Why a Booktrail?
2000s: The daughter of a Swedish millionaire, has gone missing in St Petersburg
Motherland
What you need to know before your trail
Student Zena Dahl, the daughter of a Swedish millionaire, has gone missing in St Petersburg after a night out with a friend. The wealthy family are putting the force under pressure to get quick results. But Captain Natalya Ivanova discovers that the case is not as straightforward as it may seem. Dark, violent and insightful, Motherland twists and turns to a satisfyingly dramatic conclusion.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Travel BookTrail style to St Petersburg with Captain Natalya Ivanova
Present day St. Petersburg, Russia.
This is a novel , a thriller about the darkest corners of Russia, the city of St Petersburg and the cloud of corruption which covers the entire country. This is a country where, in the novel, everywhere is bleak and grey. The air is laced with fear and uncertainty – the FSB (the Federal Security Service) are there, constantly, in the background. This secret organisation is the modern day KGB. They watch, they know…their eyes and ears miss nothing. This adds more than a sense of creepy suspense to the novel throughout.
There are also lots of little insights into life in the city and in Russian in general. Bribing officials is commonplace. Getting a place in a queue at a government office, a place at college…everything depends on a bribe. Life is not free for anyone and for those young and healthy enough to be in the army, off they have to go.
The standards and ways of doing things in the police force are also very different to what we have in the West, and that’s another detail that makes this so interesting. St Petersburg is a dark yet utterly fascinating place to be in Motherland.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Motherland
Destination: St Petersburg Author/guide: G D Absom Departure Time: 2000s
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
