“The first sleeper hit of 2020 … This is thriller writing of the highest order, a tale as ambitiously conceived as it is stunningly realized.” — Providence Journal
“May… has made this debut novel a masterful historical detektiv tale.” — Library Journal
“A fine debut … a different spin on the prison-camp novel.” —Kirkus
“This thriller deserves high marks for the captivating tone of the writing and attention to historical detail.” — Publisher’s Weekly
The Body Outside the Kremlin is a historical mystery novel, set on the Solovetsky Islands, site of the most notorious penal camp of the Russian 1920s. The Solovetsky camp is based in a former monastery, seized from the monks after the Russian Revolution. Here, hundreds of miles from civilization and with a skeleton crew of secret-policemen in charge, prisoners must work at their own imprisonment, with forced labor used not only for hard physical work, but also to arrange the logistics on which the camp depends. The difference between rising through the system and being left behind is deadly. Some sit at comfortable desks in administrative or cultural positions. Others shiver and starve felling lumber in the island's forests.
Tolya Bogomolov, a young mathematician serving a three-year sentence for involvement in an unsanctioned student group, hopes the acquaintance he's been cultivating will lead to a less brutal work assignment, maybe a little more bread in his ration. With winter approaching, Tolya would rather find himself at a desk than out in the snow. Knowing Gennady Antonov, who holds a privileged position restoring the monks' seized collection of icons, ought to improve his odds of reassignment. When Antonov's body is discovered floating frozen in the bay, however, the connection turns dangerous. The authorities question Tolya, suspicious of his involvement. He's mystified when they assign him to assist the elderly ex-detective investigating the case – but better to find the real killer than have the murder pinned on him.
Digging into Antonov's secrets turns up strange expropriations of the museum's icons, rumors of an escape conspiracy among White Army officers, and an illicit affair with a female prisoner who won't tell all she knows. When the detectives begin to uncover more than the camp bosses meant them to, their investigation permit is revoked. To avoid becoming the murderer's next victim, Tolya must defy Solovetsky's unforgiving regime and make ruthless use of his fellow prisoners. Putting his story to paper thirty years later means at last reckoning the true costs of survival.
The Body Outside the Kremlin is available for purchase online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound. It can also be ordered at any local bookstore in the US.
An audiobook version from Blackstone Publishing is available for download on Audible. It will be available on CD in April.