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SIBERIAN RED
by Sam Eastland
Faber & Faber, February 2012
333 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 0571260675


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Stalin is busy carving up Poland with Hitler when he gets word from the Siberian labour camp of Borodok of the murder of an informer who had offered to reveal the whereabouts of Colonel Kolchak. Not only does Kolchak know the location of some missing Tsarist gold, but Stalin fears Kolchak's revenge for the death of his uncle, shot by the Bolsheviks after an attempt to seize power in 1918.

Investigator Pekkala, disguised as a prisoner, is sent to find Kolchak and the gold. He faces several problems. The gulag is brutal, neither the zeks (inmates) nor the guards have any reason to assist him, and in returning to the scene of his own lengthy incarceration he will run into the local Ostyaks, who fear Pekkala as a supernatural phenomenon. With the paranoid Stalin prey to any hints that his investigator may have changed allegiance, Pekkala's survival begins to look distinctly unlikely.

Life in Siberia, especially in the gulags, is so strange - extremes of temperature, brutal lifestyle - that it has an exotic quality that is bound to fascinate. The reality detailed by Solzhenitsyn and others is in some ways stranger than fiction. And, as explained by Eastland in his postscript, the early years following the Russian Revolution saw an amazing upheaval, with numerous parties vying for power, and desperate military adventures. In view of this, it is evident why the place and time is a fruitful basis for a thriller. Eastman is clearly very well informed, and weaves his knowledge seamlessly into SIBERIAN RED, buttressing the credibility of what in some respects is a far-fetched tale. The main characters are convincingly developed and the Russian flavour is strong; even Stalin comes alive, a bizarre mixture of boorish practical joker and (on the slightest provocation) enthusiastic liquidator.

Eastland has written two previous books with Red in the titles and Pekkala, an investigator of Finnish extraction, has appeared before. This gives rise to the usual problems for a series - readers who have met Pekkala before might be bored to hear of his background again, while new readers could be confused if not told enough. It may be for that reason that a reader unfamiliar with Pekkala's previous outings may find the character a little unsubstantial. And clever as he is, it seems perhaps a little difficult to credit that anyone as paranoid as Stalin would put his trust in a single man when large quantities of gold and a known enemy are within his grasp. Nonetheless, SIBERIAN RED is a stirring tale, and one that leaves plenty of openings for Pekkala's next outing.

SIBERIAN RED is published in the United States as ARCHIVE 17.

§ Chris Roberts is a retired manager of shopping centres in Hong Kong, and now lives in Bristol, primarily reading.

Reviewed by Chris Roberts, March 2012

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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