Sam Eastland(Paul Watkins) never disappoints. Thank you Early Readers for introducing mw to Inspector Pekkala, the novels are always riveting. Very informative historically about Stalin and his cruel hold over the Russian people, told with a little literary license, it is a novel. after all. But very enjoyable in a dark sort of way.

Sam Eastland's Inspector Pekkala series set in Stalinist Russia is another of my favorites, but I read it very slowly. Why? Because life in Russia during that time was so gray and grim and awful. But no matter how gray, grim, and awful it was, Eastland's stories are compelling. The Beast in the Red Forest is no exception.

From past books in the series, Inspector Pekkala has shown that he has an uncanny ability to stay alive. The character has almost mythical status. Who else could be Tsar Nicholas II's top investigator and survive to do the same job for Joseph Stalin? Pekkala's absolute honesty and relentlessness are two major reasons for his longevity, and throughout the series, Major Kirov has been learning from the master.

People aren't who they appear to be. Stalin, who has a love-hate relationship with regard to Pekkala, has more than one agenda. Others are trying to circumvent Stalin to ensure Pekkala's safety... there's a lot going on, and it makes for an engrossing story that's hard to put down.

There's also more than one narrative. The main action of the book takes place in 1944, but The Beast in the Red Forest begins with a letter from an American who's taking his family to Russia in the mid-1930s to work in a Ford Motor plant. The letters continue to break sporadically into the action in 1944. There are letters from Russian officials, from American ambassadors, from the American's wife, and as each one appears, readers wonder what in the world they have to do with the story in 1944. Then it all clicks into place and ratchets up the tension even more.

A compelling story peopled with strong characters in a vivid setting. I feel as though I'm living in Stalinist Russia as I read these books. Eastland adds humorous lines from time to time to lighten the mood, and he also describes the landscape in beautiful, poetic language, one of my favorites being the origin of the "Red Forest." There was also a surprise for me at the conclusion. I felt a bit sorry for Joseph Stalin at the very end of The Beast in the Red Forest, but before you think I've lost my mind, let me tell you something. I'd also feel sorry for a rabid skunk, but I wouldn't come anywhere near it, and I'd never turn my back on it.

This is a superb historical mystery series that I highly recommend. Give it a try! ( )

I received this as a gift and have had it sitting on my shelf of 'to reads'. I did not think I would choose it to read, but as it was given in good thought did. I am no disappointed.

Years ago I read "Gorky Park" and found it not my usual fare in mystery but exciting and captivating nonetheless. This book falls in the same category.

Taking place during the Stalin regime, Inspector Pekkala has been missing for a year. The top detective of the Soviet government had been reported blown up during a previous case. His assistant, Major Kirov, has had a feeling that Pekkala has just disappeared of his own choosing and is not dead. Being kept at the Kremlin, Major Kirov has not freedom to investigate as Stalin keeps Kirov under surveillance thinking there is the possibility that Pekkala is still alive.

In 1943 an American auto worker has moved himself and family to Russia to live a better life that the stagnating economy offers in America. At first he writes glowing letters home of how wonderful things are, but then the letters take a different turn. He is anxious to get his family back to America as he feels he is in danger. When he disappears and his family contacts the U.S. embassy for help in finding out what has happened and to get back to America. This is one story line.

Major Kirov receives information that Pekkala is alive and where he might be found. Not in Moscow or some other large city, but out in the wilds of Western Russia living among the partisans. His trek to find Pekkala if filled with danger.

Stalin respects Pekkala's abilities (before Stalin Pekkala was trained and served under the Tsar) but he does not trust him, or anyone else for the matter. Pekkala does not trust Stalin, knowing his true nature of violence and paranoia.

The story moves swiftly along. There is suspense, tension and action. The characters are such that you can see them in you mind as you read.

A Goodread. ( )

I love these books. I wish they were still being published in the US! ( )

This fifth novel in the Inspector Pekkala series I found, slightly surprisingly, to be probably the best in the series so far. Following the dramatic conclusion to The Red Moth, Pekkala is, unsurprisingly, still alive after all. He is still an unbelievable character, though seems slightly less infallible and more human here; and much of the activity is undertaken by his associate, the much more believable and likeable Major Kirov. The action revolves around the Soviet partisan bands in Ukraine during the latter years of the Second World War, when the initial tendency of some of these bands to see the invading Germans as liberators, had been dissipated by the genocidal activities of the Einsatzgruppen, and the momentum lies with the Red Army. There is also an interesting character, an American, whose father and family came from the United States during the Great Depression to seek a better life in the Soviet Union, only to find oppression and death during Stalin's purges. The ending of the novel is more conclusive than that of its predecessor - the nearest one can get in Stalin's Soviet Union to a happy ending. ( )