W. H. Mefford

The Stalin Stain W. H. Mefford

Moscow Police Investigator Illya Podipenko is back! This time, his adventure begins not in Moscow but in New York City. He is drowsily lounging on a bench in New York's Central Park, unaware that his world is about to be turned upside down, when a beautiful and irrepressible young girl named Katya, a student in one of his lectures, slides next to him on the park bench and whispers in his ear that she is in great danger and that she needs Illya's help because her grandfather has been murdered and the killers are now after her.



Thus, begins a perilous and intimate adventure in the US and Russia for the Moscow investigator and the young American woman as, together, they hurry to unravel perplexing clues, outrun Georgian underworld thugs, and uncover shocking historic truths about Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's death and billions in gold and jewels he had secretly hidden away. Even current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, gets involved in the chase. By solving clues and puzzles left behind by Illya's father, a famous Red Army marshal, Illya and Katya must discover where the Stalin treasure is hidden before the Georgian mobsters beat them to the punch. Along the way, Illya and Katya uncover staggering revelations about each of their families that changed the course of history.