Red Sparrow is a novel written by Jason Matthews, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative, published by Scribner on June 4, 2013.

The book describes the mundane aspects of the intelligence field, the techniques it employs, and Red Sparrow's unique ability to discern the nature of people by seeing their emotions in colors (through synesthesia).

The reviewers noted the distracting nature of the recipes at the end of each chapter, saying they could be easily skipped, and cautioned readers about the most explicit sex scenes they had ever encountered in the espionage genre.

[5] The Washington Post says of Matthews's skill as a writer, "Sly descriptions abound, from the 'poached-egg eye' of a Russian assassin to the 'grimy catechisms' of those Sparrow School lessons.

And despite a tendency toward point-of-view whiplash shifts, the author inhabits voices and perspectives with an impressionist's aplomb, whether the rich patter of a CIA agent recounting an Istanbul adventure or those dry reports in the 'abbreviated style of the semiliterate Soviet'.