The Matarese Circle

How it reads

The Matarese Circle is thriller (espionage thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an international setting, in the recent past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are power and politics, secrets and identity. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. It's a long book, and a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.