Having been an admirer of this author since the days of The Night of Wenceslas and Smith's Gazelle and others, it was a great joy to discover one last volume that had eluded my notice. I was not disappointed. At the centre of the adventure is a premise which takes some swallowing - though total disbelief was suspended while reading. But essentially this is a brilliantly plotted story of two desperately hazardous journeys, into and out of Siberia. The characters are far from being stereotypes but remain identifiable.

Kolymsky Heights - Waterstones Exclusive Edition by Lionel

Philip Pullman has said of the novel: "The best thriller I've ever read, and I've read plenty. A solidly researched and bone-chilling adventure in a savage setting, with a superb hero." [4] Oxford dictionary of national biography (Onlineed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198614128. OCLC 56568095. The other important character of the story is not a human, it’s the deep frozen lightless Siberian winter. Kolymsky Heights is one of the best novels I’ve ever read in terms of capturing and using the sense of place to the advantage of the story. Finally, I should also mention the pacing of Kolymsky Heights. It is almost a master class in building and releasing tension, each time building the tension slightly higher until the last part of the novel when all that built up tension unleashes itself in a frenetic chase across Siberia.Characters - none of them really believable. Or even likeable, I felt. They mostly play third or fourth fiddle to Johnny P in any case. But they are not poorly-drawn enough, and he is not unlikeable enough, to crash the novel. It’s not really that he’s unlikeable exactly; it’s more that I felt I never knew him. He was too busy being other diverse characters for the reader to get to know the real him. The different ethnicities throughout Siberia is astounding and unearthing the history of the “gulags” or labour camps under Lenin and Stalin’s regimes has been quite an eye opener. Written by Lionel Davidson — Lionel Davidson and his thrillers have been unjustly neglected in recent years. He blazed a trail with articulate and complex international spy stories just before John Le Carre and Len Deighton achieved celebrity status. However, a few years ago Philip Pullman selected Davidson’s 1994 novel Kolymsky Heights for his Waterstone’s author table. This recommendation brought many new readers to the book, so much so that Faber and Faber decided to print a fresh edition with an introduction by Pullman himself. But get all that nonsense out of the way and you have a very much above average effort. Davidson could actually write. The obligatory formulaic aspects of the genre are transformed into more plausibility than you usually get within these masculine fantasies.

Kolymsky Heights - Lionel Davidson - Google Books

Kolymsky Heights was Davidson's first thriller for 16 years, and he died in 2009 without having produced another. Which is a pity, because one feels if he had produced a few more like this, he really could have been mentioned in the same breath a Le Carré and Deighton. As significant as … le Carré in bringing a gritty new realism to the thriller.’ ( Sunday Telegraph)I tried several times to finish this book but for the first time in years, more than 1/2 through the book, I gave up. Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Kleine Gebrauchsspuren vorhanden, es können auch Mängelexemplare sein---. nein.

Kolymsky Heights | Faber Kolymsky Heights | Faber

Moonage Pictures, the UK production company set up by a handful of Peaky Blinders execs, is adapting Lionel Davidson’s Russian spy thriller Kolymsky Heights. An international thriller featuring a female journalist who stumbles upon a dark conspiracy, and her determination to follow the clues, no matter how far that takes her This was Lionel Davidson's last book (he died in 2009). His son has recorded elsewhere the problems of its creation - it was rewritten three times. Condition: Very Good. First edition. Very good. Three audio tapes read by Theodore Bikel. The corners and edges of the case are slightly worn and faded. I've never read a thriller that so successfully transported me to a hitherto unimagined place. (Maxton Walker Guardian)This has been the biggest literary disappointment I’ve had in a while, because I was genuinely expecting to like this. This is my first book by Davidson; I always try to give an author a second chance if I don’t enjoy a book of theirs, and since I already (perhaps stupidly) grabbed Rose of Tibet when I bought this, I will be reading that at some point to see if Davidson can somewhat redeem himself for me. Not that he would care, and if you enjoyed this book, neither should you. Kolymsky Heights is a 1994 thriller novel by Lionel Davidson. It was his first thriller novel in 16 years, following The Chelsea Murders. [1] Plot summary [ edit ] See Faber authors in conversation and hear readings from their work at Faber Members events, literary festivals and at book shops across the UK. Lionel Davidson FRSL (31 March 1922–21 October 2009) was an English novelist who wrote spy thrillers.