Description

‘A gripping thriller and Belkin is a character many readers will want to encounter again’
THE SUNDAY TIMES

‘Remarkable … If only all first novels were as enthralling as this’
FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Merridale’s talents as a Russia expert and writer combine to beam light on the depths of Moscow’s underworld’
THE SUN

Moscow, 1934. When a body is discovered during the construction of the glittering new Moscow subway, Investigator Anton Belkin wants nothing to do with the case. It will mean asking difficult questions of all the wrong people, and Anton has a very personal reason to keep his head down. But he has not reckoned with Vika, his former lover and now influential member of the secret police, who is adamant Anton is the best man for the job.

Buried in the tunnels beneath the capital is a dangerous secret, but one entangled in a sticky web of political and personal rivalries, deceptions and betrayals. Soon Anton must choose between his conscience and saving those he loves from the vengeful grip of the Soviet state.

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‘Both a brilliant thriller and a historical record of the ambition, terror and deviousness of that black era in Russian history’ Gareth Rubin, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Turnglass

Publisher Review

‘Gripping, moving and fascinating. A heartbreaking and passionate novel of the cruelty and fragility of love, death and life in Stalinist Russia by a great storyteller who also happens to be an outstanding historian. I loved it’ Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of the Moscow Trilogy

‘Both a brilliant thriller and a historical record of the ambition, terror and deviousness of that black era in Russian history’ Gareth Rubin, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Turnglass

‘Catherine Merridale brings to her thriller about a Moscow ripped up by builders and Stalinism not only the requisite skills of a thriller writer, but an exceptional credibility, as a historian with unparalleled knowledge of the times and the city’ Donald Rayfield, Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian, Queen Mary University of London

‘Moscows subway system was built to transform an old imperial capital into a modern Soviet metropolis but digging deep in the very heart of an empire can unleash the fates. Moscow Underground excavates the very foundation of the Russian state, a daring journey to the origins of Stalinism, all the more timely because in contemporary Russia the figure of Stalin is making an ominous comeback’ Sergei Lebedev, author of The Lady of The Mine

‘An enlightening historical thriller that brings Stalin’s USSR vividly to life’ Charlie English, author of The CIA Book Club