SUMMARY :
An ingenious, fast-paced historical thriller from the author of the New York Times bestseller The Last Templar
On a cold, bleak day in 1916, all hell breaks loose in a mining pit in the Ural Mountains. Overcome by a strange paranoia, the miners attack one another, savagely and ferociously. Minutes later, two men—a horrified scientist and Grigory Rasputin, trusted confidant of the tsar—hit a detonator, blowing up the mine to conceal all evidence of the carnage.
In the present day, FBI agent Sean Reilly’s search for Reed Corrigan, the CIA mindcontrol spook who brainwashed Reilly’s son, takes a backseat to a new, disturbing case. A Russian embassy attaché seems to have committed suicide by jumping out of a fourth-floor window in Queens. The apartment’s owners, a retired physics teacher from Russia and his wife, have gone missing, and further investigation reveals that the former may not be who the FBI believe him to be.
Joined by Russian Federal Security Service agent Larisa Tchoumitcheva, Reilly’s investigation of the old man’s identity will uncover a desperate search for a small, mysterious device, with consequences that reach back in time and which, in the wrong hands, could have a devastating impact on the modern world.
Packed with the twists, intrigue, and excitement that Khoury’s many fans have come to expect, Rasputin’s Shadow will keep readers turning pages long into the night.
PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
Publisher: Dutton/Penguin Group
Pages: 404
Genre: Fiction/Historical & Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Author: Raymond Khoury
Author's Website: http://www.raymondkhoury.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LastTemplar
Question/Answer Session with Raymond Khoury:
1. The real-life Grigori Rasputin was a ladies’ man, mystic, and advisor to the Romanovs, who some say manipulated his way from a mere peasant to a trusted confidant in a place of power in the Russian imperial family. Is there anyone in real-life present day who reminds you of Rasputin?
Hah! Thankfully, no one that uber-powerful (or deviant). And though we really don’t know what goes on behind closed doors in the uppermost corridors of power, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the possibility of Rasputin-like figures in places like North Korea or Russia. Closer to home, there have certainly been many vastly influential men behind the leaders of our times, people like Karl Rove for President Bush, or Alastair Campbell for Tony Blair, but they’re far from what we’re talking about. That said, history is riddled with curious quirks: Nancy Reagan placed a lot of faith in her astrologer after the Hinckley assassination attempt, and Isabel Peron held séances at the grave of Evita in an effort to absorb some of her strength. Stranger than fiction?
2. What authors have had an impact on your writing style and your decision to become a writer?
I was lucky enough to take courses in high school where we studied Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, even Raymond Chandler, but at that time, I never imagined I’d become a writer. I can think of several books that triggered something inside me when I first read them: William Goldman’s “Marathon Man,” John Grisham’s “The Firm,” James Ellroy’s “American Tabloid,” even James Patterson’s (yes) “Along Came a Spider” which I thought was a great book when it first came out. The decision to become a writer was actually a decision to make movies (as a director), and the route I chose to get there was by becoming a screenwriter. The books came as a happy accident along the way…
3. If RASPUTIN’S SHADOW were to be turned into a movie, who would you cast as Sean Reilly and as Leo Sokolov?
Hmmm. I’m always asked that, and it’s really tough. I don’t picture anyone while writing the books; it’s weird, I know, but they’re these ‘real’ people that I have in my head, not actors playing them. My top picks, if pressed? How about Bradley Cooper as Reilly? And Alan Arkin as Leo?
4. How did growing up in Beirut during a time of civil war impact your writing?
A huge impact. First of all, visceral. Being around gun battles (not actively, I must add), car bombs, aerial and canon shelling, seeing people gunned down, watching aircraft dropping massive bombs or ground-to-ground missiles streaking across the night from the surrounding mountains… these things never leave you, and it probably comes across the heightened urgency and visceral intensity on my pages. I can’t watch a well-made movie about a war situation, like anything from Oliver Stone who was probably the first to craft a very ‘real’ movie like that with “Salvador”, without it generating a deep reaction inside me. I guess watching the war firsthand, and the troubles across the region as a whole, gave me an understanding of the dynamics of politics, religion, power and greed that I’m sure permeates my stories.
5. Amongst other careers, you worked for a time as an investment banker. Being a very creative person, how did you give yourself a creative outlet, outside of the office?
I only lasted 3 years there! It was so not for me. But it was a time when I remember watching tons of movies, reading a lot of books, and I guess the mindless atmosphere there, solely focused on generating fake money on screens, allowed my mind to roam and eventually led to all the ideas I’m putting down on paper now.
Thank you for joining us today on A Bookish Libraria, Mr. Khoury. Very interesting answers. I'd love to see your book put to movie with Bradley Cooper as Reilly. I saw Leo as more a bearded Mandy Patinkin character...isn't that strange!? :] Just goes to show you...
THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :
What initially grabbed my attention about this book was the reference to Rasputin; can't lie. Who hasn't been intrigued by that mystical and mysterious monk of the Romanov Court? Once I got past that and realized the novel would also be kicking back and forth in time involving high drama between an FBI agent and Russian female agent, amongst other colorful figures in crime, I was all eyes forward. Raymond Khoury didn't disappoint in his book.
A fast-paced espionage novel laced with flashbacks to Russia and Rasputin through a journal found by a scientist whose grandfather was an intimate friend of the monk and also an inventor, sets the story in its place. The central theme is around the pursuit of said scientist who may be a murderer, and who also may be the one who developed a secret and universally devastating, mind-altering device. (Can't give you more spoilers here)
Khoury is a master at character development particularly of the evil, criminal type. Although you love to love Reilly, the FBI hero of the story, it's even more fun to follow the bad guys. His Russian freelancing murderer is not to be dismissed. The police, FBI, newly-crafted KGB and underground figures all in pursuit of the freelancer, presses the story on to its conclusion. His Korean gang gets a standing "O" from me, by the way.
On the other hand, I have to say the pieces revealing the scientist's journal and his relationship with Rasputin were less interesting to me. I virtually skimmed through them. That may because I've read so much about Rasputin to begin with and I found very little new and compelling information in them. The story could actually have been written just as well without so much of the journal entries. I thought it was a flaw in the novel, and would have bolstered the whole if it had been better played upon.
On the whole; however, this is a good read with a suspenseful storyline. The plot moves along well, the characters are hot and engaging, and the thriller does pack a punch with the climax. This isn't the first of the Sean Reilly novels in a series, and I got the sense there will be more from the open-ended closure.
Raymond Khoury is a good writer and one you'll enjoy in this genre twisting the historical with the present espionage scene.
4 stars Deborah/The Bookish Dame
THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :
What initially grabbed my attention about this book was the reference to Rasputin; can't lie. Who hasn't been intrigued by that mystical and mysterious monk of the Romanov Court? Once I got past that and realized the novel would also be kicking back and forth in time involving high drama between an FBI agent and Russian female agent, amongst other colorful figures in crime, I was all eyes forward. Raymond Khoury didn't disappoint in his book.
A fast-paced espionage novel laced with flashbacks to Russia and Rasputin through a journal found by a scientist whose grandfather was an intimate friend of the monk and also an inventor, sets the story in its place. The central theme is around the pursuit of said scientist who may be a murderer, and who also may be the one who developed a secret and universally devastating, mind-altering device. (Can't give you more spoilers here)
Khoury is a master at character development particularly of the evil, criminal type. Although you love to love Reilly, the FBI hero of the story, it's even more fun to follow the bad guys. His Russian freelancing murderer is not to be dismissed. The police, FBI, newly-crafted KGB and underground figures all in pursuit of the freelancer, presses the story on to its conclusion. His Korean gang gets a standing "O" from me, by the way.
On the other hand, I have to say the pieces revealing the scientist's journal and his relationship with Rasputin were less interesting to me. I virtually skimmed through them. That may because I've read so much about Rasputin to begin with and I found very little new and compelling information in them. The story could actually have been written just as well without so much of the journal entries. I thought it was a flaw in the novel, and would have bolstered the whole if it had been better played upon.
On the whole; however, this is a good read with a suspenseful storyline. The plot moves along well, the characters are hot and engaging, and the thriller does pack a punch with the climax. This isn't the first of the Sean Reilly novels in a series, and I got the sense there will be more from the open-ended closure.
Raymond Khoury is a good writer and one you'll enjoy in this genre twisting the historical with the present espionage scene.
4 stars Deborah/The Bookish Dame
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