Ben Macintyre's latest true-espionage book, Redwood, tells the story of Vladimir Kuzichkin, a KGB officer stationed in Tehran shortly after Iran's 1979 revolution, and his relationship with Ian McCredie, the young MI6 officer who becomes his handler. The reviewer praises it as a page-turning masterpiece, arguing it transcends Macintyre's reputation for "dadlit" spy nonfiction and stands comparable to le Carré rather than pulpier thriller fare, combining a journalist's eye for vivid detail with a historian's rigour.

The book is set against Iran's post-revolutionary chaos, as the West reeled from losing an ally and the US embassy hostage crisis while the Soviets sought to extend influence via the communist Tudeh party, which Kuzichkin was tasked with funding and arming from within the Soviet embassy. Disillusioned and personally troubled, he defects to British intelligence via McCredie, operating under constant risk of exposure by the Revolutionary Guard; after his eventual exfiltration to Britain, intelligence he shared was passed to Iranian authorities, triggering a brutal crackdown on Tudeh supporters that ultimately entrenched the Islamic Republic rather than aiding Western interests.