moscow (russia)

After selling her vast jewelry collection in an attempt to put her past to rest, Nina Revskaya, who was once a star of the ballet in Russia, is forced to confront dark secrets of her heart in order to help an auction house associate director and a Russian professor solve a literary mystery.

The story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, born in 1872 to former slaves who became prosperous farmers in Mississippi. A rich white planter's attempt to steal their land forced them to flee to Memphis, where Frederick's father was brutally murdered. After leaving the South and working as a waiter and valet in Chicago and Brooklyn, Frederick sought greater freedom in London, then crisscrossed Europe, and-- in a highly unusual choice for a Black American at the time-- went to Russia in 1899. Because he found no color line there, Frederick made Moscow his home. He renamed himself Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas, married twice, acquired a mistress, and took Russian citizenship. Through his hard work, charm, and guile he became one of the city's richest and most famous owners of variety theaters and restaurants. The Bolshevik Revolution ruined him, and he barely escaped with his life and family to Constantinople in 1919. Starting from scratch, he made a second fortune by opening celebrated nightclubs that introduced jazz to Turkey. However, the long arm of American racism, the xenophobia of the new Turkish Republic, and Frederick's own extravagance landed him in debtor's prison. He died in Constantinople in 1928.

This book, with online access to enhanced content, describes the history, the people, and the science behind the construction of the Kremlin, the official residence of the president of the Russian Federation.

When a famed Russian composer is rumored to be returning to his homeland to conduct his last symphony, a line begins forming in front of a ticket booth and the people in it begin their extended wait for the day tickets go on sale. During their time with one another, these strangers form a sort of miniature community that becomes bound by all its inhabitants' hope that they can see something they never have before.

Anton Gorodetsky, who is getting used to his new powers, is sent by his boss to help the Scottish Night Watch with aninvestigation into the murder of a young Russian man that may implicate a vampire and point to a plot involving the forces of both darkness and light.

In 1882, after six years of foreign travel and adventure, renowned diplomat and detective Erast Fandorin returns to Moscow, in the heart of Mother Russia. His homecoming is anything but peaceful. In the hotel where he and his loyal if impertinent manservant Masa are staying, Fandorin's old war-hero friend General Sobolev ("Achilles" to the crowd) has been found dead, felled in his armchair by an apparent heart attack. But Fandorin suspects an unnatural cause. His suspicions lead him to the boudoir of the beautiful singer--"not exactly a courtesan"--known as Wanda. Apparently it was in Wanda's bed that the general secretly breathed his last.--From publisher description.