Mystery novels aren't my thing but this one's exotic location kept me reading right through to the thrilling end. My knowledge of the Kamchatka Peninsula was limited to the Risk game board, which may be a deliberate metaphor, but Phillips vividly describes a society eerily similar to ours where women and indigenous peoples are treated like second class citizens. The dissolution of the Soviet Union adds an interesting frisson to the story of two missing girls because several of the protagonists, all females in some kind of trouble, are nostalgic for white Russian rule when life, while politically repressive, was more predictable. This book certainly isn't. Phillips weaves together a community of characters whose lives intersect in not always obvious ways over the course of the year. It feels real, rather than exploitive.
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