Red Winter - Softcover

Among other novels, Dan Smith is the author of The Child Thief, Red Winter and The Darkest Heart, which are also available from Pegasus Crime. He lives in Newcastle with his family. Find out more about Dan, his novels, and the places that inspire them at www.dansmithbooks.com.

It is December 1920, and the Bolsheviks have unleashed the Red Terror, a wave of intimidation, confiscation, torture, and murder designed to frighten every Russian into obedience. Kolya, a loyal Red Army soldier, has seen enough, and he deserts the army to return to his wife and children. But he is pursued by the dreaded Cheka secret police. When he finally gets home, he finds the hideously mutilated bodies of the men of his village. A single old woman, driven mad by the carnage, tells him the murderer was Koschei the Deathless One, a monster from Slavic folklore. His family has vanished, and Kolya clings to the hope that he can find them—and kill the Chekist who calls himself Koschei. Smith has chosen a period, the Russian Civil War, that was as confusing as it was brutal. The Reds have defeated the “counterrevolutionaries” (Whites), but the Greens, Blues, and Blacks have arisen, inspired by Red brutality. Red Winter is filled with suspense, bloodshed, and vividly drawn characters, and offers a strong sense of the tragic arc of modern Russian history. --Thomas Gaughan