Red Traitor

This fictional story adheres closely to real events in 1962, when the world came as close as it has ever been to nuclear war. America was alarmed by the installation of medium-range ballistic missiles on Cuba, and the US navy was out in force to block a flotilla of four Russian submarines. Both the Russian subs and US destroyers were armed with nuclear weapons, and the bellicose statements of Kennedy and Khrushchev encouraged sailors on both sides to consider use.

Part of the action in this book follows the Russian flotilla, in particular the sub, B-59, with its captain, Savitsky, and the flotilla commander Arkhipov both on board. Approaching Cuba, the subs are detected by the US navy and forced to hide at depth. They have no way to communicate with the outside world and as the heat and poor air build up stress, Savitsky begins to think that aggression would be the best policy.

Unknown to those on the front line, spies in both Washington and Moscow are doing their best to defuse the tension. Top-level discussions will eventually find a face-saving formula that both sides can live with, but in the meantime there is a real possibility that a shooting war will break out between combatants, with potentially catastrophic results.

Aiming to prevent this is Vasin, subordinate to General Orlov, head of the KGB. Vasim is chasing PLUTO, codename for a Western spy, and has a suspect, Morozov, protege of General Serov, head of the GRU, Russian military intelligence. On instructions from his boss, no immediate action is taken against Morozov; instead Vasim coerces others to get him close. Orlov and Serov have a mutual hatred and Morozov might be a useful pawn to play at leisure. But as Vasim comes to appreciate the significance of the information about Cuba passing through his hands, he takes a great risk to make another use of his target.

Owen Matthews again makes use of real history by borrowing from events that brought Penkovsky and Greville Wynne into world news at the time. As with the naval part of the story, historical facts are blended seamlessly with fiction to make a thrilling whole, even when the outcome is already a matter of record.

Red Traitor follows Black Sun, in which Vasim was in action in Arzamas, a secret plant for development of nuclear explosives, combining fiction with reality in the same way. Owen Matthews does this very well, giving a post-script explaining just how much of his book corresponds with history. The cloak of fiction he throws around the facts fully develops the intensity of the feelings of those caught up in such major crises, generating real excitement.