Book reviews

Review: Letter of an Old Bolshevik

This is one of those books where saying who the writer was is contentious. It was initially published anonymously. Later, the exiled Russian Menshevik writer Boris Nicolaevsky was listed as the author. Nicolaevsky always claimed…




Review: Moscow X, by David McCloskey

Earlier this year I read and reviewed “Damascus Station” by former CIA officer David McCloskey. I thought it a competent thriller and enjoyed it. I looked forward to reading the second book in the series,…






Review: The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron

I have loved all of Mick Herron’s ‘Slough House’ books and this so-called ‘standalone’ thriller is actually part of that series — indeed, it explains much of what happens in the previous books. It is…


Review: Sell Us The Rope, by Stephen May

A new novel about the congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of 1907? Starring Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Rosa Luxemburg? What’s not to like? And the book’s premise — that Stalin was a…