“Gray Shadows” by Julia Gousseva is a dark and atmospheric thriller about bodyguards, in particular about 28 year old Nikolai. Ex-army, equipped with a sharp mind and a moral conscience and in love with Olga he suffers an injury while protecting an important lawyer. Too eager on the job to go into teaching he takes on an odd assignment, involving the 22 year old Natalja in a small place in the polar regions north of Siberia. However, the seemingly straight forward job turns out to be far more complex and twisted than one would have expected.
The book builds up the tension and the suspense with great timing, leaving us unprepared for the direction the plot takes. The scene setting is particularly well done. I am a big fan of Scandinavian and Nordic crime fiction and hugely enjoyed how the author let me feel the bleakness of the Russian arctic…
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