The Translator by Harriet Crawley

Edited to add: Posted a day late due to illness. Sincere apologies to all concerned.  

Today is my my stop on the blog tour for The Translator by Harriet Crawley, a love story set against the politics of Moscow and a threat to the UK. My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my invitation and to the publisher for my review copy. 

The Blurb

A passionate love story, centred on a devastating Russian plot to sabotage the undersea communication cables linking the US to the UK. Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is upended when he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is the interpreter to the Russian President. Together they will try to stop the attack that could paralyse communications and collapse the Western economy.

The Translator is published by Bitter Lemon Press and came out on 21st March 2024.

 

My Review

My Review

I don't normally read a lot of romance novels but this one involved a bit of espionage so how could I say no? Also, a story set in a country we only see in the headlines on the news - in recent years anyway. And something told me that, in this one, love wasn't necessarily going to run smoothly!

It's 2017. Clive Franklin, a Russian interpreter, or translator, as he appears to be known, for the British Foreign Office, is in Scotland when he receives a phone call advising him he has been seconded at short notice to the Prime Minister's office and will leaving immediately for Moscow. After the Prime Minister's meeting with the Russian president has finished, Clive is to remain in Moscow to translate at some trade talks, whilst trying to find information on suspicious Russian activity in the seas off Britain's South West coast. Intelligence gathering is not currently in Clive's skill set but he hadn't reckoned on the Russian president's interpreter being a face from his past...

Clive comes across as a nice chap, intelligent, polite, well mannered - perfect for his role in Moscow. Well, dual roles, I should say, although he is understandably hesitant about the whole intelligence gathering thing. However, needs must, and he soon receives an offer of help from  unexpected quarters. 

Marina is a Russian interpreter, favoured by the Russian president. Again, she knows exactly how to behave, with higher stakes for her as punishment could be harsh. She comes across as quite a lonely woman who carries a lot of sadness, but there are hints that this was not always the case. I worried that she didn't seem to have any friends other than Lev, the president's private secretary, who rebellious streak I adored. One person I certainly didn't adore but who was, for me, one of the most beautifully drawn characters was General Grigory Varlamov, the deputy director of the FSB. The vice president is also colourfully described. 

I loved the plot. I enjoyed the formalities of the hierarchical society. I loved all the intrigue, secrets, coded messages, hushed conversations and dangerous risks. It's a race against time but there's a lot going on with meetings, business trips and conversations, some engineered, some not, so it's quite wordy.  Which, for me, gave it a really interesting feel of being both fast and slow. It's hard to explain. It's obviously very tense but I felt that occasionally that was lost a little. Overall, The Translator is an intelligent novel, obviously political, very interesting and ended in a way I hadn't anticipated. I really enjoyed it. 

The Author

A fluent Russian speaker and former journalist, Harriet Crawley lived and worked in Russia for twenty years. She sent her son to state school in Moscow which, until 2016, was her second home.


Do remember to check out the other stops on the tour!