Long, gruelling journey

This is a violent, suspenseful yarn that takes one through a bitter winter in the early days of the Soviet regime. The book falls into two parts largely, but I will not spoil the story by explaining why. Throughout, it is a powerful story that reminded me of Tom Rob Smith's Child 44; also set in the dark early Soviet era. The environment is beautifully, vividly described, and as someone who has travelled in this region at this time of year, it all feels very realistic. Like all such stories, it struggles to maintain the tension over the course of a fairly long book, but the narrator is an easy listen. The denouement is perhaps a little contrived, but this is a tense, violent story, very well told.

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