The Ice Curtain
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A thriller that explodes with taut suspense and raw emotion, The Ice Curtain pulls us into a murder mystery that is at once compelling and deeply moving. With the skill of a master storyteller, the bestselling author of Siberian Light breathes life into a haunting and unforgettable landscape, weaving a dazzlingly original story of murder, deceit...and diamonds.
The Ice Curtain
The Iron Curtain is down, and Russia has become a smuggler’s paradise. Hidden behind a curtain of ice in Siberia’s far north is the richest diamond mine on earth, a motherlode of treasure so vast it could break the back of the world’s oldest–and wealthiest–cartel. A cartel that will buy the enemies it can...and eliminate the ones it cannot.
Against this turbulent backdrop, Gregori Nowek searches for the truth behind the murder of his best friend–shot in cold blood on a dark Moscow street. In a violent land where a twenty-dollar bill can buy or end a life, half a billion dollars in rough diamonds have vanished, lost between Siberia’s mines and Moscow’s vaults. The brutal murder of his best friend tests everything Nowek believes as a Russian, and as a man.
In a dark realm of glittering diamonds, corrupt politicians, biznessmen, and cops caught up in the chaos of modern Russia, Nowek must find the missing diamonds before the world finds out they’re gone. At stake is the future of Russia itself.
Nowek’s search will take him back to the place he knows best...Siberia, where the reason for his friend’s murder is buried inside a gem-filled chasm beneath eternal ice and snow. It is a secret guarded by the vastness of Siberia, the diamond cartel, and a beautiful young woman who, like the dazzling gems, is trapped in a grim city walled off from the world behind a curtain of ice.
Dangerously stubborn and committed to the truth, Nowek risks his life to vindicate a friend, to secure Russia’s future, and to bring an astounding act of deception into the light of day.
With haunting images and a powerful sense of character and place, The Ice Curtain is riveting entertainment. Deeply atmospheric and unfailingly gripping, it delivers top-notch suspense from its opening scene to its unforgettable climax.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This bone-chilling thriller set in the waning days of Yeltsin's tenure pits a low-ranking Siberian politico and a Moscow-based FSB (the new KGB) major against the world's most powerful diamond cartel in the best Russian shocker since Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park. When diamond miners in the frozen Siberian town of Mirny are killed for protesting months of unpaid wages, Russian Federation delegate Arkady Volsky and his assistant Gregori Nowek travel to Moscow to confront Yevgeny Petrov, director of the State Diamond Committee, and to collect the miners' money. But Petrov doesn't care about the miners he's sparring with the London-based diamond cartel, threatening to flood the market if they don't meet his price. Volsky's interference gets him shot and Nowak knicked in a hit and run; Volsky gasps "go to the horizon" and expires, and the militia arrests Nowek for his boss's murder. Enter FSB major Izrail Levin, who soon learns from Petrov that the diamonds needed for collateral on an IMF loan review are missing. Levin clears Nowek, recruits him to replace Volsky and sends him back to Mirny to track the diamonds. Danger abounds in the icebound town. Nowek's local ally is killed and Nowek himself is trapped deep in the diamond mines as the hero tries to get to the bottom of a vast conspiracy, clear Volsky's name and find his killer. White (Siberian Light) keeps the reader on a diamond-sharp edge while lacing his fast-paced prose with black humor, engrossing gem lore and plenty of spilled blood. Surprising plot twists, stoic Russian survivors and a dash of romance add to the heady mix, as do the hints of another Nowek tale to come.
