Sasha's Trick

Twenty years after escaping a Soviet prison camp, a young thief finds himself hunting for a precious and lethal treasure on Brooklyn's Coney Island and involved in an affair with an American reporter who has her own dark agenda. Reprint. NYT.

Sasha Eugenev is nothing if not a survivor. At age 19, arrested for "parasitism," he's sentenced to hard labor in a remote Russian prison camp, where one of his fellow prisoners promises to share a hidden cache of art worth millions--if he and Sasha survive the rigors of prison. Finally released, Sasha immigrates to New York, where he eventually meets up with his prison-camp compatriot. But before the two can put their hands on the art, Sasha's friend is shot to death; on the run, Sasha learns that the Russian mafia is after the art, too--specifically, an enameled box that Sasha's friend gave him just before he died. Rosenbaum offers up a heady dose of suspense, intrigue, danger, and romance combined with a fascinating (if rather bleak) look at the "new" Russia. Readers with a fondness for such fare will find themselves riveted. A good choice for the spy-thriller crowd. Emily Melton