The Twelfth Department: Korolev Mysteries Book 3 (The Korolev Series, Band 3)

Shortlisted for the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger for Best Historical Crime Novel of the Year and the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year

Moscow, 1937. Captain Korolev, a police investigator, is enjoying a long overdue visit from his young son Yuri when an eminent scientist is shot dead within sight of the Kremlin and Korolev is ordered to find the killer.

The victim, it seems, was engaged in research of great interest to those at the very top ranks of Soviet power. When another scientist is brutally murdered, and evidence of the professors' dark experiments is hastily removed, Korolev begins to realize that, along with having a difficult case to solve, he's caught in a dangerous battle between two warring factions of the NKVD - the Russian secret police. And then his son Yuri goes missing . . .

'For some time the talented Ryan has been among the very best crime novelists working in a period setting and if your taste is for similar fare by Martin Cruz Smith or Philip Kerr in which an honest sleuth tries to do his best in a corrupt foreign regime you should not hesitate' Daily Express

'Ryan's tense, tightly plotted whodunnits feel gloriously plausible' Guardian