The Poet’s Game

Vidich (Beirut Station) serves up a rare misfire with this action-starved tale of a former CIA station chief in Moscow trying to extricate one of his old sources before the FSB closes in. It’s been more than a decade since Alex Matthews resigned from the agency and started a Moscow-based financial firm, Trinity Capital, from the United States. The company has made Matthews a rich man, but not a happy one. His marriage to a beautiful CIA interpreter has chilled, and he’s never been able to connect meaningfully with his teenage son. So when the agency asks Matthews to return to Russia and extract a double agent code-named Byron, whom Matthews hired, he sees an opportunity to recapture his glory days. Once Matthews arrives in Moscow, however, nothing goes as planned: Byron proves difficult to manage, and the Russians seem to always be two steps ahead of the CIA. The narrative’s temperature rarely rises above a low heat, with little genuine suspense on offer. As a protagonist, Matthews lacks spark, and the plot suffers from numerous implausibilities, including a finale involving Matthews’s wife that will leave most readers perplexed. Vidich is capable of much better. Agent: Will Roberts, Gernert Co. (May)