The Partisan: The explosive debut thriller for fans of Robert Harris and Charles Cumming

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In the Soviet Union, if you get tired of reality, a new one will come along and replace it. Every new leader ushers in a glorious new past.’ The story shifts between the 1940s, the 1960s and 2004, between Lithuania, Germany, Russia, England, and Spain and involves multiple characters. While wanting to race ahead to see how the story finished, I had to slow down to understand and absorb its complexity. Two young prodigies from either side of the Iron Curtain, Yulia and Michael, meet at a chess tournament in London. They don't know it, but they are about to compete in the deadliest game ever played.

Summer, 1961. At the height of the Cold War, two young people meet at a chess tournament in London. Yulia Forsheva, daughter of Sergei, a scientist and Anna, a powerful member of the Politburo, meets Michael, son of Sir Stephen Fitzgerald, British Director of Naval Intelligence. They fall in love and plan to meet at the chess championship to be held in East Germany. Michael and Yulia meet in Berlin, aided by Vassily a powerful Soviet spy whose role is to protect Yulia.

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No one is safe from the highly powerful people controlling the agents and assassins as political intrigue sweeps across Europe. This excellent and intricately plotted first novel culminates in an exciting climax. It mainly takes place in the sixties during the Cold War, with glimpses of World War II, focusing on the role of partisans in the Lithuanian forests. If you're a fan of Len Deighton and John le Carre then this nerve-jangling thriller is for you...The characters are skilfully drawn and complex threads masterfully combined into a gripping read Yours

It takes a while for Worrall to get all of his pieces onto the board but once he does the plot plays out like a game of chess. There are moves and counter moves, sacrifices and long term plays. While young lovers Michael and Yulia are in the middle of the action they are more pawns in the hands of much more powerful players. Worrall weaves the pasts of all of the main characters into the narrative, leading to some clever last minute reveals. I am Lithuanian. I grew up with the stories about partisans. I watched the documentaries and fictional movies about that part of the history. As a rule, they're written and produced locally and they always have a tragic ending. The real history was brutally tragic. Although the plot is extremely complicated and requires some patience initially, Worrall skillfully and methodically weaves his different threads into an engaging whole brought together in a succession of breathtaking finales in Sweden, London, and Spain. As the parallel narratives in 1961 and 1944 come to violent ends and Worrall gives some unexpected final twists, the novel’s second half is very gripping. Like Tom Bradby’s novel Yesterday’s Spy, The Partisan is intriguing and accurately depicts several historical events. It’s also a true portrayal of the horrors and brutality of war and the Soviet Union during the cold war.

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Immersive, intriguing, and intelligent - incredibly impressive, up there with the best in the genre' Lee Child Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. As mentioned earlier, the Cold War was like a game of chess. But in this case, you don’t need to know anything about chess as you will witness in real time how the Cold War participants sacrificed their real players when necessary for their advantage, just like how chess players sacrifice pieces to gain an advantage. Like chess, the cold war participants played their game and took their chances.

When the world is accelerating towards an inevitable and catastrophic conflict, what can just four people do to prevent it?Meanwhile, there is also tenderness and youthful romance in the chess sections of the story where English boy Michael meets Russian girl Yulia at a tournament in London. She is the daughter of Sergei (mentioned in the opening quotation), whom she knows to be somebody important, something to do with military secrets. He writes about chess in the newspapers. She and her father pretty much communicate through chess. Overall, The Partisan is a very impressive debut that bodes well for Worrall future career as a spy novelist.