Ekaterina
Romanova, wife of a Russian oligarch, asks Scot Mitchell for help. Scott, a Moscow
based English human rights lawyer, has just come back from a great success and
had a nasty encounter with Russian authorities who eye his doing with
suspicion. Ekaterina wants to find her father whom she has never seen and whom
she suspects to be hidden in one of the forbidden secret cities. At the same
time, General Pravda is also on a tricky mission and when their ways cross and
several murders are committed, Scott’s life is threatened from different sides
because he is about to reveal one of the best hidden secrets of the Cold War.
A crime
novel of the Cold War set many years after but nevertheless playing with
classic oppositions. Churchward manages to portray a realistic situation which
could happen every day in modern Russia and which is deep into international
politics and the helplessness of the individual caught within the Russian
system of espionage, threat and secret government ordered mission. It also
shows that nobody, not even high-ranked generals, are safe from losing their
position and their bosses’ favour and being shot. The plot itself is
quick-paced and convincingly constructed, what I liked especially was the
protagonist Scott who was drawn in an authentic way and acted not like a
superhero but in a believable human way.
