nice russian atmosphere- seemingly historically accurate- enjoyed the ending but would have liked a plot further separated from the investigator more ( )

I liked this book a lot.
When I finslly started reading it, after it's bee standing on my shelves for quite a few years, I had no idea what to expect.
I was pleasantly surprised. A nice combination of politics, mystery, thriller, family history, mixed with quite a good historically fictional tale of Petrograd in January/February 1917. The scenes depicted, the visits of the chief investigator to Tsarskoe Selo, the tension in the group of policemen and betweeen the police and the Ochrana, this all made it feel like I was transported back in time and place.
The fadt paced action combined with a touch of romance completed it for me. I'll see if I can find other books by this writer. ( )

A nearly perfect mystery/thriller set in Russia in the days just before the 1917 revolution. (And while I certainly didn't time it this way intentionally, it was interesting to note that I finished the book on the day before Bloody Sunday, a famous date from the earlier 1905 Russian revolution.) As was the case with his earlier THE MASTER OF RAIN and its treatment of 1920s Shanghai, Bradby is so good at writing every scene here that I was thoroughly enveloped by the atmosphere that he created.

It begins with the discovery of two murder victims, found on the frozen Neva River of St. Petersburg soon after midnight of New Year's Day in 1917. And as the story's protagonist, the city's Chief Investigator, makes his way across the snow and ice to the crime scene, the writing is already so good that it was easy to feel that I was walking alongside him in the quiet cold of that time and place. As the investigation delves into the mystery of why the couple was there and what led to their deaths, the plot and subplots play out almost flawlessly within a fascinating historical context. Add a host of richly multi-layered characters, excellent dialogue and at least two doomed love affairs and you have another home run from a writer who has secured a spot on my don't-miss list. ( )

Early spring, 1917 are dark days indeed for Russia. The war is going very badly with Russian horse mounted cavalry being pitted against German armoured divisions and machine guns. The people are cold, hungry and bitter. The Tsar is away at the front, and the Tsarina is the most hated woman in Russia. Many people are convinced that she is spying for her birth country of Germany, and it is openly speculated that she and the recently murdered monk Rasputin were lovers.

Sandro Ruzsky, a chief inspector of the St Petersburg police has recently returned from four year exile to Siberia. Called out to a double murder, Ruzsky comes to realize this complex case is rife with politics, terrorism and revolution. Soon he is up against his old nemesis from the Okhrana, the Czarist Secret Police, as the case leads to the Imperial Palace, and the very dressing room of the Tsarina. Also involved on the fringes of the case is Maria Poplova, a beautiful ballerina who is very much part of Ruzsky’s past, and he hoped his future.

With it’s many twists and turns, this book is as much about the last days of a decaying society as it is about tracking a ruthless killer. As events unfold, many characters become much more involved in their own secret intrigues and plans for escape as Tzarist Russia crumbles around them.

Tom Bradby has set The White Russian at a specific time and place in history and has built his story around St. Petersburg on the brink of revolution. An atmospheric and gripping story, he portrays the confusion, menace and helplessness of those days brilliantly. ( )

A historical mystery set in St. Petersburg on the brink of revolution, the novel opens with the discovery of a brutally murdered couple near the winter palace of the tsar. The chief investigator, Sandro Ruzsky, comes from a privileged family; his father is a government official and his younger brother is a soldier. Sandro, just returned from exile in Siberia, is somewhat of a black sheep in his family, separated from his wife and longing to see his young son. He's also a man out of touch with the current political reality and his unwillingness to let go of what turns out to be a politically charged case that involves the secret police and reaches into the tsar's household, puts everything Sandro holds dear at risk.

Nor can Sandro let go of his near obsession with a beautiful ballerina and his pursuit of her leads him to learn things he'd rather not know. Bradby weaves what seem to be separate plotlines into a singular fabric as Sandro pursues the truth, and his attention to detail and careful research put me into St. Petersburg of 1917. The poverty and anger of the city's working class and unemployed, the growing desperation of Russians worn down by lack of adequate food and supplies and the continued fighting of the Great War is brought to life in these pages.

In his determination and with his flaws, Sandro is a very human character, one you can feel for even while fearing he's doomed. The political intrigue is well done, even if I figured out who was probably the killer before the reveal.

I loved Bradby's earlier book, The Master of Rain, and I can't wait to see what's next. ( )