Zoia's Gold [Paperback]

"'Emotional, riveting and unexpected' Easy Living"

'Startlingly original ... emotional, riveting and unexpected.'

'This is a haunting, mesmerising read.'

'Captivating in life, Zoia forms an equally captivating subject for a novel. The result is seductive... an inspiration.'

'A rich novel, marrying fact and fiction seamlessly ... hugely satisfying, leaving all kinds of thoughts and questions in its wake.'

[An] exceptionally diverting and involving thriller.

Melds the best elements of biography and fiction to create a tale
that is at once expansive and intimate.

Part thriller, part biography, and wholly engrossing.

A fine foil to that other great account of the Revolution
Betrayed, Boris Pasternak's 'Doctor Zhivago'.

[A] gorgeously written novel of suspense.

This work is set in Stockholm, 1999. Madam Zoia, the enigmatic painter on gold, is dead. The last-known survivor of the Romanov court, she leaves behind a house full of paintings, a collection of private papers, and a mystery. Marcus Elliot has been commissioned to travel to Sweden to write the catalogue that will accompany the sale of her work. But something feels wrong. The gilded serenity of Zoia's work reflects nothing of her passionate private life: a dramatic escape from the Revolutionary torturers of the Lubyanka, an artistic journey that embraced the excesses of Bohemian Paris, and an unearthly ability to command the devotion of beautiful men. Marcus is to be Zoia's last, triumphant, seduction but with time against him, he must lay his own ghosts to rest - the scandal that ruined him, the tragedy that shattered his childhood before the priceless truth can come within his grasp.

Stockholm, December 1999. Madam Zoia, the enigmatic painter on gold, is dead. The last known survivor of the Romanov court, she leaves behind a house full of paintings, a collection of private papers, and a mystery.

Marcus Elliot travels to snow-bound Sweden to write the catalogue that will accompany the sale of her work. But something feels wrong. Behind the gilded serenity of Zoia's work lie the shadows of a secret life: a miraculous escape from the Revolutionary torturers of the Lubyanka; an artistic journey that embraced the excesses of Bohemian Paris; and an unearthly ability to command the devotion of beautiful men.

Marcus is to be Zoia's last, triumphant seduction, but with time against him, he must lay his own ghosts to rest - the failed marriage, the scandal that ruined him, the tragedy that shattered his childhood - before the priceless truth can come within his grasp.

Stockholm, December 1999. Madam Zoia, the enigmatic painter on gold, is dead. The last known survivor of the Romanov court, she leaves behind a house full of paintings, a collection of private papers, and a mystery.

Marcus Elliot, a former art dealer down on his luck, travels to snow-bound Sweden to write the catalogue that will accompany the sale of her work. Zoia's paintings have been willed to her doctor, who is only too happy to sell to the Russian buyers gathering at the previews.

But for Marcus something feels wrong. The gilded serenity of Zoia's work reflects nothing of her passionate private life: a dramatic escape from the Revolutionary torturers of the Lubyanka; an artistic journey that embraced the excesses of bohemian Paris; and an unearthly ability to command the devotion of beautiful men. Zoia, it seems, was a keeper of secrets, but Marcus holds what may yet prove the key to unlocking them: a golden painting kept hidden since his mother's untimely death thirty years before.

Marcus is to be Zoia's last, triumphant seduction, but with time against him, he must lay his own ghosts to rest - the failed marriage, the scandal that ruined him, the tragedy that shattered his childhood - before the priceless truth can come within his grasp. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

PHILIP SINGTON read History at Trinity College, Cambridge and worked as a journalist and magazine editor for nine years. He is the co-author of six thrillers, which have been translated into 12 languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide. He also writes for the professional stage, TV and film.