Truth and Fear (The Wolfhound Century)
Unlike many sequels, this one pretty much demands familiarity with its predecessor (Wolfhound Century, 2013). The story picks up soon after the end of the first installment. Vissarion Lom, a police detective in the author’s alternate version of Russia, is on the run with Maroussia Shaumian, who possesses the key to opening the Pollandore, a sort of self-contained universe that is breaking apart, threatening to seriously impact this world. Lavrentina Chazia, the head of the Mirgorod secret police (a fictional stand-in for Lavrenty Beria, head of the Russian secret police under Stalin), has her own maniacal plans for the Pollandore. Meanwhile, Josef Kantor, a power-hungry terrorist (and, it seems, Shaumian’s father), puts into play his scheme to gain control of Mirgorod. But a wild card, a fallen angel in a forest thousands of miles away, threatens to bring chaos. Higgins has created a compelling Stalin-era alternate Russia that is populated by sentient animals, fallen angels, and other fantastic elements; amid all that, Lom is a very traditional character, a world-weary cop trying to protect an innocent woman. An ambitious and fascinating novel, at least for those who have read Wolfhound Century. --David Pitt