Book Review: Stalin's Door By: John St. Clair

My experience with historical fiction books is that it can either tell a great character driven story paralleling actual historical events, or it can be a fun history retelling with the author taking liberties that bend historical events to something almost completely unrecognizable.  In my opinion, Stalin’s Door wasn’t just a wonderful middle ground, it was perfect.  I’m not fully versed on much of Russia’s history, but the author obviously put an immense amount of effort into research for this book—I couldn’t say with absolute certainty if the author took any liberties with the history, and that may be one of the most chilling aspects of this book.  The way it’s written—the author put me in the room with the characters.  The paranoia style suspense kept me on edge as the main character’s circumstances progressed and intertwined.  I could feel the cold fear that they were facing, as well as the warmth that the characters would show toward one another.  I felt as if I had a clear glimpse of what life may have been like under Stalin’s regime.  Well done!  I also appreciated the subtle supernatural elements—a little unexpected but it worked well.  If you’re not into historical fiction, I’ll admit, this book may seem a little overwhelming to pick up, but I promise you, it is worth every word.

Stalin's Door is available for purchase in print and digital on Amazon HERE.  If you have a Kindle Unlimited membership, you're in luck as you can download a copy for Free!