The Silent Sisters
The Silent Sisters (Charles Jenkins #3)
By: Robert Dugoni
[Fulfilling “A book with spies” as part of the 2021 Fall Reading Challenge]
“Jenkins had screwed up. He’d cared. He should have just walked away.”
This great trilogy began with The Eighth Sister and returned with the The Last Agent— both of which were suspenseful cat-and-mouse attempts of our protagonist, Charles Jenkins, at escaping Russia without getting caught.
The Silent Sisters, on the other hand, right out of the gate begins with Charles Jenkins hanging from a hook in a slaughterhouse in Russia being tortured for information.
He has been caught.
“Should have taught him how to treat a woman,” he tells his interrogator, “we wouldn’t be here if you had.”
Rewinding a few weeks, we find out that Jenkins, tasked with exfiltrating the remaining 2 (of the 8) sisters (aka Russian-born American spies) from Moscow, gets mixed up with not only a very dangerous Russian mafia family, but also the Moscow police department, and a high-ranking political director whose career and reputation hinges on the capture of Jenkins.
While trying to lay low, Jenkins goes to a dive bar to eat, but after stepping in to defend a woman being treated like a dog, Jenkins witnesses a murder and becomes the prime suspect.
His job just got harder.
Exfiltrate two spies already in precarious situations while being hunted by three different resourceful, weapon-wielding groups, while also being one of the very few black men in Russia. Good luck man.
I thought that knowing Jenkins got caught would ruin the suspense of the story for me.
But true to form, Dugoni writes another adrenaline-laced page-turner, and I really enjoyed it. And it had quite the ending!
You know Jenkins must escape somehow, so the suspense lies in: the build-up— how did he get caught?; and the tricks he must have up his sleeve— how will he escape such a hopeless predicament?; and what happens to the two sisters—do they survive, are they double agents?
I believe this book wraps up the Russian chapter of Charles Jenkins but Dugoni alludes to the possibility of continuing Jenkins books, possibly in Egypt next time!
I’ve enjoyed the learning experience about Russia, even though I was dreaming in Russian espionage for every book. Here are a couple interesting things I learned this time:
There is a university in Moscow called Moscow State University. But Russia is not divided into states like the US. Why does it have such an Americanized name? Also, look up images for this— the main building is insane.
There is an underground city built under Moscow from the Cold War. They had built all these tunnels and bunkers and even another rail for potential nuclear fallout. The book says it could hold 15,000 people for 30 years. I did brief Google searching on this and it’s probable Dugoni was elaborating on reality, but there is a complex underground system of tunnels as well as the mysterious underground Neglinnaya River. The Russian government would try keep the extent of these tunnels under wraps right??
Anyway, if you liked the first two books, you’ll love this one as well! Highly recommend this series!
[PG-13 disclaimer: There is some sexual content throughout, used to show the degradation of a couple characters but nothing extensive or overly descriptive.]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
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