The Butcher of Leningrad thriller
Tom Hunter
The Butcher of Leningrad captures one of the most honest looks from inside Russia to appear in a thriller in decades. Following three major characters—American journalist Jack Land, Russian mobster Vladimir Szlotov, and eight year old Galina Yosheva, The Butcher of Leningrad brings their lives together in a deadly series of intersecting events, including murder, organ harvesting, cannibalism and a war within the Russian mob. The underlying theme is the lack of care Russians have given their young. Horror stories have abounded in the world press of the Dickensian conditions of Russian orphanages—filled with one million unwanted children. And as of April 15, 2010, Russia has halted all adoptions to the U.S.
When American journalist Jack Land sees the frozen corpses of homeless children being carelessly pulled from a manhole cover by a city worker, he decides to investigate. Did they freeze to death in the brutal St. Petersburg winter? Starve? Jack jumps on the story that may lead to his dream job as a foreign correspondent for a major U.S. newspaper. But Jack’s All-American naïveté will lead him down a very dangerous path…
Galina Yosheva is sold by her grandmother to a man in St. Petersburg who treats her like a slave. Running away as soon as she gets the chance, the little Siberian girl falls in with the bands of homeless children living in the sewers, getting a fast education in stealing food and avoiding the body snatchers. Galina becomes the subject of Jack’s article, where he accuses the Russian Mafia of killing her. But Galina is alive, always just one step ahead of a certain death.
Mafioso Vladimir Szlotov, the number three man in St. Petersburg’s Tambov Syndicate, has vowed not to end up like his father, a butcher worked to an early death during the Soviet era when the city was called Leningrad. Szlotov, a co-founder of the Tambovs with the dangerously demented Dmitri Zortaev and his lazy second in command, Pavel Druzhnev, controls the poorest territory in the city. Jack’s article has put terrible heat on Szlotov, who now must double the tribute he pays to Zortaev each month. There is only one solution—Zortaev must die; Druzhnev as well. As he plots their assassinations, an idea comes to Szlotov…an idea so horrific that St. Petersburg will never be the same once his plan is put into operation.
The Butcher of Leningrad will take readers into the deep, dark recesses of a Russia still struggling to come to terms with life in the post-Soviet era. Shining a bright light into the crevices of a civilized nation pushed to the brink, The Butcher of Leningrad is not only a page-turning read, but an intense look into the heart of the people of Russia, from the kids casually thrown away by their parents to the very worst criminals—all struggling to survive. I found myself rooting for Vladimir Szlotov as well as for Jack and Galina—all are caught in circumstances beyond their control with only two ways out—life or death.
Tom Hunter is not the bland American pseudonym for a Russian writer, but an American software engineer who worked as a journalist in Russia and lived in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where he was the only English-speaker in his apartment building. He now lives in Indianapolis. He loves Russia and her people, but he’s as American as baseball and apple pie. The Butcher of Leningrad is his first novel.
When American journalist Jack Land sees the frozen corpses of homeless children being carelessly pulled from a manhole cover by a city worker, he decides to investigate. Did they freeze to death in the brutal St. Petersburg winter? Starve? Jack jumps on the story that may lead to his dream job as a foreign correspondent for a major U.S. newspaper. But Jack’s All-American naïveté will lead him down a very dangerous path…
Galina Yosheva is sold by her grandmother to a man in St. Petersburg who treats her like a slave. Running away as soon as she gets the chance, the little Siberian girl falls in with the bands of homeless children living in the sewers, getting a fast education in stealing food and avoiding the body snatchers. Galina becomes the subject of Jack’s article, where he accuses the Russian Mafia of killing her. But Galina is alive, always just one step ahead of a certain death.
Mafioso Vladimir Szlotov, the number three man in St. Petersburg’s Tambov Syndicate, has vowed not to end up like his father, a butcher worked to an early death during the Soviet era when the city was called Leningrad. Szlotov, a co-founder of the Tambovs with the dangerously demented Dmitri Zortaev and his lazy second in command, Pavel Druzhnev, controls the poorest territory in the city. Jack’s article has put terrible heat on Szlotov, who now must double the tribute he pays to Zortaev each month. There is only one solution—Zortaev must die; Druzhnev as well. As he plots their assassinations, an idea comes to Szlotov…an idea so horrific that St. Petersburg will never be the same once his plan is put into operation.
The Butcher of Leningrad will take readers into the deep, dark recesses of a Russia still struggling to come to terms with life in the post-Soviet era. Shining a bright light into the crevices of a civilized nation pushed to the brink, The Butcher of Leningrad is not only a page-turning read, but an intense look into the heart of the people of Russia, from the kids casually thrown away by their parents to the very worst criminals—all struggling to survive. I found myself rooting for Vladimir Szlotov as well as for Jack and Galina—all are caught in circumstances beyond their control with only two ways out—life or death.
Tom Hunter is not the bland American pseudonym for a Russian writer, but an American software engineer who worked as a journalist in Russia and lived in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where he was the only English-speaker in his apartment building. He now lives in Indianapolis. He loves Russia and her people, but he’s as American as baseball and apple pie. The Butcher of Leningrad is his first novel.
