Red Widow
2021 • 385 pages

Ratings2

Average rating4

15

A fairly middle-of-the-road spy thriller. Aside from centering female characters, it appears to be aggressively avoiding doing anything interesting.

In response to the rise of the “gritty” superhero movie (ie., the DC films of Nolan, Snyder), some critics pondered if maybe applying a serious approach to comic book subjects was really the best approach.

Red Widow reflects a similarly muddled mash-up of approaches, attempting to combine the process realism of a Le Carré with the heroism of a Ludlum. The result appears to pull the weakest elements of both, characters with the depth of a pop spy novel engaged in the exiting day-to-day of office politics.

The writing is mostly fine, but it's a largely forgettable story.

December 2, 2021Report this review