A taut & shocking story of vengeance, bloodshed & love, set over 100 days of bitter Russian winter! from the bestselling author of Messiah. Moscow, December 1991. Chaos reigns after the fall of communism. Muscovites are used to queues & empty shelves, but now they have to cope with a dangerous power vacuum -- & a war between brutal mafiya gangs for control of the city. So when a child`s body is found beneath the ice of the Moscow river it attracts little attention to begin with. Then a second body is found. & a third. At the heart of the gathering storm is Red October, Russia`s most famous vodka distillery. Alice Liddell, an American banker, has come to Moscow to oversee its privatization
- an unpopular move. Alice wants to get going, but faced with the charismatic, ruthless Lev
- distiller director & head of one of the warring mafia gangs
- a very difficult job is starting to look impossible. Lev`s arch-enemy has vowed revenge on him & it seems that the bizarre child killings might be part of this. The last thing he needs is a determined young woman in the heart of his criminal empire. But will Lev & Alice be enemies or allies? & when the storm has passed, who will be left standing?