White Blood

(Paperback)

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Description

A compelling historical thriller set in Russia on the brink of the Revolution. The son of an English father and Russian mother, Charlie Doig is a big man - big in stature and big in spirit. A naturalist, he roughs it around the world collecting birds and insects for museums. In 1914 he is on a mission for the Academy of Sciences in Russian Turkestan when war breaks out. His pay is stopped and his companion goes off to enlist. Doig, however, has no intention of volunteering to be killed. He returns to the Pink House, his family's home near Smolensk, adn to the woman he loves, his cousin Elizaveta. At first the Pink House remains untouched by outside events, and the familiar ways continue as before. But Imperial Russia is doomed and with in all the old certainties. Trapped by the snow with Doig and Elizaveta are a motley collection of old aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on - and the two soldiers, one of whom Doig is convinced is a Bolshevik out to destroy them all.

Reviews

A meticulously researched act of reconstruction...The narrative, the dialogue and the intensity of Doig's emotions drive the story to a savage climax that reads like a modern thriller. It is the best sort of historical novel -- Honor Clerk * Spectator *
Highly entertaining... superbly handled -- William Palmer * Independent *
Beautifully written, with baroque energy and style -- Jessica Mann * Sunday Telegraph *
Moves at a cracking pace with plenty of atmosphere and sympathy * Daily Telegraph *
Fleming finds an unencumbered, historically penetrating language in which the simplest expository sentences can bring prose, story and setting into a crisp and evocative alignment -- Sam Thompson * Guardian *

Author Bio

James Fleming, the nephew of Ian Fleming, was born in London in 1944. He is the author of four previous novels, all of them good: The Temple of Optimism, Thomas Gage, Cold Blood and Rising Blood. He writes in Scotland. Visit him online at www.jamesfleming.com