure job as a naval attaché in the Japanese Embassy.

Aldanov and his Japanese assistant Endo were attacked in a city bar by gunmen in retaliation for Russia's occupation of Japan. During the preliminary hearings in court, CIA chief Bob Smithers and Marina intercepted Aldanov and persuaded him to join the US forces. This event prompted a reaction from Russia, which set out to assert its military superiority. Will this precipitate diplomatic reaction from the targeted nations–the UK and the United States?

The Bear is Stirring by Peter Marshall features a manifold of characters from the abovementioned countries. The novel explores the lengths a nation will go to to protect its interests and how the embassies of these countries play a pivotal role in this cat-and-mouse game. We meet Yuri Borstov, the GRU director, with four outlined motives. First, he seeks to eliminate the traitor Aldanov. He also plans to carry out significant hits in the UK and deal with a mysterious female CIA agent. Will he meet the other objective of facilitating the release of Rozovsky in London?

What stood out for me was the way Yuri Borstov coordinated his team. He sought the counsel of his superiors and subordinates, and he got everyone on the same page. He acknowledged Ilia's skills and deployed him to the United States to find Aldanov, disguised as Lou Welensky. Borstov also made sure that his team worked together effectively as a unit.

Unfortunately, this novel fell short of my expectations. The characters lack depth, making it difficult to connect with them. This is likely due to the large number of characters, some of whom have minor roles. The editing of the novel is lacking. The punctuation is inconsistent, with periods and commas appearing before and after speech marks randomly. There are also grammatical errors and misspellings of some characters' names. Again, Sir Robert Briggs is sometimes referred to as Sir Richard, which makes it unclear if these are two different characters or the same character. I am also not sure if Rozovsky and Borstov share the same name, Yuri.

I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars. The author made breaching the CIA’s firewall not sophisticated. Other than the highlighted issues and predictable plot, I felt the author camped more on Russia’s side and overlooked the United States and the UK. These factors prevented me from giving the book a higher rating.

I would recommend it to fans of international crime thrillers. It presents an interesting perspective of how nations with shared interests can work concurrently to the detriment of another country.

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The Bear is Stirring
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[NetMassimo]

This seems like a book not ready to be published yet. A professional editor might help the author to fix the problems you pointed out and proper proofreading. Thank you for your honest review!

[Upphilan Paul]

I haven't been reading C/T/M/H novel, but I believe there are lessons to be learnt from them. This is a captivating and mind-hacking read with a compelling review and I long to read this book and see what you've read.
I like your review. Good job.

[patricia MGBEMENA]

I would love to know how the attack against Aldanov and his Japanese assistant Endo was carried out and the reaction which was expressed from the Russians.