An undercover agent is torn between love and fear when resurgent nationalism threatens to plunge Russia and Ukraine into ethnic warfare. Taras Stepaniak, half Russian half Ukrainian, is a self-serving womaniser recruited by the Russian intelligence service to destabilize the newly independent Ukraine in order to bring it back under Russian control. Stepaniak spins his web of treachery around the aspiring democrats of the new nation. But he finds that the one woman who resists his cynical seduction techniques cares for him deeply. Maria Bondar's selflessness, integrity, and devotion to ideals force him to confront his own duplicity. Too late. He is trapped in a deadly game that is being played out to a terrifying conclusion. Well researched, compellingly plausible.the climax is explosive. -The European The suspense is sustained to the very last page. -The Independent The author's artistry means that the book succeeds not only at the adventure tale level-gripping as the plot line is-but more profoundly. A moving, remarkable book. -The Tablet A plot to destabilize the newly independent Ukraine is realistic thanks to the.writing of John Hands. It all comes together in a stirring climax which exposes the heart of post-Soviet society. -Oxford Times