That was the end of the Soviet Union and the birth of the free Ukraine. Chernobyl is the single-biggest reason this is the free country. [loc. 2185]
Ukrainian-American forensic analyst Nadia Tesla goes to meet a Mr Milan who claims to have known her father -- only to hear a shot ring out and her contact's murmured last words as he falls to the sidewalk. Those words, and her connection with Ukrainian crime syndicates, send her to the mother country, and into the forbidden zone surrounding Chernobyl, in search of her mysterious Uncle Damian and a boy named Adam, a teenage hockey prodigy who grew up in the Zone, and who may hold the key to the secret whispered by the deceased Mr Milan.
The Boy from Reactor Four is a fast-paced thriller, replete with exotic locations, improbable coincidences and dyed-in-the-stereotype villains. Nadia is a feisty heroine, quick-thinking and courageous, and she copes well with the deluge of reversals, revelations and (possibly) romance. ("Anton held Nadia in his arms and sang a tragic Ukrainian folk song about the maiden, the Cossack, and their unrequited love.") Very readable, though somewhat shallow: I enjoyed the descriptions of Kyiv, and the Chernobyl scenes resonated with other recent reading.
I bought this in 2015: it's taken me a while to get around to it ...
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