Russell James has been named “the Godfather of Noir” by Ian Rankin. Russell writes crime novels - about criminals and victims, not the cozy procedural or whodunnit. He is the editor of Great British Fictional Detectives.
Here’s a thriller set in Russia where the author clearly knows her subject.
She lived and worked there for 20 years and speaks Russian fluently – yet if, like me, you miss the mention on page one that, although published in 2023, the story is set in 2017, you’ll think you’re in a parallel reality. President Serov is not Putin, Prime Minister Martha Maitland is neither Theresa May nor Sunak, and Russia has not invaded Ukraine.
For a while I wondered if the book had been written before February 24th 2022 but published anyway, regardless of Putin’s brainstorm. But no. It’s 2017. And what happens did happen (sort of) when Russia plotted to cripple the West by cutting the undersea fibre-optic cables that drive the internet. Here, the translator has realized that that is only step one.
Now we’re in familiar thriller territory. Only two people can save the West, two translators, one Russian, one British, and they were lovers once, till she left him for another man. Can they now work together? Despite intense scrutiny, can Clive and Marina prevent World War Three?
It’s an absorbing read and leads to a long and exciting climax. Just remember: it’s 2017. And the fate of the world is in their hands.
