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Lenin may have just seized power for the Bolsheviks, but Charlie Doig has just seized twenty-eight tonnes of Lenin's gold. For two days he's the richest man in the whole of Russia. However, on hearing that the Red armies have cut off his escape to the west, he decides to hide the gold for a later day and with Kobi, his Mongolian henchman, to make his way east along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, and freedom.
Russia's in a state of chaos. People are fleeing the Reds in their millions. Charlie has to fight his way past refugees, bandits, murderers and shamans, only to discover when he gets there that the Japanese have invaded Siberia. He falls in with an old flame, a New Yorker now calling herself Countess Cynthia von Zipf. He saves the life of her protector, General Sato. As a reward, Sato offers him the position of Prince of Siberia - provided that he first goes to Nagasaki and eliminates a rival of Sato's. He accepts. With him travels one of Sato's men, a Doctor Hijo, who's been experimenting on Bolshevik prisoners in order to confect a vaccine against typhus.
Charlie finds Japan a paradise after Russia - until Hijo tricks him into being the guinea pig for yet another gruesome experiment. Having survived that, he comes to suspect that he's welcome to the Japanese only because of his gold. As an added twist, he's offered marriage by the daughter of the man he's been sent to kill. In an unforgettable final scene, Charlie, clothed in a samurai's blue and green robes, strides through the wood to the pavilion where Mimosa awaits him. She's after a share of his luck. But what can she offer Charlie, one of fiction's truly great adventurers?
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Customer Reviews
I LOVE Charlie Doig! I have had enough of all these fake heroes, But Charlie's the real thing,a five star guy if ever there was one. Can't tell you how often I've wanted to be Cynthia von Zipf!
Great name! In fact the whole thing is great. Can't Fleming stick Charlie in another revolution somewhere? Just because he's escaped to Japan doesn't mean he can put his feet up. He wants action and so do we. More please, Mr F!
What follows is the story of Doig and Kobi on their trip across Russia to Vladivostok and on to Japan. On their way they spend time on a refugee train (commandeered by Doig), walk for weeks across snow-barren countryside and spend some time with a people called the Tunga. I have had a google for this tribe and can't quickly find a mention of it so it may have been invented for the story).
The chief relationship in the book is that between Doig and Kobi who comes across as a Mongolian Jack Dee, always moaning and complaining. There is real and true affection between the men although Doig maintains the upper-hand in all their interactions.
Doig is a more complex character than I first thought. Yes, he is motivated by money and glory - at one point of the story there is the very real possibility of him becoming the Prince of Siberia - but he is also motivated by vanity and the need for respect. He is a naturalist with the discovery of a beetle to his credit and in Rising Blood he manages to catch and preserve the skin of a `Lala Bird', hoping that it will give him the intellectual immortality and respect - and riches - he so desires.
Rising Blood is a very plot driven book with less character development than I would normally like. I think the character arc for Doig would be clearer over the three books of the trilogy (this is the third book) and Kobi seemed to experience no change in character at all. I was also disappointed that Kobi seemed to have been almost forgotten about at the end and would have liked to know more about his possible future.
These criticisms aside, this really was a cracking read. The voice of each character was well defined and believable and the adventures Doig has on his way across the Russian landscape are gripping. I especially loved the voice of the Countess and Hijo, the Japanese doctor and researcher, is believably gauche and creepy. I loved the partnership between Doig and Kobi and got to genuinely care whether things would go well for them.
In chapter five Doig says, "Now I'm going on a pilgrimage to find my soul", and by the end if he hasn't exactly found it, he certainly has a better idea of where it has been hiding.
I'd recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a good old fashioned adventure story.
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