FICTION

Hotel Moscow

by Talia Carner
Morrow. Jun. 2015. 448p. ISBN 9780062388599. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062388605. F
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It's 1993, and investment executive Brooke Fielding has learned that a corporate takeover is endangering her job. When an opportunity arises to travel to newly capitalist Moscow to mentor businesswomen, she seizes it, knowing that insider knowledge of Russia's new economy will raise her stock in the eyes of her employer. But it's a harsh and dangerous time in Russia, as Brooke discovers when she's shaken down and manhandled by a customs officer at the airport. The country is collapsing without the rigid controls of communism, and Russian women entering the workforce are viewed as a threat and treated accordingly. Amid mafia conspiracy, pogrom-like raids, and unchecked corruption, Brooke is a target, not only as a female but also owing to her heritage as the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
VERDICT This tense thriller, based in part on author Carner's (Jerusalem Maiden) own experiences in post-Communist Russia, is an eye-opening exposé of life following the collapse of the Iron Curtain. While occasionally ponderous—the narrative too often lapses into business-speak and the dialog is occasionally stilted—Carner's novel of vividly drawn characters and taut suspense adds up to a real-life dystopian page-turner of the un-put-downable variety.
Reviewed by Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., NY , Jun 12, 2015
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