The Red Coffin
By (Author) Sam Eastland
Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber
1st December 2011
22nd May 2025
Main - Re-issue
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Thriller / suspense fiction
813.6
Short-listed for CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award 2011
Paperback
368
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 20mm
280g
It is 1939. The world stands on the brink of Armageddon. In the Soviet Union, years of revolution, fear and persecution have left the country unprepared to face the onslaught of Nazi Germany. For the coming battles, Stalin has placed his hopes on a 30-ton steel monster, known to its inventors as the T-34 tank, and, the 'Red Coffin' to those men who will soon be using it.
But the design is not yet complete. And when Colonel Nagorski, the weapon's secretive and eccentric architect, is found murdered, Stalin sends for Pekkala, his most trusted investigator. Stalin is convinced that a sinister group calling itself the White Guild, made up of former soldiers of the Tsar, intend to bring about a German invasion before the Red Coffin is ready. While Soviet engineers struggle to complete the design of the tank, Pekkala must track down the White Guild and expose their plans to propel Germany and Russia into conflict.
Sam Eastland is a pen name of Paul Watkins. He lives in the US and the UK. Eye of the Red Tsar, the first in the Inspector Pekkala series, was followed by The Red Coffin and Siberian Red.