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Simon Sebag Montefiore’s novel occupies the difficult ground between potboiler and “high” literature. It looks like the sort of thriller one might pick up at the airport, but it gives much more in terms of plot and motivation than you might have expected, based loosely on events that occurred in the Kremlin during the war years. Stalin casts a long shadow over his subjects. A group of teenagers, some wise beyond their years and others possessed of a deadly naivety, play a game that results in the death of two and threatens execution for the rest and their families. The author draws nuanced people about whom the reader cares and villains who repel with their casual disregard for human life. He gives an insight into the machinations of the Stalinist state and provides little details that lift the book out of the ordinary.
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