Eye of the Red Tsar: A Novel of Suspense [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Sam Eastland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2010

This riveting suspense debut introduces both a stellar new voice and a remarkable detective, an outsider who must use his extraordinary talents to solve the one case that may redeem him.
 
Shortly after midnight on July 17, 1918, the imprisoned family of Tsar Nicholas Romanov was awakened and led down to the basement of the Ipatiev house. There they were summarily executed. Their bodies were hidden away, the location a secret of the Soviet state.

A decade later, one man lives in purgatory, banished to a forest on the outskirts of humanity. Pekkala was once the most trusted secret agent of the Romanovs, the right-hand man of the Tsar himself. Now he is Prisoner 4745-P, living a harsh existence in which even the strongest vanish into the merciless Soviet winter.

But the state needs Pekkala one last time. The man who knew the Romanovs best is given a final mission: catch their killers, locate the royal child rumored to be alive, and give Stalin the international coup he craves. Find the bodies, Pekkala is told, and you will find your freedom. Find the survivor of that bloody night and you will change history.

In a land of uneasy alliances and deadly treachery, pursuing clues that have eluded everyone, Pekkala is thrust into the past where he once reigned. There he will meet the man who betrayed him and the woman he loved and lost in the fires of rebellion—and uncover a secret so shocking that it will shake to its core the land he loves.

With stunning period detail and crackling suspense, Eye of the Red Tsar introduces a complex and compelling investigator in a fiercely intelligent thriller perfect for readers of Gorky Park, Child 44, and City of Thieves.
 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sam Eastland on the Russian Buckle

Front	Detail	Back

During the mid 1990’s, a friend of mine was present at a construction site in Russia when a backhoe unearthed the body of a soldier. The dead man was laying spread eagled on the carcass of a horse which had been buried at the same time. The man was wearing a long greatcoat, tall boots and had a thick leather belt across his middle. The clothing and the body had been preserved by the soil so that the man appeared to be partially mummified. Upon examination of the corpse, it became clear that the rider had been buried around the time of the First World War. It also seemed clear, from the fact that he had been laid to rest along with his horse, that the man had probably been buried on the same spot where he had been killed. The man’s belt buckle, which clearly showed the double-headed eagle of the Romanovs, identified him as a soldier of the Tsar’s Army. However, because of the location, which was not on what would have been the front lines during the Great War, the man must have been buried after, not during, the war. This would have placed the soldier’s death at some time in the early days of the Revolution, when soldiers still loyal to the Tsar, known as the Whites, fought pitched battles with the Bolsheviks, who became known as the Reds.

During the course of the construction, several other bodies were discovered, all of whom were similarly dressed and, presumably, had been killed during the same battle.

After the bodies had been re-interred, my friend was given one of the belt buckles as a souvenir. He then passed it on to me, and I still have it.

For every book, there is always some unexpected catalyst that sets everything in motion. Waiting for these catalysts to take hold is like standing in the path of a gently falling meteor shower. Ideas will come hurtling past, but they don’t hit you, so eventually you forget them. But then some image or some anecdote will strike you right between the eyes. From that point on, the formation of the book becomes like the making of a pearl inside an oyster. The grain of sand embeds itself inside the oyster. The oyster is not trying to produce a thing of beauty. It is trying to survive. The pearl is the product of pain. It is the same with these stories. Once they have snagged like a fishhook in your brain, you have to find a way to work them loose.

Holding that buckle in my hand made me think of the tens of thousands of people who were swallowed up in that revolution whose stories have never been told. Russian history, perhaps more than any other country, is layered with so many lies, denials, discreditations and rehabilitations that there is no one version of that country’s past. The only reliable stance to take is that nothing about it is reliable. And yet you know that the truth is in there somewhere, woven into the fabric of these deceptions.

For months after I began writing The Eye of the Red Tsar, that rider galloped through my dreams. It became an act of self-preservation to conjure back to life the story of that buckle, and of the man who wore it to his death.

---

From Booklist

Knowing that his secret police force includes many spies, Tsar Nicholas Romanov selects Pekkala, a Finnish soldier, to become his personal private investigator, the Emerald Eye. When Nicholas and his family are captured by the Bolsheviks, Pekkala becomes prisoner 4745-P and is sent to the Siberian gulag. A decade later, in the midst of the Great Terror, Pekkala is released because Stalin needs to know exactly what happened to the Romanov family. There is much to like about Eye of the Red Tsar, the first in a planned series. The stoic Pekkala is a bit enigmatic but is shown to be intelligent, courageous, and dogged; Eastland will no doubt reveal more about him in future books. The sense of place and period is well rendered. Stalin's Russia assuredly offers a surfeit of future plotlines, and Eastland appears to have done considerable research into the period. But Stalin, whom Pekkala encounters twice—in 1917 and 1929—is portrayed not as a monster but as soft spoken and thoughtful, a stunning departure from historical consensus. That said, readers should look forward to Pekkala's next investigation. --Thomas Gaughan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (April 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553807811
• ISBN-13: 978-0553807813
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #884,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging historical thriller & start of a new series, March 9, 2010

By 

Sandy Kay (Twin Cities, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Eye of the Red Tsar: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

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I enjoyed this book very much. I would have given it 5 stars but for one plot point that I could not believe (later on that - but no spoilers). But even with that, I would definitely read the next book in what I assume will become a series of Inspector Pekkala books (the next book comes out in 2011).

The main character is Pekkala. At the beginning of the book he is a prisoner in a Soviet labor camp assigned to mark trees for cutting; he has been there for nine years since the Tsar's abdication. A young political officer (Kirov) comes to request his assistance in an investigation because Pekkala is a special prisoner: he was the Tsar's legendary special investigator. Pekkala, along with Kirov and Pekkala's estranged older brother Anton, is charged with investigating the murder of Tsar Nicholas and his family. He has a strong moral code without being a wimpy or goody-goody character and that makes him a very interesting character.

There are a lot of books written about the deaths of the Romanovs. If you have a particular interest in or have studied the subject (I have not), you may have to give the author a fair amount of artistic license because the point of the book is Pekkala's character and his investigation, not to be a novelization of historical facts. One thing marred my complete enjoyment of the book. Pekkala makes a mistake (I won't say what or where in the book because it would spoil it) that is completely at odds with everything that has been written about him in the rest of the book. Nevertheless, it is a very enjoyable historical thriller. It will be interesting to see what investigations Pekkala does in future books.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive first novel!, March 12, 2010

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eye of the Red Tsar: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

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Sam Eastland has scored an impressive triumph in his first novel, Eye of the Red Tsar. I'm a big Romanov-fan, and Eye of the Red Tsar provided me with a periodic fix. Eastland mixes history with fiction to great effect. However, in order to enjoy this book, you have to keep in mind that this is a work of fiction. The murder of the royal family as Eastland writes it is not how we know it to have happened.

Opening in 1929, Pekkala finds himself a prisoner in Siberia. He has served 9 years of a 30 year sentence for Crimes Against the State. Pekkala was once the Emerald Eye, the personal investigator of Tsar Nicholas II. He was the only man that Nicholas II trusted. But after the Revolution, he finds himself living a solitary existence, marking trees for cutting. Most men don't live out the year. But Pekkala's survival is a testament to his mental and physical toughness. Commissar Kirov is sent to bring Pekkala back as the communist government has a job for him. The government wishes to discover what really happened to the Romanovs. There is also a possibility that at least one of them is still alive. More likely, they're also interested in what may have happened to the Romanov treasure. Kirov offers Pekkala his freedom at the end of the job, so the former investigator reluctantly signs on.

It doesn't take Pekkala long to get back into the routine of investigation. He seeks out clues, interviews witnesses, and tries to discover what happened to the royal family. But whoever had a hand in their murder is still trying to remain underground. Some witnesses to that fateful night in Ekaterinburg are still in danger. As Pekkala starts digging, his life is also threatened.

Aside from the plot, what makes Eye of the Red Tsar so satisfying is Eastland's wonderful prose. Alternating between the past and the present, you get the feeling that Eastland personally knew the Tsar. "The Tsar's narrowed eyes were hard to read. His expression was not unkind, but neither was it friendly. It seemed to hover between contentment and a desire to be somewhere else. More of a mask than a face, thought Pekkela." The Tsar is actually jealous of his humble investigator and the simple life he lived.

I read that Sam Eastland has already started on another Pekkala mystery. If this is going to be a series, I'm definitely on board.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "...now you know what kind of man you are...the kind who can be broken.", January 14, 2011

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Misanthrope™ - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Eye of the Red Tsar: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

This was on offer from the Vine program almost a year ago, and at the time, even though I am normally interested in books that deal with Russia, I passed on it. Big mistake. Since then, the second book in the series was released, Shadow Pass, and I decided to take that one, which got me hooked. I had to go back and read the first book. One does not necessarily have to read this book before "Shadow Pass," but I think it may help a little.

If one is drawn to the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, and thinks even the darker components of Russian history have something of a romantic nature, Eastland's novel will please. If one has ever read a Tom Clancy novel -- one of the older ones -- and found oneself at least partially intrigued and respectful of the Soviet characters, that reader is likely to find something of interest here.

The main character, Pekkala, is a Finnish man that became the special investigator for the Tsar of Russia (before the Bolshevik revolution), and is known as "The Emerald Eye," a name that comes from a special badge issued to him by the Tsar, a unique disc with the appearance of an eye and an emerald in the center. Stalin was supposedly known by some as the Red Tsar, so the title refers to Pekkala becoming for Stalin what he initially was for Tsar Nicholas II.

Pekkala is sent to Siberia for many years, after the revolution, only to be brought out of exile by Stalin to investigate the murders of the Romanovs. Now, this is not strictly historical -- it is fiction -- and it has characters and plot points that do not necessarily reflect actual history. There is no intention to claim an alternate history. In fact, in the end of the book, there is a section entitled "What Really Happened to the Romanovs?" In that section, he gives brief points of items that happened on certain dates, even up to present times regarding discoveries of various Romanov bodies and DNA evidence. Much of this does not match the novel. Just suspend disbelief and move on.

That I decided to go back and read this book after reading "Shadow Pass" should show there is something attractive about this character, setting, and the writing of Sam Eastland. This author and his Inspector Pekkala
should be priority reading for anyone interested in historic Russia/Soviet Union.