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Book of the Month!
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Here is another book for your Winter reading pleasure. It is set in Russia in 1917 and actually begins on January 1st! It has been observed that most Red Elvises fans enjoy reading and many of us are intrigued by Russia. This book is exciting and historical and may even help you keep warm as you feverishly turn the pages. Well...hope you enjoy the review, anyway. |
As The White Russian opens, it is January 1, 1917, the time of the last days of the monarchy of Nicholas and Alexandra, Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. Author Tom Bradby's St. Petersburg, the capital of old Russia, literally glitters during the last days of Romanov reign. The descriptions of the beautiful city with its opulent Winter Palace, Peter and Paul Cathedral, exquisite architecture, the Neva River where the body of Rasputin was found, the flavor of various neighborhoods and squalid tenements, provide stark contrasts and give the novel a strong sense of reality.
Russia, particularly St. Petersburg, was during that time consumed by strikes, speculation, food shortages, and a growing disdain for the Tsar. St. Petersburg was a frozen city on a brink of revolution. The government was in dissaray, as people thought about not how to prevent a revolution, but how to save themselves when the impending upheaval came. It was the time of the end of the Romanov dynasty; the regime was slowly crumbling from within.
As the novel opens on New Year’s Day in 1917, in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg, a man and woman are found brutally knifed on the ice of the frozen Neva River (where the body of Rasputin was found), a stone's throw away from the ornate Winter Palace of Tsar Nicholas. Chief Investigator of the St. Petersburg Police Department Sandro Ruzsky has just returned from a three-year exile in Tobolsk, Siberia where he had been transferred for three years as punishment for something he took the blame for, an investigation bungled by his deputy and friend Pavel. Ruzdky inescapably becomes involved in the double murder.
Bradby immediately draws us into the excitement and mood of the story with his crystal clear writing style. From reading this excerpt we can almost feel the cold of that bleak 1917 January day in St. Petersburg:
“The arctic wind sliced through Ruzsky’s thin woolen overcoat. His boots were damp and his toes numb with cold, but he was oblivious to everything except the frozen expanse before him.
All he could see was ice.
Ruzsky’s heart was beating fast. He tried to place a foot on the ice, before shifting his weight back to the step. He looked down at his boots, but his vision was blurred. He fought to control his breathing. ‘Christ,’ he whispered. His first day back from exile and it would have to begin like this.
The constables were ahead of him, in the center of the frozen river Neva, illuminated by a ring of torches. The snowfall had tapered off through the night and the sky was now clear. The narrow spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral on the far side of the river was bathed in moonlight.
… … … [Skipping ahead a bit] … … …
Next to the bodies, the constables stood, smoking. They were dressed in long greatcoats and black sheepskin hats, the uniform of the St. Petersburg’s city police.
The woman was closest to Palace Embankment and lay on her back, long dark hair spread out around her head like a fan. ‘Torch.’ Ruzsky held up his hand.
One of the men marched forward. He couldn’t have been older than seventeen or eighteen, with a pronounced nose, narrow eyes and a nervous expression. He was lucky not to be fighting at the front, Ruzsky thought, as he took the torch and bent over the body of the woman. He got to his knees.
The victim was – or had been – pretty, though with poor skin. He removed one of his gloves and put his hand against her cheek. Her skin was frozen solid.”
Within hours of discovering the bodies, the Okhrana, the Tsar's secret police, step in to take over the case, making it quite clear that Ruzsky's assistance is not needed. But Ruzsky is tenacious and feels compelled to pursue the investigation on his own, even though his own life is falling apart at the seams. His father, alienated and appalled that Ruzsky chose a career in the police force rather that the Tsar's elite guards, has banned him from visiting the family home where his soon-to-be divorced wife and beloved son live.
The young murdered woman is soon identified as a former Palace employee, a nanny to the Tsar’s son, leading the trail back to the Tsar's household, making it clear that these murders have a political element and are deeply involved in the events of the day, including the swirling rumors and plots to depose the Tsar. The Tsarina pushes for Ruzsky to solve the case immediately, which proves to be a complex challenge with an increasingly twisted past as the Okhrana sabotages him at every turn.
When a third murder takes place and the investigation leads Ruzsky closer to the Imperial Family, he faces a ruthless killer who taunts him at every turn. In the process he also confronts his past and the woman he once loved, Maria Popova. As the storyline accelerates, so do the unstoppable forces of revolution.
The White Russian isn’t just a murder mystery but is also a story of people caught in an extraordinary moment in Russian history. It’s a story of love, honor, trust and hard choices, containing well-written fictional characters as well as real historical figures such as the Tsarina and factual historical events pertaining to the end of the Romanov dynasty and the Revolution.
This book is a novel but the author so skillfully integrates and weaves the true historical elements and events into it that the reader can just get into the story; it’s not as if the history is being force fed. The issues are so integral to the story that that the true events merge flawlessly with the fictional characters and their storylines, and as the murder investigation and the revolution both accelerate the reader learns about the history naturally as the story line unfolds.
History does not have to be dry and dull; this book, in addition to being an excellent work of fiction, can also give readers good insights into Russia’s past and the people of that era. The story of the Romanov era is fascinating. It actually has always been one of my favorite historical eras. I confess to never having been a big fan of the murder mystery genre, as many of you may or may not be, but the story is compelling and extremely well written. Whether you read the genre or not, even whether you are especially interested in Russia or its history or not, this is a good, and highly recommended, read.