A Storm in the Blood

by Jon Stephen Fink

Based on a true story—a brilliant, compelling, and provocative novel of the roots of terrorism and the perils of the immigration experience set in turn-of-the-century London

On December 16, 1910, three unarmed London policemen were killed by a gang of Latvian revolutionaries. Among the most sensational crimes of the era, the Houndsditch Murders sparked an unprecedented manhunt across the capital, and then exploded into the gunfight that entered history as the Siege of Sidney Street. Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, assembled by then home-secretary Winston Churchill, descended upon the gang. After hours of bloody battle, the police broke into the hideout and discovered the corpses of two men. The ringleader they had expected to find—an urbane and charismatic revolutionary known as Peter the Painter—had mysteriously vanished, along with his mistress, Rivka, a young refugee and Yiddish music hall singer.

Based on a compelling true story, A Storm in the Blood is a gripping tale filled with strange and disturbing echoes, violence, ethnic unrest, political subterfuge, and terrorism—as shocking today as the original events were in 1910.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Historical, Ebooks, Detective, Crime, Procedural

416 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Lauren Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I think it was well written, and it also made me think about these events in a different way. The book is about an attempted robbery by a foreign anarchist group in London around the turn of the 20th century. However, the events are told from several members of the group that are swept into the events. Because we meet the characters before the climatic scenes of the book, I was sympathetic to them and viewed the English police in a different light than normal.

[Tad Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel about a historical era I not only didn't know about, I didn't know it existed: Latvian revolutionaries/terrorists in London in 1910. The story was interesting -- I wished I had been made to care more about the characters.

[Paulette]

MG book club choice

[tlsf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Russian anarchist in London. Good by end but v. slow.

[Tom Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

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