Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith – RUSSIA
Historical novel set in Britannia AD61 (East Anglia)
Ten Great Thrillers set in Russia
17th April 2024
Ten Great thrillers set ib Russia. Whether it’s a detective unraveling a conspiracy amidst the crumbling grandeur of Moscow, or a journalist uncovering a sinister truth in a remote Siberian town, Russian thrillers offer a chilling and thought-provoking read.
Many writers have set thrillers in this fascinating, if dangerous, country. Here are ten of our favourites.
Crash by Toby Vincent – MOSCOW
Formula One driver Remy Sabatino is leading the Drivers’ Championship, in a car that is the quickest of the season by far. But that also means Sabatino’s Russian teammate is the fastest too…Their rivalry couldn’t be more toxic ahead of the Grand Prix in Moscow. TV viewers around the world are about to witness the most catastrophic crash in Formula One history. Was this caused by the acrimony between these drivers? Matt Straker, former Royal Marine and corporate intelligence director, is again called in to investigate and he soon finds himself confronted by a corrupted legal system and battling with powerful – and violent – vested interests. Could it be that wrapped up in the political symbolism of the Moscow Grand Prix are, perhaps, the very seeds of its undoing…
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith – RUSSIA
Under Stalin’s terrifying regime, families live in fear. When the all-powerful State claims there is no such thing as crime, who dares disagree?
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER IN OVER 30 LANGUAGES
An ambitious secret police officer, Leo Demidov believes he’s helping to build the perfect society. But when he uncovers evidence of a killer at large – a threat the state won’t admit exists – Demidov must risk everything, including the lives of those he loves, in order to expose the truth.
A THRILLER UNLIKE ANY YOU HAVE EVER READ
But what if the danger isn’t from the killer he is trying to catch, but from the country he is fighting to protect?
Exit Rostov by Henry Virgin – ROSTOV-ON-DON
Travelling through Central Asia in 1996, Frederick Lyre learns of his best friend’s disappearance and changes plans to go and find him. Picking up the trail in Moscow, he ventures south to the post Soviet depths of Rostov-on-Don and further into the hinterlands of the fragmented Soviet Union, where he is led deeper into the tangled fate of his oldest friend.
Uncovering hidden characteristics and unexpected motives, Frederick fears that his friend, presumed dead, has been caught up in a tragic sequence of events leading to his destruction. As a rite of passage, a journey of discovery, a travelogue and a psychological portrait of friendship, the novel draws the reader into the hidden world of being which beats beneath the semblance of reality.
The story is intricate and evokes another world, of suburban Rostov tenements, of dachas in the Steppe, of Tashkent, Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, Moscow, the Nyeskuchniy Gardens, the River Don, making love in Tanais, of the sea of Asov, the northern Caucasus, of Stavropol, of refugee camps in Ingushetia, mountains, and field hospitals in the Caucasus, of fin de siecle London, and Aquitaine. From the viewpoint of Frederick, a young man of 23yrs, seeking his friend Cazimir, in the Northern Caucasus in 1996, the narrative blends observation about Russian people and culture, the Don Steppe, post-Soviet urbanscapes at the turn of the century with intimate and sensitive meditations on love, sex, death, religion, God, one’s place in society and money, and investigates the potent forces of sexual desire, attraction and adolescent mental health, coming to terms with the powerful subconscious drives of lust, desire, and obsession.
Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson – SIBERIA
Kolymsky Heights. A frozen Siberian hell lost in endless night. The perfect location for an underground Russian research station. It’s a place so secret it doesn’t officially exist; once there, the scientists are forbidden to leave. But one scientist is desperate to get a message to the outside world. So desperate, he sends a plea across the wilderness to the West in order to summon the one man alive who can achieve the impossible…
Archangel by Robert Harris – RUSSIA
When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north – to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia’s unburied past.
Arctic Sun by Jack Grimwood – KOLA PENINSULA
Kola Peninsula, 1987. High in the Soviet Arctic, a tiny village houses an apocalyptic secret . . .
When research zoologist Dr Amelia Blackburn ventures north to investigate the ravages of the Chernobyl reactor meltdown, she stumbles on the evidence of another sinister disaster on the Norway-Russia border – one that appears far from innocent. Mother Russia will stop at nothing to prevent this information from being revealed, putting Amelia and her team in grave danger from the moment they leave the site.
When the news reaches London, the eyes of British intelligence turn to the one man with the knowledge and skills to bring her back to safety – and find out what has really happened in the frozen North.
Major Tom Fox thought he’d put his intelligence career behind him, but wrapped in a custody battle for his young son, Charlie, a request from his high-ranking father-in-law forces his hand. When the reluctant spy reaches Russia, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary mission.
As Fox and Amelia fight for their lives – and their country – in Russia, Charlie is lead into dangers of his own in England. Three lives are about to be embroiled in the darkest secrets of the Cold War conflict – and a plot that, if left unchecked, will echo through history . . .
Tatiana by Marin Cruz Smith – KALININGRAD
In Tatiana, Smith delivers his most ambitious and politically daring novel since. When the brilliant and fearless young reporter Tatiana Petrovna falls to her death from a sixth-floor window in Moscow in the same week that notorious mob billionaire Grisha Grigorenko is shot in the back of the head, Renko finds himself on the trail of a mystery as complex and dangerous as modern Russia itself. The body of an elite government translator shows up on the sand dunes of Kalingrad: killed for nothing but a cryptic notebook filled with symbols.
A frantic hunt begins to locate and decipher this notebook. In a fast-changing and lethal race to uncover what this translator knew, and how he planned to reveal it to the world, Renko makes a startling discovery that propels him deeper into Tatiana’s past – and, at the same time, paradoxically, into Russia’s future.
Last Flight to Stalingrad by Graham Hurley – STALINGRAD
For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Ministry of Propaganda, the dizzying victory of the last four years has felt like a party without end. But the Reich’s attention has turned East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning.
Werner’s boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. His words have propelled Germany towards its greater destiny and he won’t – he can’t – let morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence.
And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad…
The Translator by Harriet Crawley – MOSCOW
A highly topical thriller about a Russian plot to cut the undersea communication cables linking the US to the UK. Also, a passionate love story between two people determined to stop this cataclysmic act.
Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is turned on its head when, after more than a decade, he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is now the interpreter to the Russian President. At the embassy, Clive learns of a Russian plot to cut the undersea cables linking the US to the UK which would paralyse communications and collapse the Western economy. Marina stuns Clive with the news that she’s ready to help stop the attack, betraying her country for a new identity and a new life. Clive becomes the go-between, relaying Marina’s intelligence to MI6 back in London. What are the odds that two lovers, running the Moscow marathon with the FSB on their backs, can save Western Europe from economic meltdown?
The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt by Sarah Armstrong – MOSCOW
Escaping failure as an undergraduate and a daughter, not to mention bleak 1970s England, Martha marries Kit – who is gay. Having a wife could keep him safe in Moscow in his diplomatic post. As Martha tries to understand her new life and makes the wrong friends, she walks straight into an underground world of counter-espionage.
Out of her depth, Martha no longer knows who can be trusted.
Enjoy our selection of thrillers set in Russia!
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