MOSCOW UNDERGROUND

A gripping thriller and Belkin is a character many readers will want to encounter again THE TIMES A heartbreaking and passionate novel of the cruelty and fragility of love death and life in Stalinist Russia SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIOREMoscow 1934 Moscow s glittering new subway is under construction at last The first line will run through the centre of the city cutting deep through Moscow soil But futures cannot be created without digging up the past Though Russia s leaders want to build a glorious Soviet capital what holds them in a fatal grip is history old mud and bones Anton Belkin is an Investigator at the Procuracy a sensitive job at a dangerous moment on the road to the Show Trials He is also someone who needs to keep his head down His artist father was once the darling of the revolutionary avant garde a painter whose work could inspire devotion and great sacrifice But now his dreams are out of place too loud and red in Stalin s world of sterile rules and rubber stamps Anton is dragged into a murder case A prominent archaeologist working alongside the subway dig has been killed in a deserted mansion Though Anton doesn t want the job his former lover Vika who is now a powerful member of the secret police browbeats him into paying a visit t