William Ryan

This title introduces Captain Alexei Dimitrevich Korolev, and an outstanding new voice in historical crime fiction...It's Moscow, 1936 and Stalin's Great Terror is beginning. In a deconsecrated Church, a young woman is found dead, her mutilated body displayed on the altar for all to see. Captain Alexei Dimitrevich Korolev of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Militia is asked to investigate. But when he discovers that the victim is an American citizen, the NKVD - the most feared organisation in Russia - becomes involved. As more bodies are discovered and the pressure from above builds, Korolev begins to question who he can trust; and who, in this Russia where fear, uncertainty and hunger prevails, are the real criminals. Soon, Korolev will find not only his moral and political ideals threatened, but also his life...

En una iglesia desacralizada, el cuerpo de una joven sin vida es hallado en el altar. El caso es asignado al capitán Alexei Dimitrevich Korolev -que por fin empieza a saborear los beneficios de su éxito en la División de investigación criminal de Moscú-. Tras descubrir que la víctima es una ciudadana norteamericana, el NKVD -la organización más temida en Rusia- decide dirigir las indagaciones. A partir de es momento, Korolev es seguido bajo un férreo escrutinio. Sabe que cualquier movimiento en falso podría significar su exilio forzoso a las gélidas tierras siberianas, el lugar al que los enemigos de la Unión soviética, tanto reales como imaginados, son desterrados. A pesar de ello, Korolev no cesa en el empeño de descubrir al culpable, entrando en contacto con los cabecillas de los bajos fondos moscovitas. A medida que se suceden otros asesinatos, Korolev siente una creciente presión por parte de sus superiores y se cuestiona en quién puede confiar. Se pregunta quién, en esta Rusia en la que reina el miedo, la incertidumbre y el hambre, se halla detrás de los crímenes. Korolev ve entonces peligrar, no sólo sus ideales morales y políticos, si no también su propia vida.

«Un argumento perfectamente tramado y muy bien escrito; además recrea convincentemente la paranoia que se vivía en la Rusia estalinista.» The Literary Review Después de su investigación en Réquiem r

Following his investigations in The Holy Thief, which implicated those at the very top of authority in Soviet Russia, Captain Alexei Korolev finds himself decorated and hailed as an example to all Soviet workers. But Korolev lives in an uneasy peace his new-found knowledge is dangerous, and if it is discovered what his real actions were during the case, he will face deportation to the frozen camps of the far north. But when the knock on the door comes, in the dead of night, it is not Siberia Korolev is destined for. Instead, Colonel Rodinov of the NKVD security service asks the detective to look into the suspected suicide of a young woman: Maria Alexandovna Lenskaya, a model citizen. Korolev is unnerved to learn that Lenskaya had been of interest to Ezhov, the feared Commissar for State Security. Ezhov himself wants to matter looked into. And when the detective arrives on the set for Bloody Meadow, in the bleak, battle-scarred Ukraine, he soon discovers that there is more to Lenskaya's death than meets the eye ...

Set near the concentration camps of Auschwitz, an accaimed historical thriller of the end of World War II that has been called A masterpiece of empathetic imagination and storytelling flair (BBC History Magazine, Historical Novel of the Year) 1944. Paul Brandt, a soldier in the German army, returns wounded and ashamed from the bloody chaos of the Eastern Front to find his village changed and in the dark shadow of an SS rest huta luxurious retreat for officers recuperating from their injuries and for those who manage the nearby concentration camps of Auschwitz. The hut is run with the help of a small group of female prisoners from the camps who, against all odds, have survived the war so far. When, by chance, Brandt glimpses one of these prisoners, he realizes he must find a way to access the hut. For inside is the woman to whom his fate has been tied since their arrest five years earlier, and now he must do all he can to protect her. As the Russian offensive moves closer and partisans press from the surrounding woodlands, the days of this rest hut and its SS inhabitants are numbered. And while hope for Brandt and the female prisoners grows tantalizingly close, the danger is greater than ever. In a forest to the east, a young female Soviet tank driver awaits her orders to advance . . .The Constant Soldier has been hailed as a masterpiece and a modern classic and praised on its UK publication as An extraordinary novel, with the intensity and pace of a thriller and a wisdom and subtlety all of its own. I was gripped to the very last page (Antonia Hodgson).

El capitán Alexei Korolev regresa.«Un argumento perfectamente tramado y muy bien escrito; además recrea convincentemente la paranoia que se vivía en la Rusia estalinista.»The Literary ReviewDespués d

Moscú, 1936. Durante la época del Gran Terror sembrado por Stalin, una mujer aparece asesinada en el altar de una Iglesia. Este será el punto de partida de la investigación que llevará a cabo el capitan Alexei Korolev.En una iglesia desacralizada, el cuerpo de una joven sin vida es hallado en el altar. El caso es asignado al capitan Alexei Dimitrevich Korolev -que por fin empieza a saborear los beneficios de su exito en la Division de investigacion criminal de Moscu-.Tras descubrir que la victima es una ciudadana norteamericana, el NKVD -la organizacion mas temida en Rusia- decide dirigir las indagaciones. A partir de ese momento, Korolev es seguido bajo un ferreo escrutinio. Sabe que cualquier movimiento en falso podria significar su exilio forzoso a las gelidas tierras siberianas, el lugar al que los enemigos de la Union sovietica, tanto reales como imaginados, son desterrados. A pesar de ello, Korolev no cesa en el empeño de descubrir al culpable, entrando en contacto con los cabecillas de los bajos fondos moscovitas.A medida que se suceden otros asesinatos, Korolev siente una creciente presion por parte de sus superiores y se cuestiona en quien puede confiar. Se pregunta quien, en esta Rusia en la que reina el miedo, la incertidumbre y el hambre, se halla detras de los crimenes. Korolev ve entonces peligrar, no solo sus ideales morales y politicos, si no tambien su propia vida.

« Ryan ressuscite le monde de la pègre, de la police politique et du crime sous Staline : un tour de force ! » Midi LibreLe livre : 1936, début de la terreur stalinienne. Le cadavre mutilé d’une jeun

« À la fois brillant et populaire : une fascinante étude de la société et du cinéma russes ! » Bruxelles NewsLe livre : Après sa dernière enquête en 1936, l’inspecteur Korolev est décoré et donné en

The classic work that refutes the lies we tell ourselves about race, poverty and the poor.Here are three myths about poverty in America: Minority children perform poorly in school because they are culturally deprived. African-Americans are handicapped by a family structure that is typically unstable and matriarchal. Poor people suffer from bad health because of ignorance and lack of interest in proper health care.Blaming the Victim was the first book to identify these truisms as part of the system of denial that even the best-intentioned Americans have constructed around the unpalatable realities of race and class. Originally published in 1970, William Ryans groundbreaking and exhaustively researched work challenges both liberal and conservative assumptions, serving up a devastating critique of the mindset that causes us to blame the poor for their poverty and the powerless for their powerlessness. More than twenty years later, it is even more meaningful for its diagnosis of the psychic underpinnings of racial and social injustice.