Sam Eastland
Sam Eastland is a pseudonym for American author Paul Watkins, who'd finished a book set in Stalinist Russia in the thirties only to learn his publishers would prefer it to appear as a series rather than a single title. Presumably the pseudonym is meant to separate the Inspector Pekkala series from his other work.
Based on the strength of Eye of the Red Tsar, I'll be chasing down the other titles in the series, and if his Stalinist Russia is this good his work under his own name would appear to be worth investigating.
Read:
Eye of the Red Tsar (2010), where former Emerald Eye investigator for the last of the Romanov Tsars is released from a Siberian gulag to investigate the true circumstances surrounding the deaths of Tsar Alexander and his family in Yekaterinburg. The quest reunites the Finnish-born detective with his long-lost brother, who's ended up on the other side of the Russian Revolution and brings in chef turned political commissar Lieutenant Kirov who looks to be the sort of foil for the main character who'll make things work very nicely thankyou.
Investigate availability of:
The Red Coffin (2011) also known as Shadow Pass
Siberian Red (2012) also known as Archive 17
As Paul Watkins:
Night Over Day Over Night (1988)
Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn (1989)
In the Blue Light of African Dreams (1990)
The Promise of Light (1992)
Archangel (1995)
The Story of my Disappearance (1997)
The Forger (2000)
Thunder God (2004)
The Ice Soldier (2005)
