Leo Stepanovich Demidov is a former MGB agent during the reign of
Stalin and is now, in 1956, in charge of a murder squad. He has since
married and adopted two girls, one of whom hates him for what he did to
their family. His past is now about to come and haunt him and his
fellow former agents under the rule of Khrushchev.
Khrushchev has
made a speech in which he denigrates all that Stalin did. Those that
suffered under Stalin look for revenge. Demidov and his former
colleagues are now targets. Demidov's eldest daughter, Zoya, is
kidnapped and his wife, Raisa, is severely injured during the kidnap. A
few hours later he finds out from the wife of a priest he had arranged
to have arrested is behind the terror. She demands he arrange the
release of her husband from a gulag or she will kill Zoya.
Demidov
travels to the gulag in question and after receiving a punishment from
the prisoners manages to free Lazar. Meantime Zoya tries to become a
part of the gang that has imprisoned her. When Demidov returns to
Moscow, he is in for a terrible shock.
Author Tom Rob Smith spins
an interesting thriller that takes the reader throughout the Soviet
dominated world of 1956 bringing to life the terror the citizens of
those nations lived under at the time.
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