RUSSIAN ROULETTE
A Tale from Champion City
By J. Walt Layne
Champion City Press
150 pgs
Supposedly this particular title is one of a series created by the writer. Unfamiliar with those, we can only discuss the prevalent events and plots of this one book. Which is itself a puzzling proposition as taken as a whole, “Russian Roulette” comes off as an odd mash up of two different stories.
The story takes place in the early 70s at the height of the Cold War between the Soviets and the rest of the world. Klaus and Ivana are a married couple trained by the Russian government from an early age to be assassins. As the book opens, due to behind the scenes Kremlin politics, the two stage the public murder of a group of private Russian industrialist at a highly publicized soccer match. At the same, both of them have agreed once the assignment is completed, they will defect to the United States with the help of C.I.A. operatives.
This is the setting for the first three fourths of the book and it is by one far one of the most thrilling, well produced action chases ever put on paper. From the desperate American spies and the obsessed Russian hunters, the story moves across East Germany like a rocket blast compelling this reader to whip through the pages. Layne has the ability to suck us in, wondering with every new mile if the good guys are going to win, or fall to the relentless pursuit of their foes.
Then, as this all comes to a climatic wrap up, the book unexpected jumps ahead by a few years and suddenly we’re dropped into suburban Champion City U.SA. where our former KGB killers are now living new lives as normal…even boring, U.S. citizens. But all is not happy, as with their new quieter careers, Ivana and Klaus find themselves at odds and drifting apart. As if that wasn’t jarring enough, we are then introduced to a Champion City police officer named Bill Davis and brought into his world. Davis is dealing with a rash of murders all pointing back to two rival city gangs. But before he can get uncover any further details, the book ends. It is too abrupt and closing.
J. Walt Layne knows how to tell a story. Whereas he would have served his readers better had he ended the book with the Klaus and Ivana epilogue and left Bill Davis’ chapters for another time and title. Is “Russian Roulette” worth your time? Yes, definitely. Just be ready for that Pg # 124 drop-off.
