Agent Dmitri - Emil Draitser - Guest Book Review

Published by Duckworth

Guest review by Mandy Jenkinson

Dmitri Bystrolyotov was one of the Great Illegals, a group of Soviet spies operating in the West between the two world wars. He was recruited in the 1920s and went on to lead a quite extraordinary life. He was a larger-than-life figure, courageous, charismatic, a master of seduction (he invented the modern “honey trap”), handsome, resourceful, and above all a committed Communist, dedicated to the service of his motherland.

Much of the trajectory of his life as a spy seems stranger than fiction, and that, for me, was one of the problems of this book. Emil Draitser has done an impressive amount of painstaking research, but still relies in part on Bystrolotov’s own memoirs, and Bystrolyotov is an unreliable narrator par excellence. He contacted the author back in the 1970s shortly before Draitser’s emigration hoping he would take on the task of writing his biography. Thirty years later and with increased access to the archives after the fall of the Soviet Union, Draitser set about the task. He admits to not being able to verify some of the events, but too often allows himself the luxury of speculating. Reconstructed conversations (which always sound false and stilted), cod psychological explanations of Bystrolyotov’s motives and actions, too much reliance on the memoirs, all made me distrustful.

Reading the tagline “The Secret History of Russia’s Most Daring Spy”, I expected the book to be more thrilling and exciting than it actually is. I was soon bored by the accounts of one incredible exploit after another. I found the book more interesting after Bystrolyotov’s ill-advised return to the Soviet Union, where instead of being feted for all he had done for his country, he fell foul of Stalin’s paranoia and was arrested and sent to the Gulag. His ordeal in the far North makes for some gripping reading. But essentially I just couldn’t engage with this man. He never truly came alive for me. Perhaps that’s inevitable with someone who spent much of his life pretending to be someone he wasn’t, and just as it’s impossible to really enter the heart and mind of many another super-spy, such as Kim Philby, perhaps such a biography is always doomed to partial failure. I would have liked to see more illustrations, but perhaps theses weren’t available.

Nevertheless, in spite of my reservations, this is an intriguing look into the world of high-level espionage, and a glimpse, at least, into the secretive world of Soviet intelligence. A pity about the lurid cover, though, one hardly appropriate for a serious biography.


Many thanks to Mandy for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library. Mandy is an omnivorous reader who enjoys reviewing, for newbooks magazine as well as elsewhere, and enjoys discovering new authors.

The Undertaking - Audrey Magee

In the midst of World War II, Peter Faber and Katherina Spinell embark on an usual marriage – they haven’t even met. Peter takes this step to get ‘honeymoon’ leave from the Eastern front, and he travels to Berlin and meets his wife and her family for the first time. For Katherina, it offers a war pension should he die. Before the war a schoolteacher in Darmstadt, now he is fighting in Russia, for his homeland Germany. Despite the unconventional manner of their union, the pair do find they like and indeed come to love one another, making it difficult for them both when Peter has to return to Russia.

The narration moves between Peter’s horrendous time in Russia as his division moves towards Stalingrad, and Katherina’s life in Berlin, where she enjoys a relatively comfortable existence for a time – this is thanks to her father’s close acquaintance with the powerful Nazi Dr. Weinart, who he almost slavishly complies with, even to the point of not defending his own war-damaged son Johannes in front of him. When the war starts to go against Germany, though, both of them find themselves still apart, and in dire circumstances.

The author writes with brutal honesty of the appalling conditions the soldiers endure, and conveys the different views amongst them about what they are actually fighting for, so that as a reader we can conceivably sympathise with Peter despite the outrage we feel at the regime he was fighting to protect. Audrey Magee also convincingly portrays the turbulent change in fortunes for Katherina and her family.

Throughout the novel, much of the narrative is written as dialogue; I quickly got used to this style and thought it worked very well here; the author lets the characters’ thoughts and decisions speak for themselves, directly, rendering their emotions and experiences vividly to the reader.

The Undertaking is a stark, intelligent and powerful debut novel that confronts harsh realities and depicts two ordinary people complicit in terrible actions.  I was impressed by it and I’d love to read more by this author. There is plenty here for reading groups to debate and get their teeth into – morality, greed, war, damage, and love.

Published by Atlantic Books - 6th February 2014

Originally reviewed for Newbooks magazine

The Twelfth Department - William Ryan

‘It’s said you get the job done, no matter what the risks or the obstacles.’

This is the third adventure in the now established series of historical crime novels from William Ryan set in 1930s Stalinist Russia, and featuring the brilliant lead character Captain Alexei Korolev of the Moscow Militia. I've really enjoyed this series thus far, each book has offered intriguing storylines set during a fascinating time and place in history with just enough period detail, and this third novel is no exception. 

This time, it's 1937 and Korolev's investigations into the murder of a top scientist lead him to become more involved than ever with the NKVD, the feared State Security service, becoming caught between two different departments who are at odds with each other. When another scientist is killed, and Korolev starts to discover what they were working on, things start to get rather complicated and dangerous to say the least.

Amongst all this, Korolev also finally has a visit from his son Yuri, who he sees very little of. He had planned some time off to spend with him, however, both the time off work and the happiness of this reunion are shortlived, and soon there is great anxiety for Korolev as young Yuri goes missing, making this investigation very personal.

There are so many conflicts for Korolev; wanting to do the right thing, yet not step out of line, making sure to be seen to be adhering to the will of his superiors, but solve the crime thoroughly and as effectively as he'd like to – he ‘always gets his man, come hell or high water’ – plus he has to find his missing son whilst not neglecting his investigations - so difficult and thus giving plenty of depth to his character and to the tale. As Korolev himself exclaims, in a great little exchange with Dubinkin, describing his difficult situation, ‘It feels like I’m a football being kicked around a field.’

I've said before that Korolev is an engaging, affable and moral lead character and I'll stick by that opinion here. He's imbued with humour and a sense of decency, and is liked by others, and he’s able to form working relationships with people from all levels of the society he exists in. I particularly liked the interaction between Korolev and Count Kolya, Chief of the Moscow Thieves, in this installment.

I love the author's writing style. There's a definitive, distinctive voice there telling the story; not intrusive, but certainly in control, and with a nice touch of dry humour at times. It feels as though the author has grasped the atmosphere of the times and conveyed it in his story so that as we are reading, the past is evoked for us and we get a real sense of the fear, secrecy and paranoia coursing through this society. 

There's enough here for a reader new to the series to pick up the background and enjoy it. Nevertheless I'd recommend reading the first two novels ideally (links to my reviews below) to get the most enjoyment out of it. 

I am firmly hooked on this series now and already wondering what is next in store for Korolev.

My reviews of The Holy Thief  and The Bloody Meadow.

Published by Mantle, an imprint of Pan Macmillan

Find the author on twitter @WilliamRyan_ and visit his website here to find out more - it's a really interesting companion to the books.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for kindly sending me a copy of this novel to read and review. 

Book Beginnings (7) - The Twelfth Department - William Ryan

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays

The idea, as stated on the host's blog, is 'to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.' There's a hash tag #BookBeginnings for twitter etc too, and a master linky list on the host's blog. I've got a couple of books on the go at the moment so I've just picked one out to mention here.

My Book Beginning

The Twelfth Department by William Ryan

Published by Mantle, an imprint of Pan Macmillan

'Patriarch's ponds was one of Korolev's favourite corners of Moscow - a small park with a square shaped lake around which, especially on a hot summer's day like this, white-shirted men and their befrocked womenfolk strolled with slow steps. At the southern end a white colonnaded pavillion stood where, for a reasonable price, a citizen could sip a glass of tea and sit and watch the ducks. '

I'm really excited to be reading this and I can't wait to see what challenges Captain Korolev will face in this latest installment - I loved the first two novels in this series set in 1930s Russia (see below for links to my reviews). I think it's safe to assume that as we meet him again, Korolev will have more on his mind than just sitting and watching the ducks...

Here's the synopsis from goodreads:

Captain Alexei Korolev has nothing to complain about. He has his own room in an apartment, a job in the police force that puts food on the table, and his good health. In Moscow in 1937, that’s a lot more than most people have to be grateful for. But for the first time in a long time, Korolev is about to be truly happy: his son Yuri is coming to visit for an entire week.

Shortly after Yuri’s arrival, however, Korolev receives an urgent call from his boss—it seems an important man has been murdered, and Korolev is the only detective they’re willing to assign to this sensitive case. In fact, Korolev realizes almost immediately that the layers of sensitivity and secrecy surrounding this case far exceed his paygrade. And the consequences of interfering with a case tied to State Security or the NKVD can be severe—you might lose your job, if you’re lucky. Your whole family might die if you’re not. Korolev is suddenly faced with much more than just discovering a murderer’s identity; he must decide how far he’ll go to see justice served . . . and what he’s willing to do to protect his family.

In The Twelfth Department, William Ryan's portrait of a policeman struggling to survive in one of the most volatile and dangerous eras of modern history is mesmerizing.

You can read my reviews of the first two novels featuring Captain Korolev here:

The Holy Thief

The Bloody Meadow

The Holy Thief - William Ryan

'These days it seemed everything in Moscow became dirty after a little while.'

It is 1936, and the setting is Moscow, nineteen years after the Revolution, and at the start of Stalin's Great Terror. The body of a woman, tortured and killed, is found in a church, and Captain Alexei Koralev of the Moscow Militia's Criminal Investigation Division is tasked with looking into the case. Although they are treating the murder as a criminal investigation, Korolev is asked to report details of it to Staff Colonel Gregorin, a member of the NKVD, the feared state security service, who dealt with political crimes. An interesting and mixed team of colleagues are introduced to us at the Militia's Petrovka Street headquarters, and Korolev is given junior lieutenant Semionov to assist him with this investigation. Semionov has only been with the team a couple of months and has an enthusiasm that Korolev is encouraged by, even if he has to temper it a little at times. 

The main narrative concentrates on Korolev's investigation, but there are a few short sinister episodes with the murderer, which are dotted within the story. The crimes relate to a valuable stolen Russian icon. The tense, nervous atmosphere of the times, and the overriding feeling of fear and suspicion amongst the population of the country at that time is captured here, where 'even the innocent were jumping at shadows these days.' 

Korolev is in his early forties, divorced, and good at heart. He genuinely believes in the Party line and their intentions for the future, but he also still quietly maintains his own religious beliefs. Shortly after he is first introduced, he visits his immediate boss, General Popov, to wrap up the previous case he'd been working on, and we learn more about his achievements and his character through the praise he receives:

'You did a good job here. An excellent job. Not the first time, of course. I give you all the hard cases, the crimes that look like they've been committed by ghosts, and yet you always find the devils and bring them to me. The highest conviction rate in the division and you don't even beat the confessions out of them.'

He is intelligent, methodical and thorough, and he is determined to find the real perpetrators, unlike one of his colleagues who 'argued that, even if they weren't guilty of the crime in question, the people he convicted were certainly guilty of something.' However, Korolev isn't soft and nor is he naive; he knows that when he is told to only report certain aspects of an incident to certain people, and no one else, that's what he has to do. There are events he is part of that can't be reported on, or he is told afterwards that they 'never happened'. During his investigations, 'he plowed his way through the grimy reality of Soviet life'. He encounters a whole range of characters from Moscow's underworld, from street children whose parents are likely to have permanently 'disappeared', to the Thieves - the criminals who dominate the underworld. He meets an American who has dealings with the NKVD, handling religious artifacts that are sold overseas, and he has to tread a fine line between uncovering the truth and getting in too deep with dangerous people as his inquiries move on and the evidence throws up some disturbing truths. 

This is an exciting and atmospheric historical crime novel with an intriguing plot and well-drawn characters. Moreover, the author has chosen a fascinating setting and period as the backdrop for the novel and then captured it convincingly, adding much authentic detail but never overwhelming the reader or holding up the plot. I found it a real page-turner; I was eager to read on. Captain Korolev is a very likeable, engaging, moral lead character and it's not difficult to want to root for him throughout. I will definitely be back to follow Korolev in his next investigation!

5/5

Thank you very much to the author for sending me a copy of this novel to read and provide an honest review.

Published by Pan and available to buy now in paperback and e-book formats.

You can visit the author's website to find out more about the investigations of Captain Korolev and find out a bit more about the background to the story.


The next book in the series featuring Korolev is entitled The Bloody Meadow (The Darkening Field in the US) and is available now in hardcover and e-book editions, and in paperback on 15th March 2012.