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Summary
Author Notes
Author Glenn Meade has written "Snow Wolf," a book about the Cold War and the CIA's plan to assassinate Joseph Stalin, and "Brandenburg," a story about the taking over of Germany by a neo-Nazi group led by Hitler's son.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this big-boned thriller, Meade makes his contribution to the distinguished number of first thrillers premised on the attempted assassination of a world leader (e.g., Day of the Jackal; The Eagle Has Landed) by imagining a CIA hit man targeting Josef Stalin. The main action, set in 1953, surges within a present-day frame in which Washington Post journalist William Massey tries to discover why his father, Jake, ended up in a Moscow grave more than 40 years ago. Eventually, Jake encounters Anna Khorev, the lone survivor of Operation Snow Wolf, who narrates the third-person flashback that forms most of the novel. In 1953, the U.S. government, fearful that Stalin is about to develop and use the hydrogen bomb, decides to eliminate him. The operation, headed by Jake, recruits Alex Slanski, aka Wolf, to do the deed, and Anna, who recently has escaped from a Soviet gulag, to be his guide. Though slow to build, the suspense hits overdrive when Alex and Anna parachute into Estonia, only to be hunted in turn by Major Yuri Lukin of the KGB. Meade writes with a silken pen, inking unusually sympathetic leads (though not wholly original ones; the blond Slanski, with his "cold blue eyes," clearly owes a debt to Forsyth's Jackal). Vivid cameos of historical figures, including Eisenhower, Truman, Beria and Stalin, lend credence to the story, which, according to the author, includes events of "documented history." The Cold War may be on ice, but through this literate, memorable story, Meade shows that it can still freeze readers' attention and chill their blood. Major ad/promo; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection; author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
While doubts have persisted down through the years as to the exact circumstances of Joseph Stalin's 1953 death, ex-journalist Meade fictionally clears up the mysteries in a deft, dramatic cliffhanger. Before Eisenhower takes office as president, he's briefed on the dismaying possibility that the increasingly unstable tyrant who rules the USSR could be preparing a thermonuclear assault on America. Convinced that the risk is real, Ike authorizes the CIA to make a preemptive strike against Stalin. The agency's chosen instruments are Alex Slanski, a Russian-born OSS vet who made his way from a state orphanage to the US as an adolescent, and Anna Khorev, a Gulag escapee granted political asylum in America. Parachuted into Estonia, Alex and Anna (posing as man and wife) set off for the Soviet Union's capital city. Meantime, US intelligence discovers that the KGB has learned about the plot. It's too late to recall Alex and Anna, so the undercover crowd dispatches case officer Jake Massey to kill his own operatives. Before Jake can begin stalking them, Alex and Anna realize that they've become the objects of a nationwide manhunt ordered by Lavrenty Beria, the villainous head of the secret police. In charge of the dragnet is Major Yuri Lukin, who soon stumbles on the fact that Alex is his long-lost brother. Joining forces with the would-be hit man, disaffected Yuri helps Alex outwit Jake and gets him past the elite guardians of Stalin's apartment in the heart of the Kremlin. Meade provides exciting, ingenious answers to questions that linger from a darker age, recapturing an era when the good guys still had to live by their wits, without the aid of cyberspace hardware or weaponry. An impressive debut by a storyteller worth watching. (Author tour)
Booklist Review
Fearing a mentally unstable Stalin will unleash nuclear war, the CIA mounts an assassination attempt. The core tension pits Slanski, an emigreassigned to carry out the killing, against Yuri Lukin, the KGB officer assigned to foil it. On the periphery lurks the operation's leader, Jake Massey. (This tale is narrated by Massey's son, who is investigating the mystery-shrouded death of his father some 40 years ago.) So the mission commences satisfactorily, until Soviet intelligence in New York discovers what is afoot, although they lose several agents to find out. By then Slanski and confederates are en route but incommunicado, for security reasons. Now the CIA worries that Stalin will start the war the assassination is designed to prevent, so Massey is dispatched to dispatch Slanski. Credulity and suspense have worn thin, after numerous close escapes and a plot twist based on Lukin's realization that Slanski is his brother. Yet those with a taste for one shoot-'em-up after another won't mind; anticipate short but intense interest. --Gilbert Taylor
Library Journal Review
First novelist Meade offers up another possibility of how Joseph Stalin died in this espionage thriller. As Eisenhower takes office in 1953, he receives reports that Stalin, whose mental capacity is fading, is planning a preemptive strike against the United States. Believing the reports true, Ike authorizes "Operation Snow Wolf" to assassinate Premier Stalin. Chosen for this dubious task are Alex Slanski, a Russian-born OSS vet who emigrated to the United States from a Soviet orphanage, and Anna Khorev, an escapee from the gulag, who is granted asylum in America. Alex and Anna parachute into Estonia, and posing as man and wife, they set out for Moscow. Meantime, U.S. intelligence learns that the KGB has uncovered the plot, which must then be aborted. Jake Massey, the case officer assigned to Alex and Anna, is dispatched to kill his own operatives before the KGB can find them. At times this abridgment seems to leave out too many details of certain events, but Meade does weave a credible story. The characters are throwbacks, relying only on their wits and skill to evade their pursuers, eschewing the high-tech wizardry of some stories of the genre. Nonetheless, this is a good tale that will make the reader think. Capably read by Paul Michael. Recommended.-David A. Scott, Southwestern Oklahoma State Univ. Lib., Weatherford (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
