Reason read: BAC, Welsh writer
This is a story of espionage that is just prior to WWI.
The story involves an attempt to forge alliance with Russia because of Germany's arm escalation and movement towards attacking France. Feliks is an anarchist and an assassin with the intent to assassinate the Russian prince that has come to negotiate with England against Germany.
The story was interesting and engaging. ( )

This is the second Ken Follett book I have read and I did not care for the writing in either book. This is a story about a privileged, upper class English family and a tangled web of deceit, from the past to the present; which culminates in a fatal encounter with the protagonist, a Russian anarchist.

Lydia's family is part of the Russian nobility. As a young woman she has a wild streak, falling in love with an anarchist, Feliks. Her maid tells her father and her father has Feliks arrested. He then tells Lydia she will marry a man from the British aristocracy who has just asked for her hand. If she does so, he will have Feliks freed from prison (and being tortured). Lydia immediately complies and is whisked off to England where she begins her life as wife of a Lord. We meet up with the family during a time of high political drama and turmoil. Lord and Lady Walden have a high spirited 18 year old daughter, Charlotte who is also very beautiful and just "coming out". For me, Charlotte is the highlight of the novel. She is extremely naive, having been very sheltered growing up. She and a friend are just starting to discover some of the "facts of life" and they are very eye opening to Charlotte. She is of a liberal nature, which flies directly in the face of her father; a staunch conservative. She starts to explore suffragette meetings and marches and her family is absolutely horrified when they discover this. During the scuffle at such a march, a stranger saves Charlotte, who has gotten caught in the melee and is being beaten up. As she sits with the stranger to recover a little, and enters into conversation with him, she finds him fascinating. She finds his views and his conversation fascinating. She is drawn to him, though not in a romantic way and can see he feels the same. They arrange to meet again. Coincidentally, this man is Feliks, the anarchist. Lo and behold, the same anarchist her mother had an affair with just over 18 years ago! Felix has come to England to assassinate Lydia's Russian cousin, Prince Orlov, who is visiting the Waldens.

As events unfold, past secrets start to come to the surface, as they tend to do. Secrets Lydia had hoped and assumed would remain buried forever. It becomes evident that this story will end in tragedy and we must follow the train wreck through to its end, to discover when and how it crashes and who will survive.

The story has some entertaining and interesting parts. There are some historical details weaved into it. Most of the characters are not developed to the point where you can empathize with them, there is not enough time spent on them and alot of going back and forth. It seems like it's designed to have you sympathize with the anarchist, but that's just not possible given his lack of value of human life and the number of murders he's committed. Shallow would be the best description of both the story and the characters. The writing is probably average at best. Certainly not the all encompassing good writing you can lose yourself in. But that being said, it is still entertaining. I would usually far prefer a book to a movie, but in this case it probably makes a better movie that a book. It has that kind of a feel. ( )

Historical fiction at its finest. Do you root for the assassin or not? Of course not, but what a conundrum while reading this novel. All the characters are well written, time frame well researched. Just a great book you will not want to put down once you start reading. ( )

Romance

First edition good