Download Shadow Pass (Inspector Pekkala, #2) Curated By Sam Eastland Provided As Audio Books

up being disappointed by this book, Enjoyed the first, sitelinkEye of the Red Tsar, much more, The flashbacks that provide history and perspective were fewer and not as interesting they seemed almost contrived to fit the circumstances, I still like Inspector Pekkala and will read the next book about him, but will be looking for more character development about Pekkala, his assistant Kirov, and his relationship to Stalin.
Stalin was an imposing historical figure, but in this book he seems like cardboard, onlydimensional, Pekkala seemed less confident about his status and investigative authority in this story, There is more buildup of Lysenkova in the plot summary than there is about the character in the story, Her involvement remains somewhat of a mystery and definitely a distraction to the main plot, Will she keep her job and appear in a later novel, or simply disappear Look forward to another outing with Pekkala, a character reminiscent of Smith's moody detective, Arkady Renko, still quintessentially Russian.
An excellent book, very well read,
Mainly set inwhen Pekkala is working for Stalin, it flashes back to his time as special investigator for the Tsar, and his time in a Gulag Sam Eastland is the new Martin Cruz Smith.
A Soviet Unionbased detective picks at the bones of tough crimes while himself teetering on the edge of the political abyss,

The Red Coffin follows on nicely from Eastland's debut, Eye of the Red Tsar, and although not as intricately created as Smith's Renko novels at times, the author's passion for the history of his setting is impressive.
Deep in the Russian countryside, a thirtyton killing machine known officially as Tis being developed in total secrecy, Its inventor is a rogue genius whose macabre death is considered an accident only by the innocent, Suspecting assassins everywhere, Stalin brings in his bestif least obedientdetective to solve a murder thats tantamount to treason, Answerable to no one, Inspector Pekkala has the dictators permission to go anywhere and interrogate anyone, But the closer Pekkala gets to answers, the more questions he uncoversfirst and foremost, why is the states most dreaded female operative, Commissar Major Lysenkova, investigating the case when shes only assigned to internal affairs

In the shadows of one of historys most notorious regimes, Pekkala is on a collision course with not only the Soviet secret police but the USSRs deadliest military secrets.
For what hes about to unearth could put Stalin and his Communist state under for goodand bury Pekkala with them, The Red Coffin is Sam Eastland's second in the Inspector Pekkala series, It was very strong on character Stalin himself makes an appearance or two but less so on plot, Irritatingly there were numerous flash backs which slowed the pace of the novel a little,

Nevertheless Pekkala is a fascinating character and I shall resume reading the series in due course,


David Lowther, Author of The Blue Pencil, Two Families at War, Liberating Belsen and The Summer of 'When I find a book that I can't put down or look forward to finishing it is worthto me.
This book kept me interested and involved in the story, The detective story was well written and I didn't ever feel the need to skip a few pages to get to the end as I have done in other stories.
I also learned a bit about life in Russia during Stalin,

I really did enjoy this book, I think that the author did a well job with the story and having its readers take an interest in the characters, I can't wait to read more of his book, For a long time, I wasn't really sure which way to go on this one,

Was it long and dull and miserable, with not an awful lot of any consequence happening after the initial, interesting setup

Or was it a slowburning, languid, subtle study of a police investigation in late ''s Russia A Russia still remembering and indeed revering the rule of the Tsars, whilst feeling its way forward into the true terror of the workers paradise Stalin had in store.
A story where all that goes before the final third, builds quite

nicely, everything falling into place, making sense and almost excusing the rather misleading cover blurb.


In the end, I think the latter has won out, But with a hefty dose of the former,

So, as the cover blurb has it

"A secret weapon, A suspicious death. A world on the edge of war, "

Yes, that's all true, But if you're looking for a fastmoving, thrilling, tense wartime novel, look elsewhere, After the setup and before the final conclusion in the forests on the Russia/Poland border, the story sags tremendously, gets lost in morbid reminiscences and descriptions of Russian life at the ourtbreak of WWII and generally moves at a snail's pace.


The saving grace is, that if you give up expecting it to be what it isn't, a fastpaced WWII espionage thriller, it actually works quite well.
The languid descriptions of Inspector Pekkala's life under Stalin and his previous life working closely with the last Tsar, Tsarina and Rasputin, are actually very interesting.
Though it must be something of a cliche, that Russians are always morose, But life at that time was bleak and Sam Eastland captures the feeling of hoplessnes and nothing to look forward to except possible impending doom, quite effectively.
The snail's pace actually turns out to be a considered and reflective examination of the old and 'new' Russia and generally makes you very glad you weren't around at the time.
Or if you were around at that time, that you weren't unfortunate enough to be around in Russia, And especially not around Stalin,

I've got to admit that in reading 'The Red Coffin', I didn't recognise the novel all the quoted reviewers seem to have read, Maybe they're describing what seems to be the other, the first Inspector Pekkala story But I did finally think I enjoyed this one, and will look out for the first, 'Eye Of The Red Tsar', going cheap in my local bookstore, as this one was.
I love the Inspector Pekkala book series, and Shadow Pass is no exception, Inspector Pekkala is so charming and engaging, he's one of my favorite characters of all time any reader will fall in love with him and his interactions with his assistant and other characters in the books.
I thought this was a great mystery from beginning to end, can't wait to read Archive, I enjoyed this despite a relative lack of pace and a sequence of flashbacks that, although interesting, didnt further the plot, But I loved the setting and the main character so Ill definitely read more of the series, The first one looks really good,with Stalin trying to delay war and not give Hitler any provocation, Pekkala is sent to Protect the new tank being developed, and whose originator is killed on the day he arrives.
A twisting plot with some flashbacks to Pekkalas earlier life working for the Tsar, We begin our story about a decade past from the prior book in, which came as a bit of a surprise as I thought wed have a story or two set within the periodwhen Stalin purged the Army amongst many other things.
My immediate thought was weve missed a trick here skipping so many years!

As to our story, its a fast engaging start to the book.
Inspector Pekkala is front amp centre along with a “victim” amp the many protagonists/colleagues involved with said murder, Its not much to give away that the story revolves around the design of the Ttank, hence the book title of the “Red Coffin” which was their nickname, the explanation as to why is given early on.
The NKVD Soviet secret police are involved amp Joe Stalin has a bit part too, to great effect too, with some of his mannerisms amp obvious threat over those that surround him, with a fair hint of paranoia to his character.
In some ways hes quite a good foil to Inspector Pekkala amp I hope we see more of this develop in the series as it has with the Tsar.


Talking of the Tsar, . the short flashback chapters used to flesh out Pekkalas backstory in his days with the Tsar are again utilised to great effect as that part of the story holds as much interest for this reader as the present day.


As to the mystery its really no great shakes but does hold the interest, again the soviet machinations are present without any real detail or depth.
Its a fairly quick read amp not too taxing amp i found myself wanting to read longer into the night with it which is always a good sign.


A.for me with the round upto aamp a series Ill continue forward with, This is an interesting read even if the main character is implausible, The chief engineer in charge of developing the Ttank is killed and it is up to Inspector Pekkala to investigate both the death and security at the research base.
The story flows easily though it is interrupted by reminiscences which I failed to see the point of it actually feels like the story is being padded here.
Stalin is presented a a very nice fatherly figure as if! and there is little if any of the neurotic quality of Stalinist Russia in evidence.
I was also disappointed that very little of the background story is based on fact it is a genuine work of fiction into which the words "Stalin".
"T" and a few city names have been inserted, I feel like the character Pekkala changed from the first novel to this one, I'm not quite sure I like him as much anymore, As is so often the case with sequels, the author seemed unable to keep up the quality in the second story, I may pick up the third one if I happen to come across it when I have little else to be reading, but I won't seek it out as I did this one.
VuonnaEurooppa on uuden maailmanpalon partaalla, Stalinin rautaisessa otteessaan pitämä Neuvostoliitto ei ole vielä valmis sotaan, ja niinpä uuden Tpanssarivaunun pääinsinöörin murha herättääkin erityistä kiinnostusta Kremlissä.
Tapausta lähetetään tutkimaan suomalaissyntyinen tarkastaja Pekkala, jolla on kokemusta niin Nikolai II:n palvelemisesta kuin Siperian vankileireiltäkin,

Sam Eastlandin kirjoittama "Punaarkku" Schildts,lienee tullut käännetyksi juuri Suomikytkentänsä takia, Syystä tai toisesta työ on kuitenkin aloitettu Tarkastaja Pekkala sarjan toisesta osasta, mistä ei nyt suurempaa haittaa kirjan lukemisen kannalta ole, sen verran hyvin päähenkilön elämänvaiheita taustoitetaan muun muassa erilaisin takaumin, joissa törmätään muun muassa munkki Rasputiniin ja muihin tsaari Nikolain aikaisiin silmäätekeviin.


Meikäläisestä näkökulmasta Pekkala onkin kohtalaisen kiinnostava päähenkilö, joka ilmaisee teoksessa suomalaisuuttaan muun muassa lueskelemalla Kalevalaa ja kiroilemalla äidinkielellään.
Lienee sitten toinen juttu, voidaanko moista pitää erityisen uskottavana tuntuu nimittäin aika epätodennäköiseltä että Stalin ottaisi tsaarin suomalaissyntyisen luottomiehen lähipiirinsä,

Stalinin aikakauden Neuvostoliitto tarjoaa kiinnostavan miljöön sinänsä melko simppelille murhamysteerille, Eastland käyttääkin sivuja terrorin, ilmiantojen ja Siperiankarkoitusten kyllästämän ilmapiirin kuvaamiseen, Jonkinlaista mustaa huumoriakin aiheesta saadaan irti,

Kuului kalinaa kun Stalin laski kuulokkeen ja tarttui toiseen puhelimeen, "Ottakaa puheli majuri Derevjankolle Kiovaan", hän määräsi, "Miksi ei Milloinka Oletteko varma Minä vai" Stalin löi puhelimen kiinni, Sitten hän palasi taas langalle Pekkalan kanssa, "Derevjanko onkin likvidoitu. Poikkeavan sodankäynnin joukkoosasto lakkautettiin", s.

Lukukokemuksena "Punaarkku" jää unohdettavaksi, mutta kuitenkin ihan viihdyttäväksi välipalaksi, Luulisin, että kirja voisi kiinnostaa esimerkiksi kaikkia sitelinkTom Rob Smithin Leo Davidov romaaneista pitäneitä dekkarien ja jännityskirjallisuuden ystäviä, .