Moskva

Book excerpt: Red Square, 1985. The naked body of a young man is left outside the walls of the Kremlin, frozen solid—like marble to the touch—missing the little finger from his right hand. A week later, Alex Marston, the headstrong fifteen-year-old daughter of the British Ambassador, disappears. Army Intelligence Officer Tom Fox, posted to Moscow to keep him from telling the truth to a government committee, is asked to help find her. It’s a shot at redemption. But Russia is reluctant to give up the worst of her secrets. As Fox’s investigation sees him dragged deeper towards the dark heart of a Soviet establishment determined to protect its own, his fears for Alex’s safety grow with those of the girl’s father. And if Fox can’t find her soon, she looks likely to become the next victim of a sadistic killer whose story is bound tight to that of his country’s terrible past... Moskva is a brilliantly written, chilling and sophisticated the first serial killer thriller by two-time BSFA winner Jon Courtenay Grimwood.