Rasputin’s Shadow by Raymond Khoury
Genre: thriller, with both technological and historical elements
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Year: 2013
Summary:
1916, Ural Mountains, Russia. A mysterious device causes miners to attack one another, with bloody results. Only two men know what has happened: Rasputin, the tsar and tsarina’s trusted friend and reputed healer of their hemophiliac son, and a shocked, unnamed scientist. A bomb explosion covers evidence of the bloodbath.
Fast forward almost a century later. FBI agent Sean Reilly is still searching for the man who brainwashed his young son Alex. Then a more pressing matter appears in the form of an apparent suicide. A man falls from an apartment window in New York City. He’s a Russian diplomat, so the situation ends up in Reilly’s territory.
It’s complicated. The guy was more than likely a spy, his death was murder, and the Russian agent assigned to the case, Larisa Tchoumitcheva, is less than forthcoming about his background, probably because no one’s told her anything useful, either. The apartment owners, the elderly Leo and Daphne Sokolov, can’t be found. Leo’s a Russian immigrant; how were he and the dead man connected? There are signs of a struggle, but surely the older couple couldn’t have overpowered the agent, could they? Are they in danger?
Reilly’s instincts tell him that Leo Sokolov is key in this case. As he investigates the old man’s background, he stumbles on information about a mysterious device that has the power to control other people’s minds. The almost limitless power is frightening. It’s the type of technology that governments and criminals would kill for, the type of technology that Reilly knows must be kept out of the wrong hands. But what does Leo Sokolov know about it? And where is he?
What I liked:
The thrills
Khoury excels at ratcheting up the tension. He seems to know exactly when to end each scene or chapter: the point of highest tension. He raises the stakes. And raises them . . . and raises them . . . and raises them even more.
Sean Reilly’s voice
Not his physical voice, obviously. But the way he narrates his sections of the story is appealing. At turns he’s wry, frustrated, angry, and horrified. He never loses his humanity or empathy for others, even when dealing with the horrors of his job. There’s not much narrative about his family, which is unfortunate as I would’ve liked to have seen him interact with his lover, Tess, and her daughter and his son. People who’ve read the previous novels by Raymond Khoury might be disappointed at this; apparently his family (especially Tess) played a larger role in previous books. It didn’t matter as much to me. I would’ve liked more, but what I saw showed Reilly’s tender side.
The historical sections and Sokolov’s background
Sokolov’s background is heart-rending, grim, and fascinating. When as a child he finds a decades’ old journal of his grandfather, the contents–which we read throughout the book–grab his mind and light his imagination. Khoury notes in the afterward that everything in the historical sections of the book actually happened. (He fabricated the journal-writer, though.) Rasputin was one nasty guy. The title is apt. Rasputin’s shadow: he certainly cast a long shadow over the Russian people.
Sokolov has a horrible background. He’s not entirely sympathetic. Yet he loves “his Daphne” and is completely devoted to her safety.
What I didn’t like
For a story that constantly raised the stakes, the actual climax fell flat to me. I also felt that several characters could’ve been better developed: Larisa, in particular, didn’t feel as real or deep as she could’ve been. She felt like “generic female spy with gorgeous body.” (Why must ALL fictional female spies have terrific bodies?!) That’s unfortunate, as she’s a vital part of the story.
My verdict? It was good, enjoyable, and intriguing. But I felt like something was lacking. This review appears elsewhere, including Goodreads.
Bonus tip for writers:
Use the views of the minor characters
The number of bodies piling up is almost mind-numbing, and it would be easy for Reilly and us to think, “Oh, there’s another bad guy dead, another one bites the dust.” But several minor characters have their own point of view sections.
While several of these characters are very unsympathetic, Raymond Khoury takes us into their minds and shows their humanity. They have frustration or anger. They struggle with decisions. They’ve been swept up in events larger than themselves. They’re drug dealers or mafia, ruthless and depraved, but they still have their own goals and ambitions and desires, and not all of those are bad. What’s bad about wanting to protect one’s family or friends? Or wanting to be out from under other people’s control?
When they die (and several do), we know them. They aren’t just “Dead Person #5” but someone we know and (at least for me) there’s a tinge of regret: they’ll never get a chance to make better choices.