The beginning is entertaining, with the clues that the oprichniki are vampires, clues only the reader sees. And vampires in russia at the time of napoleon's wars is such a original premise. But once the narrator understood their menace, I felt the book lost his momentum and the travel to the end ...
This book as been on my "Reading" shelf for a long time. I have recently made an effort to finish some of those books, and this was the first one that I've completed. It took me a long time to finish this book because I kept putting it down--and I struggled to pick it back up again. I think that ...
An enjoyable read that had enough to set it apart and make it memorable, but lacking those intangible qualities that would have set it above rather than just apart.The story begins as the Russians are falling back from Napoleon's relentless onslaught in the War of 1812, and we are introduced to a...
All that mihail needed to do was go to the Hôtel d’Europe, present the letter and he would be allowed access to Iuda’s rooms. But that was what made it frightening. Would Iuda really be so remiss as to allow an intruder such easy access to his inner sanctum? And yet Iuda had been absent – a priso...