![]() ![]() Soon, Pekkala is brought before Commander Starek, who turns out to be the detective’s long-lost brother Anton. The novel opens on a Siberian labor camp circa 1929, where one of Stalin’s most hated nemeses has been exiled so far into the Soviet wilderness that his captors are afraid to approach the ghostly figure they call “The man with bloody hands.” Into this harsh reality arrives young Commissar Kirov, who returns Prisoner 4745-P to the land of the living, complete with his old identity: Finnish-born detective Pekkala, whose loyalty to the Russian crown had cost him everything. What elevates this Russian period thriller above the ranks of the average potboiler is its mad, brilliant hero, who has been brought back to life after giving up all hope in the Russian Gulag. A disgraced detective is called back to investigate the most famous murder in Russian history.Ī fantastic premise, frenetic action sequences and a stellar setting would all set apart this debut novel by Eastland (the pseudonym of a British author now living in the United States). ![]()
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