Olga Godim

This book was surprisingly quiet and low key for a story about the Russian Mafia and MI6. But was it really about that? Or was it about a young woman finding her place in the world?

The protagonist Tyger works as a cleaner for the Russian oligarch Grisha. All she wants is to get education, save for a small flat of her own, and get a good job. But then the job of Grisha’s assistant falls in her lap, and with it all the attendant perils and perks.

When six weeks later, Grisha dies, purportedly from a heart attack, Tyger doesn’t believe it. She knows he was targeted by the Russian government. It must be an assassination. When no one wants to bother investigating his death, Tyger is the only one who persists. While for everyone else he was a super-rich and ruthless businessman, for her he was a nice old man and a good employer. He was kind to her, and in return, she mourns him, seemingly the only one who does. She wouldn’t let his death go unpunished, even if it means risking her own life.

The story flowed easily, always maintaining the right balance between tension and faint humor. It was a light read, undemanding and quick, and I enjoyed it, even though occasionally I rolled my eyes in disbelief and thought “yeah, right!”

Not a bad addition to the ‘amateur PI’ book collection.

I’d also like to point out that for a self-published book, the writing was amazingly clean and terse, free of mistakes, utterly professional. One of the best self-pubs I’ve read.