Cold starts innocently in the snowed-out streets of London as we follow a man taking his dog, Reilly, for a walk in one of the city’s many parks. This man’s name is Joe Tiplady, and we are quick to learn with Joe, that he is not alone and that he is, in fact, being watched.

So follows a complete upheaval of the life of tranquility and mundanity that Joe had so intricately crafted for himself as he is thrust into the middle of a desperate Russian attempt to keep major secrets buried. I’ve developed a new love for the spy-thriller genre, so this obscure story that I happened to add to my kindle by chance turned out to be right up my street!

As someone who always enjoys the initial slow burn, with time taken to properly and gradually establish the characters and the world, the unhurried way that this book got things going was just perfect. John Sweeney has pacing down to a T, because even if I was someone who preferred to be instantly introduced into the action, the story picked up considerably and I found myself swept up into the action quickly enough. The progression was excellent; not too slow, not too fast. And its execution just drew me in for the ride so completely.

The various characters that we follow were all so fleshed out and interesting as well, and I found myself eager to read about everyone each time. Of course, I had my favourites that I enjoyed getting back to, but never once did I think that I was getting bored or found myself wishing for one story to hurry up so that we could continue hearing about another.

I have to admit that I do not know much about Russian history, though this book did make me want to learn as I read on; especially to understand patterns and the cause and effect of events. Then, how Sweeney tied together all these separate characters and stories that we were following, was just so brilliant. It all came together so nicely and satisfyingly that I was so sad when I eventually finished the book. I wanted to read more.

I just could not put this book down at all and I adored it so much that it really did become a thing of study for me.

Especially the writing.

The writing in Cold was beyond heavenly! My absolute favourite types of books are the ones that go above and beyond on the detail and descriptions, and I found this happening in abundance with author John Sweeney. I’ve only read one book by him as of yet, but I could go on praising his writing forever. And he’s definitely become someone I will seek out to read more from in the future.

He did not hold back on the severity and brutalness of the life of an intelligence agent, either, and I can say for certain, that the torture scenes depicted in this book are not for the faint hearted. That they leave nothing to the imagination is an understatement, as Sweeney showed all the gory details and cruel realities of the extreme life of a spy. It was for sure interesting to read and learn about, but I think any obscure and out-there, throw-away ideas that my brain used to conjure up of becoming a super secret Mi5 agent, are properly quashed now…

Another thing that I appreciated beyond measure in this book, were the passages written about the environment. I find that writing continuous and detailed description about nature and wildlife to be one of the hardest things to do. It becomes particularly difficult to think of how to describe the same things, such as trees or the weather, differently each time, especially within the same book. But Sweeney is such a magician with words, and is so obviously a master of his craft, that I was left completely in awe each time:

“Flakes of snow magicked out of the sky and he took shelter under a stand of trees, trunks iron-black, boughs iced white. A feeble shaft of sunshine tunnelled through the cloud cover, igniting a cone of light far away from him, making his sunless realm all the more bleak.“

“A Cooper’s hawk glided in the thermals in the thin mountain air, Bear Lake below and the Rockies above, the bird of prey’s universe half lit by a low wintry sun. In the valleys, mist still swirled and coiled, shrouding in detail, the earth grey and numinous. Ice-grime dusted the buckled land but the deep snow of winter had yet to come.”

Honestly, I really could gush forever about the gorgeousness of his writing. Cold was such a joy to read and the otherworldly detailed descriptions fully made me realise the events in my head as I read them and I was able to really immerse myself in the story so entirely.

I am so obsessed with the writing in this book and I cannot wait to read more from John Sweeney!