THE REDHOUSE PROJECT

Full Name:	Frank Bolan
Nationality:	American
Organization:	Washington Chronicle
Occupation	Reporter

Creator:	Shaun Hoilett
Time Span:	1994 - 1994

ABOUT THE SERIES

Frank Bolan is a reporter for the Washington Chronicle.

Roger Artwell is an agent for the CIA.

Kraslvaya is an agent for the FSB.

Usually a trio such as this would comprise a team working together for a common goal; this is not usual. Bolan is a journalist out for a great scoop for his newspaper employer. Both Artwell and Fraslvaya are highly capable operatives for their respective intelligence organization but definitely at opposing positions from the other.

The Redhouse Project that is the overlapping name for these adventures comes from a plan by Russia's FSB to take down that country's biggest rival, the United States. It was long in planning and implementation and would very well have succeeded had it not been the meddling of Bolan in particular.

Bolan is a Black man who, though born in the States, had spent much of his early years in the Far East, returning to America in his late teens from Hong Kong where his single parent mom had been part of the Foreign Service stationed there. Her wish that he see much of the other world out there definitely played a part in "an indelible shaping of her son". It was certainly a major reason for his intense interest in checking out the unusual which will lead to his learning enough of the Redhouse Project to be a menace to the FSB.

Kraslvaya, codenamed "Angel" though some have expanded that to be "Angel of Death", is a 5'7" beauty with "a body like no other". She was one of several young children picked by a spymaster for the goal of "grooming them for special service to the Kremlin high command. Every single one of [his] productions turned out to be of extraordinary value to the FSB special services division. They had all been relinquished to the FSB except for one-Kraslvaya... She became more than just one of his protégés that had passed through his hands-she became the protégée, the very embodiment of the complete multi-purpose instrument of Soviet efficiency. Over the years she had built a reputation for being a seductive lethal agent of death. Officially, she was never FSB property, but was regularly utilized as a freelance operative. In the last few years she had become one of the FSB's insurance cards, their last stop-gap measure. When the going got tough, she was always there to soften things up."

Roger Artwell is an operative with the CIA, a blond-haired man with steel grey eyes, likely his most memorable physical trait. Artwell is a very experienced field agent who "for several years danced inside the house of the devil. He was the sole enemy in the modern annals of Russian Special Services for which the Russian FSB opened a special division tasked with tracking and neutralizing him. Their program codename issued for him was: "ICEMAN" - a name subsequently informally adopted by elements within the CIA by which they referred to him. It was a fitting name."

BOOKS

Number of Books:	7
First Appearance:	1994
Last Appearance:	1994

According to the author (at least my understanding of what he said) the books in the series are really one long story with each picking up where the other ends; the exception really being books #3 and #4 which explain at length the origins of Kraslvaya and Roger.


1			Shadow War Written by Shaun Hoilett Copyright: 1994 "Caught in the midst of an international conspiracy, a clandestine chess match between superpowers, African-American journalist Frank Bolan becomes a man marked for death. Clues lead him across the European continent where he finds himself within the crosshairs of State sponsored hit-squads. The opposition wants him six feet down or in a body bag—frankly, it doesn't matter. They’ll take it any way they can get it. Bolan’s life intertwines with a lethal female Russian operative and a CIA officer. Betrayal and vengeance are the binding threads that yoke these three strangers together in a global dance that will set the stage for international conflagration."

2			Coup De Grace Written by Shaun Hoilett Copyright: 1994 "Washington DC African-American Investigative journalist, Frank Bolan, is a man on the run. With the US presidential elections on the horizon, the high stakes chess match between the two global superpowers intensifies, and Bolan is ambivalent on who can be trusted. A blistering manhunt across the European continent leaves US Intelligence services with more questions than answers. Moscow ratchets up the pressure to make a convincing case for him to desist from his investigation. The US Intelligence services, his new found allies, want more than he is willing to presently surrender to them. In the Nation’s Capital, a city prolific with spies and renowned for double agents, Frank Bolan encounters the ultimate chameleon. The Kremlin makes a fatal calculation. Washington DC becomes retribution’s ground-zero as the line in the sand is definitively drawn in this political high noon showdown."

3			Scalpel Of The Kremlin: Angelic Genesis Written by Shaun Hoilett Copyright: 1994 "The Kremlin is in panic mode. The entire control system for their evolutionary next generation weapon, a global game-changer, is about to be released to the highest bidder. It has vanished from the most secret and guarded place on the planet, and immediately Moscow realizes that they have a traitor in their house. The suspect is one of their own master chameleons. All the evidence points in his direction, but does it? All is not as it appears because this Russian rogue agent can be anyone and everyone. He is among their best, and to snag this maestro of their clandestine services the FSB must utilize the cream of the crop within the ranks of their operatives. That poses one hell of a problem, because their target trained every last one of them. The Kremlin is thus forced to venture outside its sphere of in-house operatives. With every major intelligence service on the planet on the hunt for Russia’s rogue operative, and with the very stability of global power on the verge of being thrown into chaos, Kraslvaya is given this as her first assignment. She is a rookie sent out to the slaughter." Note: This volume is the origin story of Russian FSB Agent Kraslvaya.

4			Sword Of The Eagle: Iceman Genesis Written by Shaun Hoilett Copyright: 1994 "One by one, CIA safe-houses in the Middle East theater are being placed on hiatus. The ‘out-of-business’ sign stapled to their front door is not by Agency choice. The far reaching tentacles of America are being forcibly and systematically clipped—a declawing of the eyes and ears of America’s clandestine global reach. Who’s putting the blinders on may be guessable. The ‘why,’ now that’s the mystery. In the midst of this, the US Embassy staff in Tehran has been snatched as hostages. Everyone believes it is the Iranians, including the Iranians themselves. This very public ‘event spark’ is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the bait to ensnare the prey. After the debacle of the failed rescue attempt, the President is timorous. He wants everything left to the diplomatic negotiators. But when a team of Delta Force commandos are left stranded in the Kavir Desert and on the run for their lives, the CIA Director has no intention of falling in line with the President’s wishes. He dispatches the CIA’s ultimate Black-ops squad, The Merchants of Death, including its junior member Roger Artwell." Note: This volume is the origin story of CIA Agent Roger Artwell.

5			The Purge List Written by Shaun Hoilett Copyright: 1994 "America and Russia, once staunch adversaries, are on the verge of finalizing a nuclear agreement and a landmark security pack that will forever change the balance of power. Allies and foes alike agree that the deal is bad, but the Oval Office is hell bent on getting it done. Washington DC is engulfed in fear of the present purge by an audacious invisible adversary—an entity that apparently holds a vendetta against both sides of the political divide. In the midst of a terror stricken city, Frank Bolan, brick by brick, is dismantling the Kremlin’s Coup de Grace. It is a demolition job that forces Moscow to deploy its international assets to neutralize the threat. ‘The Purge List’ is the apex, the point of no return"

6			The Presidential Hit Written by Shaun Hoilett Copyright: 1994 "Decades long established global alliances stand at the precipice of oblivion as the leaders of Russia and the United States of America converge to finalize an historic agreement, the Russian American Security Pact, an alliance treaty that will forever alter the balance of power. CIA shadow warrior Roger Artwell is faced with a trifecta of epic proportions. One task, the Prague mission, is time sensitive, and with every second delayed exponentially becoming a death trap. The other, the Geneva diversion could potentially, if discovered, leave him a man excommunicated. The third, getting to Tel Aviv, is personal to its very core and a non-negotiable endeavor."

7			Conflagration Written by Shaun Hoilett Copyright: 1994 [plot unknown]

MY COMMENTS

For his first, and largely only, effort, the author, Shaun Hoilett, was decidedly ambitious. He had a lengthy tale to present and he did it, around 600 pages in total for the saga of the Russian Redhouse Project, its detection by an American reporter, and then the struggle between the CIA agent leading the defense and the Russian agent trying to keep it going by stopping them.

My main positive take on this adventure, wisely broken down into more manageable books, is that I would love to see Kraslvaya in action on the small screen. This would be a hoot if done by one of the streaming services looking for content.

GRADE

My Grade: B-

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