Russia. November 1920. The Red Terror. Nikolai Levitsky has returned to his home town to find it empty. The men have been tortured and killed and the women and children are missing. He finds himself on the trail of Korschei the Deathless One, a story told to children that has come to life. But Nikolai is not alone on his search and there are others on his trail.

While I didn’t consider the book very suspenseful, there were moments of heightened emotion. The writing was good and the description of the cold and bleak landscape left you feeling as if you were really there. Good characterization.

A definite recommend ( )

Delivering harrowing adventure and suspense set against an unforgiving landscape, the new novel by Dan Smith will leave you chilled to the bone . . .

1920, central Russia. The Red Terror tightens its hold. Kolya has deserted his Red Army unit and returns home to bury his brother and reunite with his wife and sons. But he finds the village silent and empty. The men have been massacred in the forest. The women and children have disappeared.

In this remote, rural Russian community the folk tales that mothers tell their children by candlelight take on powerful significance, and the terrifying legend of Koschei, The Deathless One, begins to feel very real. Kolya sets out on a journey through dense, haunting forests and across vast plains against the bitter winter, in the desperate hope he will find his wife and two boys-and find them alive. But there are very dark things in Kolya's past. And, as he strives to find his family, there's someone-or something-following his trail . . .

Chilling both in setting and subject, the creepy folktale of Koschei the Deathless adding an extra layer of discomfort. Kolya trudges through the snowy wilderness in search of his family, he is escaping a war that destroys everything and everyone who is unfortunate to be in its path.

Well paced with excellent characters but the novels strength is in its subtly and the descriptions of an Eastern European winter: cruel and uncompromising, the haunted forests and the crunch of hooves on the frozen ground that stayed with me. Excellent

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