69⁰ North

It’s a thriller and a love story from the Arctic Circle, so what the hell, I hear you ask, is it doing being reviewed on a fishing website?

Because the author is an angler and the story revolves around a head fishing guide operating from a fishing camp in the Kola Peninsula of Russia on the Volna, one of the best salmon rivers in the world.

The main characters are Genia Sukhov, a survivor of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan, and American Jodie Lucas, which is where the passion for passion starts when the passion for angling takes a break.

Written from the unique viewpoint of a disillusioned Russian hero, we follow Genia as his peaceful life as head guide on the Volna river is shattered by the news of his nephew’s diagnosis with leukaemia. His drastic action to secure vital medicine risks his own life and deepens his involvement with the underworld. When an elite fishing party arrives on the Volna, the initial culture clash results in unexpected common ground, and the vibrant American Jody Lucas penetrates Genia’s quiet exterior.

This is a serious novel, a taut thriller, with nuclear waste and leukaemia figuring in the plot, with common ground being found in spite of the culture clashes, and some good fishing prose to put the cream on the cake for the angler who loves to read a good thriller.