A review by travvyt
The Holy Thief by William Ryan

4.0

In general, I enjoy novels about Soviet-era Russia - books like Gorky Park, Child 44, etc. which is what originally lead me to this novel. I felt this novel was very well done with strong, well-rounded main characters. What I found different (and very interesting) was Korolev's general attitude towards the State apparatus. In other novels of this era, the characters all seem to be moral upstanding men who are stuck in a bad position because of the Communist leaders and try to make the best of it - but most of them seem to secretly hate the State. Korolev (at least for most of the novel) isn't like that. He sees things for what they are, he is moral and has is own code, but he also has an almost child-like faith in the State and in Stalin that things are only this way because the revolution hasn't finished. That they all need to just bare with it and things will soon be paradise on Earth. Overall, I enjoyed the murder mystery aspect and watching Korolev investigate an ever-widening conspiracy. Very entertaining read - I will be reading more books by William Ryan.