This is an article I wrote by request for a site of advice for anyone just getting into and wanting to write.

Steve Berry writes a book that is one that is hard to put down. Face paced and spins a story with historical fact along with fiction.

It opens with the history of the Romanov family. The family as rulers of Russia starts in 1613 with Mikhail Feodorovich being the first in a line that will stretch over 200 years, ending in 1918. You find some of the worse and greats of history in this family. Both men and women were in power and ruled over this massive nation. You have the not so greats such as Peter III (1762) and Paul I (1796-1801), to the larger than life Peter the Great (1682-1695) and Catherine the Great (1762-1796). This is a family that reflects so much of Russian history. When there was tragedy to be found, the family found it. Ivan VI (1740-1741) lived in solitary confinement. Peter II (1727-1730) beaten to death. Paul I (1796-1801) strangled. Alexander II (1855-1881) bombed, one story I remember reading in that after one such bomb attempt on his life, he literally held up the roof of the train off those in the car with him so that they could get out to safety. Nicholas II (1894-1917) shot, lived in the shadow of his father. There is also the good points that happened during their time on the throne. Russia went from being a lonely isolated mostly rural to an industrial nation and a world power.

Nicholas II along with his family were confined to Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo after he stepped down from the throne in 1917. Rasputin is dead and the world as they knew it was at an end. The government in power at the time did try to get the family to safety in England, but King George V (Nicholas’ cousin – Victoria had seen to it that her family was literally on every throne almost in the world at that time) rejected the request. Fearing for the Tsar’s safety, he was moved to Tobolsk, in Siberia for eight months. After the “October Revolution” they were moved further into Siberia to Yekaterinburg. It is there that they were taken to the basement by the Bolsheviks and shot to be dumped into an unmarked roadway and not found till 1979. Upon removal of the bodies, it was discovered that two of the Tsar’s children were not within the body count. Depending on whom you go with depends on who is missing. Russian experts concluded from bones and photographic evidence that it was Maria and Alexei that were missing. Whereas the American expert made his choices based on dental and bone specimens and decided upon the missing being Alexei and Anastasia. To this day it has never been settled. They have since been laid to rest in St. Petersburg along side the rest of their ancestors. I actually watched this when it happened on tv. The two missing bodies have never been located.

Such is what the story starts from and jumps right into gun shots and killings in the first chapter. The book only picks up more speed with each chapter read. The main character in the story is Miles Lord who also happens to be black, something that I found unusual, not something you find as the main character in a book normally and certainly not one about Russia. He is following the trail left by a prophecy given by Rasputin which places him all over the world in situations that seem to get more dangerous with every step taken along the path. The people he meets along the way, the choice of who or who not to trust all are choices that he is faced with in situations where taking time to think on your feet is the only way to stay one step ahead of those that are after him, the only way to stay alive. He finally gets to the final piece of the puzzle and what it is that he is really seeking after, the one that is to sit on the Russian throne again, one that is a direct link to the Romanov royal family – one that comes from the line of Nicholas children no less. The ending is a spin that you very well will not guess as you try to read faster to find out what is going to happen.

Great read.