Moskva

*Starred Review* It's 1985, and British Intelligence officer Tom Fox has been sent to Moscow to write a report. Shortly after he arrives, the British ambassador's teenage daughter goes missing. The case hits close to home: Fox's own daughter died recently, which sent his family into shock. As Fox investigates, he discovers allegiances and betrayals dating back to WWII and involving some of Russia's most powerful mobsters, politicians, and military leaders. Fox uses the art of reflection he learned in his short-lived time in the seminary, and the combat and strategic skills he picked up serving in Northern Ireland, to aid his investigation. In some ways, Fox is as enigmatic as the country he's visiting, a country where the media declare there is no crime, and yet the police have no lack of work. This is the first thriller by the speculative-fiction writer also known as Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and it demonstrates that great storytelling is not bound by genre. The jacket cover proclaims Moskva to be Fatherland meets Gorky Park. That's not a bad comparison, though the body count suggests a little bit more of Child 44. Recent events make this tale of Russian intrigue especially timely. As one character ominously says, We might have lost the Cold War . . . . we intend to win the thaw. --Keefe, Karen Copyright 2017 Booklist

At a New Year's Eve party held at the British embassy in Moscow in December 1985, British Army intelligence officer Tom Fox, the hero of Grimwood's entertaining thriller debut, meets the ambassador's unhappy 15-year-old stepdaughter, Alex Masterson. After Tom notices suspicious scarring on the girl's wrists, he jokingly gives her advice on how to properly commit suicide. His words come back to haunt him a week later when Alex disappears. Her stepfather, Sir Edward, is reluctant to tell the Soviet authorities she's gone missing, hoping she'll return on her own. Tom's feelings of guilt about his possible part in the family's trauma, as well as his guilt over his daughter Becca's recent death in a car crash (which may not have been an accident), lead him to search for Alex on his own. Grimwood (The Last Banquet) eventually ties that plot into the gripping opening teaser-the discovery of the corpse of a preteen boy with a severed finger near Red Square. Despite many improbable narrow escapes and an underdeveloped lead, Martin Cruz Smith fans will be pleased. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.