Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 4/23/2015 + 1175 more book reviews

I received this as a Kindle e-book as part of the Amazon Prime program. It was an unusual mystery about a young girl (Nadia Tesla) in the Ukrainian community in Hartford, Connecticut, who was kidnapped at the start of the novel by a former acquaintance who is trying to find out what she knows about her godfather's business. The godfather had died in an apparent accident but Nadia thinks he has been murdered. The novel switches back and forth between what Nadia is doing in the present to solve the murder and an episode in her youth where she was put through a 3-day test to win a survival badge. Along the way, a lot of Ukrainian history is found to be connected to the godfather's death. This is mostly about what happened after WWII when many Ukrainians were liberated from Nazi concentration camps and were known as displaced persons (DPs). The Soviets were trying to repatriate the DPs and send them back to the Ukraine but most were considered enemies of the state and were executed when they returned. The parts of the novel dealing with this history were very fascinating and educational especially in light of the current situation in the Ukraine. Overall, I would recommend this one. It is actually prequel to a series of books about Nadia Tesla which I may also seek out.

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