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.

2 stars

*Free ARC provided by Simon Books in exchange for an honest review*