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Kolchak's Gold
Vintage paperback
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
Brian Garfield
107 books79 followersBrian Francis Wynne Garfield was a novelist and screenwriter. He wrote his first published book at the age of eighteen, and gained prominence with 1975 his book Hopscotch, which won the Edgar Award for Best Novel. He is best known for his 1972 novel Death Wish, which was adapted for the 1974 film of the same title, followed by four sequels, and a remake starring Bruce Willis.
His follow-up 1975 sequel to Death Wish, Death Sentence, was very loosely adapted into a film of the same name which was released to theaters in late 2007, though an entirely different storyline, but with the novel's same look on vigilantism. Garfield is also the author of The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History. Garfield's latest book, published in 2007, is Meinertzhagen, the biography of controversial British intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen.
Brian Garfield was the author of more than 70 books that sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, and 19 of his works were made into films or TV shows. He also served as president of the Western Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America.
Pseudonyms:
• Bennett Garland
• John Ives
• Drew Mallory
• Frank O'Brian
• Brian Wynne
• Frank Wynne
His follow-up 1975 sequel to Death Wish, Death Sentence, was very loosely adapted into a film of the same name which was released to theaters in late 2007, though an entirely different storyline, but with the novel's same look on vigilantism. Garfield is also the author of The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History. Garfield's latest book, published in 2007, is Meinertzhagen, the biography of controversial British intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen.
Brian Garfield was the author of more than 70 books that sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, and 19 of his works were made into films or TV shows. He also served as president of the Western Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America.
Pseudonyms:
• Bennett Garland
• John Ives
• Drew Mallory
• Frank O'Brian
• Brian Wynne
• Frank Wynne
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 19, 2016
This is a STUPENDOUS book, one that I wish were more well-known. In a nutshell: a historian becomes obsessed with finding Admiral Kolchak's lost gold and a series of interesting, oftentimes unfortunate, events ensues.
Who is Kolchak, you ask? History buffs, especially those who know twentieth-century Russian history, will recognize his name, but probably not many others. Admiral Alexander Kolchak was the doomed White Russian commander during the Russian Civil War who led the fight against the Reds in Siberia. He's one of my favorite historical figures, which is how I found out about this book. A little Google search revealed it and I couldn't resist getting a copy because I love all things Kolchak-related.
I'm quite impressed at the level of research the author was able to do. This book was written in 1973 (I think—regardless, I'm certain it was the early 1970s), when there wasn't much decent scholarship available on the Russian Civil War and its participants, especially the Whites. (Honestly, there isn't that much great scholarship available today in English, though admittedly there's more now than there was in the 1970s.) The mediocre quality of scholarship available when the author wrote this book probably explains some of the inaccuracies and the sometimes unfair harshness with which he treats the White Movement. Admittedly, I must state my bias here: I'm usually quite pro-White in my views, plus I have the benefit of having read more favorable accounts than were available when this book was first written.
Thus, the reason why I docked one star from my review is not because of my criticism in the prior paragraph. The author did the best he could with the information he had and what I consider inaccuracies didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the book. No, the reason why I've demoted the book by one star is because of the ending. I felt that the book was going along nicely, then became faster-paced as the stakes were upped, then suddenly everything came to a massive crashing halt and suddenly it was all over. I don't mind ambiguous endings; I just feel this one was a bit abrupt.
Who is Kolchak, you ask? History buffs, especially those who know twentieth-century Russian history, will recognize his name, but probably not many others. Admiral Alexander Kolchak was the doomed White Russian commander during the Russian Civil War who led the fight against the Reds in Siberia. He's one of my favorite historical figures, which is how I found out about this book. A little Google search revealed it and I couldn't resist getting a copy because I love all things Kolchak-related.
I'm quite impressed at the level of research the author was able to do. This book was written in 1973 (I think—regardless, I'm certain it was the early 1970s), when there wasn't much decent scholarship available on the Russian Civil War and its participants, especially the Whites. (Honestly, there isn't that much great scholarship available today in English, though admittedly there's more now than there was in the 1970s.) The mediocre quality of scholarship available when the author wrote this book probably explains some of the inaccuracies and the sometimes unfair harshness with which he treats the White Movement. Admittedly, I must state my bias here: I'm usually quite pro-White in my views, plus I have the benefit of having read more favorable accounts than were available when this book was first written.
Thus, the reason why I docked one star from my review is not because of my criticism in the prior paragraph. The author did the best he could with the information he had and what I consider inaccuracies didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the book. No, the reason why I've demoted the book by one star is because of the ending. I felt that the book was going along nicely, then became faster-paced as the stakes were upped, then suddenly everything came to a massive crashing halt and suddenly it was all over. I don't mind ambiguous endings; I just feel this one was a bit abrupt.
October 31, 2014
Brian Garfield, perhaps best known as the author of the novel which inspired the infamous Death Wish films, seems like one of those forgotten authors now, which is a shame. As a craftsman he's up there with Westlake, Block, McBain, et al, those brilliant genre authors who never turned in a poorly written or badly constructed novel, who could take a plots or a characters apart and put them back together like a mechanic fine tuning an engine. Such books are always a pleasure to read.
Kolchak's Gold is framed as a spy thriller, but the historical investigation that makes up the bulk of it is the real heart of the novel. Harry Bristow is a historian working on a book about the destruction of the Black Sea port of Sepastopol during the Second World War. Despite many misgivings, he finds himself being directed down a side-path: the disappearance of a massive amount of gold belonging to the Russian Czar during the civil war. An interview with a dying emigre in Tel Aviv reveals the original fate of the gold. Research into archives in Russia has the potential to show him where the gold is now. Unfortunately, the KGB is almost literally looking over his shoulder, he has an old friend in the CIA and his lover may or may not be an agent of Mossad. And they all want the gold.
The book takes the form of a rather ragged manuscript delivered to Bristow's publishers, pieced together into something readable by his editors. Two sections cover the various adventures of the gold, and it is these that are the highlight of the book, combining historical notes for context and the personal account of a key witness to events. They are brilliant pieces of narrative dexterity, and I won't soon forget the account of the bullion train, fleeing the onslaught of the Reds through a refugee column of hundreds of thousands of doomed souls while the merciless winter closes in.
The cover blurb makes a big deal of comparing Kolchk's Gold to The Day Of The Jackal, but it's more like the Odessa File, really, and it certainly makes the cod-historical conspiracy thrillers of Dan Brown look like the weak sauce that they are. Garfield writes brilliantly, constructs his plots and mysteries and revelations like a demon. Don't be put off by the idea that this is just another cold war thriller. It's well worth rediscovering.
Kolchak's Gold is framed as a spy thriller, but the historical investigation that makes up the bulk of it is the real heart of the novel. Harry Bristow is a historian working on a book about the destruction of the Black Sea port of Sepastopol during the Second World War. Despite many misgivings, he finds himself being directed down a side-path: the disappearance of a massive amount of gold belonging to the Russian Czar during the civil war. An interview with a dying emigre in Tel Aviv reveals the original fate of the gold. Research into archives in Russia has the potential to show him where the gold is now. Unfortunately, the KGB is almost literally looking over his shoulder, he has an old friend in the CIA and his lover may or may not be an agent of Mossad. And they all want the gold.
The book takes the form of a rather ragged manuscript delivered to Bristow's publishers, pieced together into something readable by his editors. Two sections cover the various adventures of the gold, and it is these that are the highlight of the book, combining historical notes for context and the personal account of a key witness to events. They are brilliant pieces of narrative dexterity, and I won't soon forget the account of the bullion train, fleeing the onslaught of the Reds through a refugee column of hundreds of thousands of doomed souls while the merciless winter closes in.
The cover blurb makes a big deal of comparing Kolchk's Gold to The Day Of The Jackal, but it's more like the Odessa File, really, and it certainly makes the cod-historical conspiracy thrillers of Dan Brown look like the weak sauce that they are. Garfield writes brilliantly, constructs his plots and mysteries and revelations like a demon. Don't be put off by the idea that this is just another cold war thriller. It's well worth rediscovering.
August 8, 2020
This is one of those books that rarely gets talked about but is an absolute cracker of a read! Found the book hidden away in our bookshelf and stared it due to the lack of finding something to read. And thAts it i was hooked. Read it in a day and re read it and wished there was more. You could as well have been on that Gold train going through the Ural mountains. Saying anything more will be giving it away and that would be a gross injustice to all.
June 26, 2019
A vivid description of the Russian Civil War and what lengths the Bolsheviks went to to gain and hold power.Living in that country at that time was to try to survive one of the most brutal and unforgiving environments anywhere in history.
May 11, 2018
This may be Brian Garfield's most ambitious novel, combining real history of the 1920s (Russian Revolution & aftermath) and the 1940s (World War II) with a real mystery about the Russian Empire's gold reserve:
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russias-hid...
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russias-hid...
August 10, 2014
An interesting novel and highly enjoyable, but left a little to be desired at times.
The plot, briefly, is that Harris Bristow, author of several popular history books, meets an Israeli woman and falls in love with her. She mentions that she knows an old Israeli who has an interesting story to tell about the Tsarist Russian treasury - estimated at five hundred tons of gold - which disappeared during the chaos of the Russian revolution (Kolchak was the general who was supposed to be looking after it). It turns out the old man knows where the treasure is, or at least where it was at one point, it seems to have been moved by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union.
This sets Bristow off searching and he goes to the Soviet Union, where he discovers documents in Soviet captured Nazi archives proving that the Nazis had found the gold and then buried it again somewhere else. Bristow destroys the documents, meaning only he now knows the location. But Mossad, the CIA and the KGB are on to him and now they all want him to tell them where the gold is...
The visit to Israeli to hear the old man's story and then the search through the Soviet archives takes about two thirds of the novel. The final third is a chase thriller as Bristow attempts to escape from the Soviet Union.
Kolchak's Gold uses the false document technique very heavily. The conceit of the novel is similar to that of Rogue Male - that the publishers received a bundle of notes from a man who has since gone missing along with an explanation that he would like the truth to be known - but it goes much further with the technique.
Where Rogue Male is presented as a finished manuscript "polished up by some competent hack" (as the author describes it), Kolchak's Gold is quite disjointed with regular footnotes and parenthetical asides by the 'editor' explaining points. The format also constrains the author too much, because unlike Rogue Male, Kolchak's Gold isn't the story of one man.
The device does become a bit wearing after a while and means that much of the novel, particularly the description of the German attempt to secure the gold for themselves, is not told in a very engaging way.
The story reminded me a bit of Archangel (a much later novel), having a similar plot structure (academic historian discovers something mysterious, trawls through the Soviet archives, discovers the solution, and is pursued by nefarious forces).
Overall an interesting experiment, with a strong premise and despite the overuse of the false document conceit it kept me reading, but I just feel it could have been executed better and didn't quite scale the heights it could have.
The plot, briefly, is that Harris Bristow, author of several popular history books, meets an Israeli woman and falls in love with her. She mentions that she knows an old Israeli who has an interesting story to tell about the Tsarist Russian treasury - estimated at five hundred tons of gold - which disappeared during the chaos of the Russian revolution (Kolchak was the general who was supposed to be looking after it). It turns out the old man knows where the treasure is, or at least where it was at one point, it seems to have been moved by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union.
This sets Bristow off searching and he goes to the Soviet Union, where he discovers documents in Soviet captured Nazi archives proving that the Nazis had found the gold and then buried it again somewhere else. Bristow destroys the documents, meaning only he now knows the location. But Mossad, the CIA and the KGB are on to him and now they all want him to tell them where the gold is...
The visit to Israeli to hear the old man's story and then the search through the Soviet archives takes about two thirds of the novel. The final third is a chase thriller as Bristow attempts to escape from the Soviet Union.
Kolchak's Gold uses the false document technique very heavily. The conceit of the novel is similar to that of Rogue Male - that the publishers received a bundle of notes from a man who has since gone missing along with an explanation that he would like the truth to be known - but it goes much further with the technique.
Where Rogue Male is presented as a finished manuscript "polished up by some competent hack" (as the author describes it), Kolchak's Gold is quite disjointed with regular footnotes and parenthetical asides by the 'editor' explaining points. The format also constrains the author too much, because unlike Rogue Male, Kolchak's Gold isn't the story of one man.
The device does become a bit wearing after a while and means that much of the novel, particularly the description of the German attempt to secure the gold for themselves, is not told in a very engaging way.
The story reminded me a bit of Archangel (a much later novel), having a similar plot structure (academic historian discovers something mysterious, trawls through the Soviet archives, discovers the solution, and is pursued by nefarious forces).
Overall an interesting experiment, with a strong premise and despite the overuse of the false document conceit it kept me reading, but I just feel it could have been executed better and didn't quite scale the heights it could have.
October 17, 2015
I'm not sure I would normally of even read this book as it really isn't about topics of interest to me. However, I am fascinated by the possibility of a German train filled with treasure having been recently found in Poland. I quite enjoyed the story and am glad I did read it, the fact that a similar discovery is currently taking place in Poland made it that much more interesting and I am intrigued to know if Garfield was aware of the possibility of a train hidden in a mine in Poland when he wrote his story. A good read.
October 25, 2024
Supposedly this is one of Garfield's personal favorites among his books. It's very good. The elements are pretty standard: hoard of gold, Russian revolution, Nazis, death squads, Israeli intelligence, the CIA, and an innocent victim. Garfield stirs the ingredients and makes something tasty. This book isn't as clever as Hopscotch, but I would recommend it to both Doc and Kent.
October 10, 2017
Not a bad book. I am going to write a major spoiler so don't read any further if you are going to read this book.
Interesting story, but we never get to see the treasure. I mean, why? It felt a bit disappointing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews