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A.K. Shevchenko
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ISBN | 978-075535635 | ||
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Reviewer
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Ann
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Synopsis
History can be a powerful and ruthless enemy.
Taras Petrenko, an ambitious lieutenant of the Russian Security Service, is sieving through the Moscow archives of Stalin's regime when he stumbles over file N1247 - a case first opened by the Russian secret police more than two centuries earlier. He realises that three crucial documents are missing which could, if found, alter the political balance of Europe. One country would come crashing down. A second country would never forgive the discovery, and a third would never forget.
Taras is determined not let this happen - but there are others who believe it should. In London, Kate, a young British solicitor, encounters a secretive Ukrainian holding three documents he claims could change the lives of millions of people. Kate finds herself unwillingly thrust into the mystery of an unexpected bequest made in the eighteenth century. As it becomes a harrowing and dangerous journey into the shadowy side of power, what price will she pay to uncover the truth?
Review
A competent first novel concerning one of the lost Cossack gold stories and the effect its retrieval from the Bank of England vaults could have internationally, and particularly between the Ukraine and Russia.
I found it slightly confusing, perhaps because I kept forgetting to check the dates at the beginning of each chapter, moving as it does not only between people but also between times. There is a grey inevitability hanging around, compounded by getting to know characters then discovering they have been, or will be, eliminated.
The central characters, Kate a young law graduate with Ukrainian ancestry, and Taras, a lieutenant in the Russian Security Service, are well depicted but I did not feel any empathy with them.
Interesting idea and method and illuminating, bearing in mind the current situation with the Ukraine, but overall the one word that comes to mind is gloomy !
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