Really two and a half stars.

This is an ambitious thriler--what else can you say about a title that features Noel Coward, JFK, Churchill, Hitler, Nostradamus, thinly viewed caricatures of Trump and Putin, and two of the greatest hoaxes of all time? The main characters are Russian twins, Lara and Lev, she a teaching professor in Russia and he monitoring the Alaskan oil fields. Through a series of convoluted circumstances, they separately become entwined in a conspiracy to perpetuate a hoax on the American and Russian peoples, due to the machinations of the corrupt leaders of each country.

A series of old recordings leads Lara to search for a Bible containing a false prophecy that enticed Hitler to attack Russia instead of England; Lev becomes suspicious of the origins of oil coming from Alaskan pipelines; and all comes together in an improbable series of circumstances that draws Lara's almost ex-husband, a Russian spy, into the mix.

Mitch Silver obviously knows his history and much about the world of espionage. However, a lot of this book just happens, not enough character development and characters who lack believable motives. Lara's decision making at the end of the book is inexplicable, given events with her estranged husband throughout the book.

Silver has all the makings of an enthralling spy thriller; nevertheless, the elements don't quite come together smoothly and believably enough to make this a must read.

Full Disclosure--Net Gallery and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it was the right balance of historical fiction with a modern crime drama. It had a lot of depth to the story but it was hard to follow at times. It was a very enjoyable book but not necessarily an easy read as it needs a bit of time to understand many of the topics.

I liked the main character, Lara and found her to be a strong protagonist with her combination of brains and bravery. There were many other characters in the book and again it takes a bit of time and effort to follow them all. The book jumps between WW2 and the present day in Russia, USA, Germany and the U.K. and it really helps to bring life to the story.

The ending was a quite abrupt and left me a bit confused about what had happened, I thought the book was trying to be a bit too clever and would have preferred more explanations at the end and along the way. I did not enjoy the very last paragraph of the story as I felt it was a cheap ending and tarnished the quality of the book. But it didn't ruin it!

In short, a really good and cleverness er book which I would thoroughly recommend.

What a delightful suspense-filled historical thriller this was. My interest was captured from the very first page. Lara is a history professor in Russia who ends up with 6 Dictaphone cassettes to listen to and things just take off from there. Her twin brother, Lev, works in Alaska and that is another exciting thread. All the different threads were neatly tied in a perfect bow at the end of the book. What a great read!