The Shadows by Aleksandr Tseitsev

Title: The Shadows 

Author: Aleksandr Tseitsev

Publisher: Stansfield Publishing

Source: TV Series Mystery Woman S2 E5 ‘In the Shadows’

Local bookseller extraordinaire Philby Cross, who we suspect of being a retired spy, has long known of ex-KGB agent Aleksandr Tseitsev. Philby and Samantha are invited to a private book signing at the Espionage Writers Convention at a nearby hotel, where Aleksandr will be signing copies of his new novel, The Shadows.

Everyone at the signing is given a complementary copy of The Shadows. And then Aleksandr makes an announcement: has just completed a nonfiction book about the Red Mafia, the Russian criminal underworld, who have infiltrated to the highest levels of the Russian government, and he has named a top level mole in the American intelligence community. We learn that Aleksandr types his books in Russian, posts the manuscript to his American publisher who then arranges for it to be translated, presumably it is then edited and finally published. Not a speedy process. And honestly not very secure.

But, oh no! Aleksandr is killed in the hotel car park, and Samantha is shoved in front of a speeding car.

A previous book by Aleksandr Tseitsev, The Cold of Night, is about a Soviet spy trapped in West Berlin before the Wall went up, and he has to find a way to get back to the East. Samantha says she couldn’t put it down, it seemed so real, as if the author was really there. Philby responds prosaically that Aleksandr was there.

Both photographs taken by me in my garden