To Kill a Tsar
This tense, gripping novel set in 19C St Petersburg amid desperate revolutionaries bent on the overthrow of the Tsar 'confirms Andrew William's place in the front ranks of English thriller writers' (Daily Mail). Shortlisted for the CWA Ellis Peters and the Walter Scott Awards, To Kill a Tsar will appeal to readers of John le Carre, Robert Harris and Alan Furst.
St Petersburg, 1879. A shot rings out in Palace Square. Cossack guards tackle the would-be assassin to the ground. In the mêlée no one notices a striking dark haired young woman in a heavy coat slip away from the scene.
Russia is alive with revolutionaries. While Tsar Alexander II remains a virtual prisoner in his own palaces, his ruthless secret police will stop at nothing to unmask those who plot his assassination and the overthrow of the Imperial regime. For Dr Frederick Hadfield, whose medical practice is dependent on the Anglo-Russian gentry, these are dangerous times. Drawn into a desperate cat-and-mouse game of undercover assignations, plot and counter-plot, he risks all in a perilous double life.
From glittering ballrooms to the cruel cells of the House of Preliminary Detention, from the grandeur of the British Embassy to the underground presses of the young revolutionaries, To Kill a Tsar is a gripping thriller set in a world of brutal contrasts in which treachery is everywhere and nothing is what it seems.
After studying English at Oxford University, Andrew Williams worked as a senior producer for the BBC's Panorama and Newsnight programmes, then wrote and directed history documentaries. He is the author of two bestselling non-fiction books: The Battle of the Atlantic and D-Day to Berlin. His two acclaimed other novels The Interrogator, which was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Silver Dagger Award, and The Poison Tide, are both published by John Murray. Andrew Williams lives with his family in Edinburgh. You can find out more about Andrew and his writing at www.andrewwilliams.tv and www.johnmurrays.co.uk, and you can follow him on twitter at @AWilliamsWriter or on Facebook