I’ve always felt a certain pull towards Russian literature and culture, there’s something unique about those stories, an inherent melancholy, a collective personality and of course the colorful and vast descriptions. In these beautiful readings I learnt a little bit about the royal family and the unfortunate last Romanovs, I must confess that I got kind of angry reading about how Nicolas and Alexandra were more worried about their family life than about ruling a country.
Anyway, all this rambling is to explain how one day I realized I had a novel in my laptop I didn’t remember existed, a thriller of sorts, that even though written by an American it’s called the Romanov Prophecy. So you probably I had to read it ASAP.
Our main character is an Afro-American lawyer, whose task is to investigate the royal family history in the official archives, weird, right? Well, not so much when the critical situation of the country led to the instauration of a commission to elect a new Tsar, and of course American investors want to secure their position and, therefore, their candidate, and here is where Miles Lord came into scene. Everything seems to go ok, when one day Miles is chased by some armed men for some unknown reason, besides his skin color of course.
Later on we discovered some interesting letters telling that perhaps there were survivors to the killing of Yekaterinburg; all those stories about Anastasia and Alexis may be true, but of course a legitimate heir won’t serve to the interests on investors, mafia, politicians and all the people that want to elect a puppet Tsar.
The persecutions grow more aggressive as Miles gets closer to the truth and possibly, to the descendants of Nicolas. This journey will take him from the harsh lands of Siberia to the rocky mountains of North Carolina, discovering new clues and enemies among the way.
So , should you read it?!
What I found interesting is the time structure, jumping between Miles’ perspective and flashes to the last days of the Romanov, always in the right moment to explain the next movement or clue. It also got my attention the way the present Rasputin, even though almost everyone takes him for an opportunist, his prophecies are taken seriously even to the point of risking life for the hope of a brighter future. Also, the personalities of Alexandra and some of the guards are accurate if we compare it with the real letters that were later found.
There’s also a coveted criticism towards the xenophobia, specially being the protagonist a black man, on the other side, the critics of communism are completely frontal and frequent, the author want you to know how it destroyed the country.
Although the plot isn’t particularly surprising, it has the charm of a good thriller and I’ve been looking for a while of an alternative ending to the Romanov massacre. I hope you like it as well.