Completely holds my interest, tho not great. Was disappointed that the author had Pekkala returning to the gulag and was certainly not interested in reading any more about the horrors there, but turned out to be more than interesting enough. And, the whole story more than interesting enough. I will happily keep reading. ( )

This is a little more believable that the other Eastland books because Statlin's personality is more on character. ( )

Sam Eastland's Inspector Pekkala novels comprise one of my favorite historical mystery series. The scenes of Tsarist and Stalinist Russia are vivid and draw me straight into the story. In the case of Archive 17, I was also drawn into the life of a Siberian Gulag, and I'm still thawing out and feeling hungry and filthy.

It's fascinating to watch Pekkala remember pieces of his past as Nicholas II's chief investigator as he tries to infiltrate the group of convicts who are still loyal to the Tsar, and those in charge at the Borodok have their own motivations that he must deal with as well. Perhaps my favorite scene in the entire book involves Pekkala's partner, Major Kirov, and the fate of an archivist and all his documents in Moscow; the possibilities linger on in my mind.

Pekkala is a bit like the Clint Eastwood we've become familiar with throughout his film career: a big, soft-spoken man who doesn't say much but observes all. A man who's learned that the only person upon whom he can rely is himself. A highly principled man who sometimes finds those principles at war with the simple need to survive. This is the third time Pekkala has tried to stay alive while keeping true to himself. Having bosses like Nicholas II and Josef Stalin, it's far from an easy task, and with historic detail, a tightly woven plot, and some heart-stopping action, Sam Eastland makes fascinating reading of Pekkala's struggles. ( )

This is the third in the author's Inspector Pekkala series. Like the others, it is a good and quick page turner, but again the whole plot centring around three or four anti-Bolsheviks from the White Armies of twenty years before, stuck in a labour camp in 1939 and planning to escape, recover the Tsar's gold and seize power in Siberia, is just not believable. Again, there are quite a lot of annoying and unnecessary historical and cultural mistakes and anachronisms. Finally, why does the author use section headings that are just named by the first few words in the section, however inconsequential. I realise this last point isn't really a crucial - it wouldn't matter if the novel was better, but is just another irritant in this instance. 3/5 ( )

This is the 3rd and what seems like the final book in the Pekkala series. This book had plenty of twists and turns and seemed to wrap up pretty well. Very fast read as the story didn't lag at all. Nice job Sam Eastland. ( )