Eye of the Red Tsar (Inspector Pekkala, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 29, 2010 Tony rated it liked it

This debut historical thriller takes the execution of the Romanov royal family in 1918 as the catalyst for its plot. (A word of warning to anyone with a an interest in or knowledge of the Romanovs and/or that era of Russian/Soviet history -- the author takes a great deal of fictional liberties with the known facts -- as is his right as a storyteller -- so don't expect one of those works of historical fiction that dovetails perfectly with reality.) The protagonist is a Finn named Pekkala who enli This debut historical thriller takes the execution of the Romanov royal family in 1918 as the catalyst for its plot. (A word of warning to anyone with a an interest in or knowledge of the Romanovs and/or that era of Russian/Soviet history -- the author takes a great deal of fictional liberties with the known facts -- as is his right as a storyteller -- so don't expect one of those works of historical fiction that dovetails perfectly with reality.) The protagonist is a Finn named Pekkala who enlists in Tsar Nicholas' personal guard as a teenager, and is hand-picked by the Tsar to be a counter-terrorist investigator with almost unlimited powers and scope. However, in the wake of Bolshevik revolution, Pekkala is thrown into a gulag, where he spends the next decade. As the book opens in 1929, he is released into the custody of his Bolshevik brother and a a young political commissar. It seems that Stalin wants him to investigate the fate of the Romanovs, and establish whether or not they were all really killed.

The story switches back and forth between Pekkala's training and rise to a position of renown and influence in the court, and the investigation into the Romanovs. Unfortunately, the results never rise beyond being merely serviceable. Pekkala is a too-honorable-to-be-true man (as we learn in a very clumsy scene, he is rarer than one in a million), with photographic memory and all kinds of of useful skills, not to mention intelligent, brave, etc. He's a hero in desperate need of some flaws or really anything to make him interesting. As the story unfolds, we get quite effective portrayals of life in pre and post-Bolshevik Russia, which goes a long way to making the book readable. There's a palpable sense of how tenuous the Bolshevik's control of the country was, which contrasts nicely with a sequence set in a Potemkin village.

The plot is fairly run-of-the-mill thriller stuff, as Pekkala follows threads of information from point A to point B to point C and on to the inevitable twists at the end. Unfortunately, pretty much every reader will recognize the major clue that Pekkala is given several hundred pages before he does. There are also logical problems that crop up from time to time, for example, we learn that Pekkala was purposely not killed in the purges, but tucked away at the gulag in case Stalin decided to use him -- however, the job Pekkala was given at the gulag killed every other man who held it within a few months... The worst part of all is a surprise twist at the end that is wholly unbelievable given Pekkala's supposed skills as someone who notices details (not to mention, is intimately familiar with the people involved). So, despite the generally evocative atmosphere, the book has to be considered mediocre at best. But the era is interesting enough to me that I'd give the inevitable sequel a chance, in the hopes that some of the deficiencies of this first book have been improved upon. ...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Tammy AZ rated it really liked it

Good first effort by the author that will make a good summer read. This book will appeal to both mystery and historical fiction devotees and to men and women alike. Pekkala was a trusted ally of Tsar Nicholas until his final days. He has survived Siberian exile and and brought back to investigate the mysteries surrounding the family's disappearance. ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Janet Whalen rated it really liked it

Very promising exotique book set in Russia in the early days of Stalin. Our hero Pekkala was trusted friend and personal security chief of the last Imperial Czar, which bought him a 1 way ticket to the gulag. Until Stalin himself sees the advantages of using the Czar's man to solve a particular case invoving the Romanovs. Pekkala's brother, Aron, a military man in the new Soviet Union, becomes his partner as old secrets are revealed. Great exotique setting, Russia in the 20's, with well develope ...more

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