The 4th book in the Inspector Pekkala series As Hitler's forces
smash into Soviet territory, annihilating the Red Army divisions in its
path, a lone German scout plane is forced down. Contained within the
briefcase of its passenger is the seemingly inconsequential painting of
a hyalophoria cecropia, otherwise known as a red moth.
Military Intelligence dismisses the picture as insignificant, but in the
state of emergency Stalin suspects a German plot. He summons his old
adversary, Inspector Pekkala - the elusive Finn who was once Tsar
Nicholas II's personal detective - to discover the real significance of
this strange wartime cargo.
As the storm gathers around them, Pekkala, together with his assistant
from the shadowy Bureau of Special Operations, soon find themselves on
the path of the most formidable art thieves in history. Those real
target is a secret and prized possession of the Romanovs, once
considered to be the eighth wonder of the world.
But as the Soviet Union crumbles in the face of the advancing cataclysm,
and the chaos of war is everywhere, Pekkala realizes that to protect the
Tsar's treasure he must break through enemy lines. His desperate mission
is to outfox the German invaders, or face the wrath of Stalin himself.