Unfortunately I had to DNF this one halfway through. No fault of the book’s, I just couldn’t get into the story. I’ve never really read a spy novel before and the premise sounded so interesting, but I found myself not caring about the plot so I decided to put it down. I might try to revisit it in the future, I can definitely see why many people would love this one.

While spy novels are a bit outside my normal reading genres, I do like a good mystery and historical mystery. The Helsinki Affair provided a little of everything and is an interesting and mostly fast-paced, dual timeline story with a couple great female characters. Amanda and Kath (a free-spirited CIA agent) were smart and challenged each other to do more and try harder.

Amanda works for the CIA in Rome when a low-level Russian operative shows up and says he has important information to share about a U.S. senator who is in danger. Amanda gets drawn into the story and it leads her to learn more about her father Charlie’s time in Helsinki and question his actions and reasons for leaving. As Amanda and Kath get closer to solving a case the dangers grow.

I was really engrossed in the Cold War spy culture full of agents and double agents. This was the timeline with Charlie as he becomes enmeshed is dangers of his own while in Helsinki. Amanda's story involves double agents, blackmailed CEOs, stock market manipulations, and a Russian oligarch. In spite of the tension, it seemed to drag a bit in places and felt it could be tightened a bit.

And the ending really kind of lost me because 1) I'm unclear if the story is going to continue into a 2nd book, and 2) If it doesn't, it just seemed too open ended (which I normally don't mind) but this seemed too much. I would have preferred it ending with Amanda's story.

I would round this up to 3.5 stars because I did enjoy much of it.

I know I'm able to love spy thrillers. I love the FX series The Americans so much that I've watched it three times. Based of the synopsis, I was hoping this book would have that type of vibe. Unfortunately this missed the mark for me a bit but it was still entertaining. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I liked the main character Amanda. I loved minor character Kath, so I wish she would have been a bigger part of the plot. Overall, I say give it a shot if you're a spy/political fiction fan. Swipe for full synopsis!

✨ spy thriller
✨ betrayal and secrets
✨ complicated relationships
✨ dual POV and timelines
✨ multiple international settings
✨ Country vs Family

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me a reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This book had potential. The plot sounded intriguing. However, it fell a bit flat for me. I didn’t care much about the characters, but I think the biggest downfall was the constant timeline and point of view jumping that took place within the chapters. Made it a bit hard to follow at times.

And the ending was kind of meh.

This is probably a generous 3 stars. I don’t think I’d recommend this to others.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Amanda Cole is a driven professional, her loyalty to the CIA above reproach. So why does someone who knows her intimately believe she will participate in a coverup?

Amanda is stationed in Rome, a cushy but boring post, when an assassination plot is revealed to her. Her gut tells her the tip is legitimate, but her boss disagrees. An American senator will lose his life in Cairo as a result and Amanda will be promoted. It is now up to her to solve the case. With the help of Kath, a legendary spy, she will work her way through various clues and countries in search of an answer.

While tension is barely a hum, Pitoniak does a fine job with setting and plotting. Most of the characters read flat and sometimes dislikable. The only one of interest is the brilliant and eccentric Kath. While the lead, Amanda, is competent and fearless, those characteristics can’t overcome her absent personality. It is a strong plus, however, that Pitoniak pursued the path of a female-centric spy novel. Kudos for that!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

I wanted to love this book SO much - but it almost felt like a chore to get to the end. I didn't really believe the whole CIA thing - but wanted a powerful female agent - and didn't feel much. Definitely intrigued me given the possibility of the Russians (and who else) manipulating the markets - but fell short. Always love her writing - but this one left me unsatisfied. I could imagine it being a better movie to be honest. - something I rarely say!

One thing you should know about me: if a book says it's a thriller, I need to be on the edge of my seat for me to call it a successful novel. "The Helsinki Affair" by Anna Pitoniak is an interesting spy novel, but it's not exactly all that suspenseful. The first genuine scene of action took place 87 percent in (according to my Kindle app), so it took about that long for me to feel really invested in the plot.

The novel follows Amanda Cole, a young CIA operative who meets a Russian man claiming that he knows about a future assassination attempt on a US senator. While she tries to investigate, she comes across the name of her father, who was also a spy. Her father left his position after a stint in Helsinki (hence the name of the book), which raises questions for her about his potential involvement with the Russians. It seems like there would be the makings of a great thriller with this plot, except that the stakes don't really ramp up until the very end of the book. There are wire-tapped clandestine meetings, surveillance of bad guys, etc. - but none of the excitement Pitoniak is trying to pull of the page really comes through.

The main issue I had with this book (other than the boredom factor) is that it switched back and forth between time periods. This got incredibly confusing because the switches happened within the same chapters. Because Pitoniak also chose to have multiple POVs, I felt my focus drifting since it was hard to keep track of what character I was reading about and what time period we were in.

And then there's the ending. Perhaps Pitoniak is planning a series of books, which is the only thing I can think of to explain why she chose this ending. It was abrupt and definitely didn't tie up most of the loose ends that were still present at the end.

Granted espionage thrillers are not a genre I regularly read, but this book might deter me from picking up more for fear I'm in store for another snoozefest.

The Helsinki Affair is a spy thriller from Anna Pitoniak.

"Amanda Cole is a CIA agent like her father, Charlie Cole. A Russian comes into her station in Rome with information about an upcoming assassination. Amanda believes him, but no one else does. When it happens, Amanda discovers papers that point to something her father may have done as a young agent...something traitorous. And now she must decide what to do"

This book starts slowly. It takes a while to figure out where AP is going with the story. It's an interesting take on Meme stocks and algorithms and hackers. Once you get it, the story moves quicker - sort of like a modern version of a Ludlum novel, but shorter.
There's a dual-timeline where we see what Charlie did and what Amanda is pursuing now. Part of the ending is typical of espionage thrillers but part is left open-ended. Not really a cliff-hanger, but some blanks are left to the reader to fill in.

A good pick for fans of spy-thrillers.

The Helsinki Affair was an enjoyable spy novel. It was an intriguing and pleasant read with good character development, switching timelines, and enough mystery to hold my interest without being overly complicated.

**Thanks to NetGally and the publisher for an electronic ARC and the opportunity to provide feedback about this book.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I love a good spy story - and especially love reading one with female main characters. Amanda and especially Kath are characters that I really enjoyed.

Amanda is working for the CIA and is stationed in Rome when a Russian shows up and says he has important information to share about a U.S. senator who is in danger. Amanda gets drawn in and it leads to her learning more about her father’s time in Helsinki when she was a young child.

I was here for most of the story but it lost me a bit with the ending. There was also something that I waited through the whole book to happen and it didn’t. Not sure if this was left open to allow for a sequel? Without knowing if more is coming I’ll say that for me this felt unfinished which is disappointing.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

Overall I enjoyed this spy novel, although it did require quite a bit of attention to follow the people/schemes going on throughout which caused it to drag at a few points for me. I also found myself a little frustrated by the open ended ending. Kath was the high point of this book for me - loved her as a character and would read another book that follows her on her adventures around the world!

Spy novels aren't usually a genre I read but I really liked Anna Pitoniak's last book, Our American Friend, so I decided to give this a try. It was a good book, but I would have liked more character development for Amanda. It was interesting to how it went back and forth between Amanda and her father's stories. The ending seemed to suggest there could be a sequel. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I enjoy spy thrillers but so many of them are written by men. I loved Pitoniak's take on things, I had very much enjoyed Our American Friend. I did find the novel needed some suspension of disbelief in terms of how spy networks work and how the MC ended up being responsible for so much. But I did enjoy the fast pace and the dynamics between characters.

A riveting spy story with family secrets, multiple timelines and a strong (but still flawed) female lead? Yes please. I had high expectations for this espionage thriller and it delivered!

The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak is the author’s first foray into the genre of full-fledged spy fiction, after her excellent novel Our American Friend, which leans more toward contemporary political and Cold War noir.
In this new novel, the protagonist Amanda Cole is a 40 yr-old CIA agent stationed in Rome, Italy. An American senator’s suspicious death in the States deep sixes her boss’s career and catapults Amanda into being station chief. Her father, Charlie, also a long-time CIA agent, gains some knowledge of the Senator’s death, which he shares with Amanda. Suddenly she becomes the lead investigator of a complicated fraud scheme involving Russioan oligarchs, international corporations, and stock manipulation. An undercurrent in this book involves Charlie and a disastrous mission in which he was involved in 1987 Helsinki.
There is a lot going on in this novel. Most of the action takes place in present day, with strong female characters, like Amanda and a seasoned agent, Kath Frost, driving the action and plotting an asset’s retrieval in Helsinki.
There were also plenty of references by Charlie and his old friend Maurice about the original Helsinki incident. So it is particularly exciting to see both timelines juxtaposed in the tense conclusion, set in the Finnish islands.
The author’s writing style feels fresh, detailed, and contemporary, compared to some older well known spy novels. The relationship between Amanda and her father Charlie is particularly well-written and nuanced, illustrating well the complicated emotions and parent-child baggage that a 70+ agent and his assertive, inquisitive 40 yr-old daughter experience.
This novel has very good suspense, with strong writing and interesting, female-centric espionage scenes, as well as family drama.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Escapist fiction that actually demands that you pay attention to follow the plot. While many will enjoy this tale of Amanda, the youngest CIA Deputy Chief of Station ever (and one who didn't go to college because it would be boring) and daughter of Charlie Cole who has toiled in obscurity in CIA Headquarters for many years, it's hard to get around the plot holes and issues with reality. Amanda fields a Russian walk-in to Rome station but unfathomably does not cable, call, or otherwise contact Hqs even as he claims a US Senator will die the following day because her Chief of Station doesn't want to call out Cairo Station. She then has direct contact with the Director (but not with anyone else in HQS) and sets off on a quest to untangle documents related to a financial scheme left behind by the Senator which include her father's name. Kath, an ace analyst of sorts, shows up in Rome with a pile of papers and sets up camp - and while I liked Kath, it's more than a stretch. Meanwhile, why did Charlie leave Helsinki? His timeline doesn't track btw but it's clear from the moment he meets Mary what's going to happen. And then there's his friend. Pitoniak makes a stab at layering in some tradecraft but...Thanks to the publisher for the arc. Over to others who have less critical eyes.

This is a fabulous spy novel. Amanda Cole is a "diplomat" posted to the nothing ever happens here embassy in Rome when she catches a walk in visit from a Russian man. He has information that he got somewhat inadvertently and if someone acts on it, it might save a life. Her boss is phoning it in and Amanda is a nose to the grindstone type. Does she do what she is told? What might the consequences be? Meanwhile, Amanda's father Charlie, a likable guy, used to be an active field agent but for years he has worked in Langley doing boring desk work. Charlie and his wife Helen separated when he was based in Helsinki. Eventually, he came back to the states for his desk job a few months later but the divorce was inevitable. Father and daughter are close, but it's complicated.

Can't say much more, because one of the most interesting parts of this involves technology, social media, finance and Russia but it would be a spoiler to go further. Pitoniak fills this novel with fabulous characters, the family friend Maurice who is wise and knows what to do when disaster looms. You should probably take Maurice's advice. But do you?. Kath, the older woman agent who can never get a vacation because she's always called back to work her magic in some situation involving Russia. A Senator and an Oligarch who are interacting about something. What is their relationship? There's a secret involving Charlie that starts to bother the very upright, committed Amanda. Despite her intense loyalty to her employer and country, Amanda finds here and there that it isn't always easy to know when your lies are for your country and when they suit you. The CIA is itself a character, with lots of different interpretations of what means are okay to an end, depending on who's in charge. A fast can't put it down read. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

I’ve been enjoying Pitoniak’s books for a few years now and was not disappointed by this one!! Her last novel was outside my comfort zone but I gave it a try anyway and loved it. So when given the opportunity to read this spy thriller from her, I didn’t hesitate even though this is not something I normally read.

I liked that this was not an action-packed spy thriller. It was quiet, behind the scenes uncovering of conspiracies both past and present. Well written with interesting and like-able characters, although I wish we would have gotten deeper dives into them.

I enjoyed my time with this and look forward to her next release!

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Amanda is a second-generation spy. When her current case hints at something her father Charlie was involved in while in Helsinki, she must decide whether her allegiance is to him or the agency.

I enjoyed this spy thriller from a female perspective, but it was a little hard to keep straight. It has many plot points going here and there and I was invested in the story, I just felt a little like I was holding on. I am so reading The Sisterhood, a history of women in the CIA, and it was a really good pairing with these two books.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.