Robert Littell’s novel about the Russian vory reads like he’s done that and been there. But at its heart, it’s a love story.
The novel takes place during the Great Turf War after the break-up of the Soviet Union. In a lawless Moscow, the vory provide order by protecting the interests of those who pay.
The characters are well developed. The relationships are powerful. The exposé of prison tats is fascinating. The nods to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliete are amusing.
A brand-new novel from New York Times bestselling author Robert Littell, A Plague on Both Your Houses is a thrilling tale of love and war.
On Christmas Day, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev delivered a ten-minute televised speech announcing his resignation as Soviet president. Moments later, with little pomp and less circumstance, the red flag was lowered from its floodlit perch atop the Kremlin, and the Soviet Union ceases to exist.
Into the vacuum—before a new democracy has time to put down roots—surged the Russian mafia, supplying what the new state could not: krysha, or “roof”—protection for the privately owned businesses sprouting…
Mark Galeotti takes us into Russia’s criminal underworld, the vory. He explains the early origins, the gulag system where it evolved, and how it stabilizes Russian businesses even today.
He includes tremendous detail and stories from people with insider information. He even talks about the cultural norms of the organization and how they’ve changed in modern times. Who knew?
If you want to learn more about Russian crime syndicates, read the book. You’ll enjoy it.
The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia's much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone
Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the world. Now, Western readers can explore the fascinating history of the vory v zakone, a group that has survived and thrived amid the changes brought on by Stalinism, the Cold War, the Afghan War, and the end of the Soviet experiment.
The vory-as the Russian mafia is also known-was born early in the twentieth century, largely in the Gulags…
This is a series of nine spy novels involving the CIA and Russia. The books are complex and well-crafted.
The characters are memorable, although their actions can be predictable. There’s a lot of sex. The bad guys are very bad. The good guys do bad things for good reason.
Saul Herzog made me cringe—in a good way. A manipulative woman undergoes plastic surgery to look like a man’s dead fiancée. A leader in the Russian intelligence organization is a physical and mental creep-fest. Saul conjures up a meal I’d never want to eat.
If you like espionage thrillers, you’ll love the Lance Spector series.
Montana, USA When Lance Spector quit the CIA, he swore he was out for good. One more government lie and he would go off the deep end. They could find someone else to do their dirty work. As far as he was concerned, Washington, Langley, the Pentagon could all go to hell.
Yekaterinburg, Russia A secret Russian expedition returns with a devastating new pathogen, harvested from the frozen corpses of mammoths. It's the biological super-weapon they've been looking for, an apocalypse-level pathogen, a virus more deadly than anything ever to come from a Russian lab. Something that will stop NATO…
Investigative reporter Vit Partenkas receives a tip that could mean the end of the current president of Russia, a woman who rules with an iron fist. Destroying her would save his home in Eastern Europe from possible invasion and give Vit the acclaim he has always wanted. But at what cost?
Soon, Vit is running for his life. He's desperate to do something, but how can he survive when his opponent commands an army of secret agents?
He turns to the only organization that can help: the CIA, and a man he doesn't quite trust . . .
