Eye of the Red Tsar

by Sam Eastland

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Inspector Pekkala (1)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
572	121	39,354	(3.64)	67
Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML: "A triumph! With a canny eye for detail, Eastland re-creates the tragedy of the Romanov dynasty in this intelligent and relentless thriller." . HTML: BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Sam Eastland's Shadow Pass. /> Shortly after midnight on July 17, 1918, the imprisoned family of Tsar Nicholas Romanov was awakened and led down to the basement of the Ipatiev house. There they were summarily executed. Their bodies were hidden away, the location a secret of the Soviet state. A decade later, Pekkala, once the most trusted secret agent of the Romanovs, is now Prisoner 4745-P, banished to a forest on the outskirts of humanity. But the state needs Pekkala one last time. His mission: catch the assassins who slaughtered the Romanovs, locate the royal child rumored to be alive, and give Stalin the international coup he craves. Find the bodies, Pekkala is told, and you will find your freedom. In a land of uneasy alliances and lethal treachery, pursuing clues that have eluded everyone, Pekkala is thrust into the past where he once reigned. There he will meet the man who betrayed him and the woman he loved and lost in the fires of rebellion--and uncover a secret so shocking that it will shake to its core the land he loves. .… (more)

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English (123) French (1) All languages (124)

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Showing 1-5 of 123 (next | show all)

The main character is quite interesting, and the historical aspects are also very well done, but the plot itself feels weak in places -- just the idea that would drive by car through Siberia to find the one abandoned mine shaft... I am not sure how this is going to be turned into a series.
But if you are into Russia/Soviet Union in the 1910s/20s you may find this interesting. (

)

WiebkeK | Jan 21, 2021 |

Ten years after the murders of the last of the Romanovs, the Tsar's former personal investigator is dragged out of the gulag by Josef Stalin to investigate those deaths and to recover the wealth hidden by the Tsar. Good story, good characters, fascinating history, and all well told. (

)

tmph | Sep 13, 2020 |

Wikipedia has informed that this was Paul Watkins, one of my very favorite authors, writing under a pseudonym. I'm not sure I completely detected Watkins in this novel, I did enjoy the writing and the development of the characters but I found the plotting a bit weak. Jumping back and forth in time was mostly effective but I felt it really highlighted how thin the current plot was. For the master detective, Pekkala seemed to miss things that I, a plain old mystery reader, picked up on. But it was well-written and did give me a totally different sense of place, needed on a hot day in pandemic time.

amyem58 | Jul 27, 2020 |

I enjoyed this new to me series starring Inspector Pekkala. The time period was fascinating. I liked the new twist on a surviving Romanov family member. Pekkala was an interesting character and I liked how Eastland went back and forth between past and present in his life. It really helped you understand him as a character. I especially loved the dynamic Eastland built between Pekkala and his brother. I wish that could have been developed even more. The ending was a tad of a let down, but it does allow for the series to continue, so I can forgive it. (

)

jguidry | Jul 19, 2018 |

First book of the Inspector Pekkala series tells how he began including his horrible emprisonment when the Communists took over and killed the Romanovs. He searches for the Romanov remains to prove their deaths and finds some of their treasure. Meets his future sidekick Kirov. (

)

ZachMontana | Jun 20, 2018 |

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thingScore 75

The see-saw narrative is a perfect ploy for a thriller, taking in both the dying embers of the Romanov era and the wake-up call that would follow with the purges and the famines, the assassinations and torture chambers. Pervading this breakneck novel is the sense of an age when personal security was a fallacy, to be trusted no more than the medicinal qualities of the raw vodka knocked back in the taverns. This is a country that has thrown itself out of the frying pan and into the fire.

added by jlelliott | editThe Independent, Christian House (Jan 31, 2010)

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Sam Eastland	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Michael, Paul	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Inspector Pekkala (1)

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Canonical title

Eye of the Red Tsar

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2010-04-27

People/Characters

Pekkala

Kirov

Important places

Borodok Labor Camp, USSR

Sverdlovsk, Russia

St. Petersburg, Russia

Important events

Russian Civil War

Related movies

Awards and honors

Epigraph

Dedication

This book is for P. R.

First words

Through blood-dimmed eyes, the Tsar watched the man reload his gun.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Liss, David

Hewson, David

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

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▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:

"A triumph! With a canny eye for detail, Eastland re-creates the tragedy of the Romanov dynasty in this intelligent and relentless thriller."

. HTML:

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Sam Eastland's Shadow Pass.

Shortly after midnight on July 17, 1918, the imprisoned family of Tsar Nicholas Romanov was awakened and led down to the basement of the Ipatiev house. There they were summarily executed. Their bodies were hidden away, the location a secret of the Soviet state. A decade later, Pekkala, once the most trusted secret agent of the Romanovs, is now Prisoner 4745-P, banished to a forest on the outskirts of humanity. But the state needs Pekkala one last time. His mission: catch the assassins who slaughtered the Romanovs, locate the royal child rumored to be alive, and give Stalin the international coup he craves. Find the bodies, Pekkala is told, and you will find your freedom.

In a land of uneasy alliances and lethal treachery, pursuing clues that have eluded everyone, Pekkala is thrust into the past where he once reigned. There he will meet the man who betrayed him and the woman he loved and lost in the fires of rebellion--and uncover a secret so shocking that it will shake to its core the land he loves.

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