Queen Of The Uzbeks
2024. The USSR reigns supreme and the USA is in decline. Shahzoda Aleksandrovna Eshonto’rayeva, half-Russian, half-Uzbek, and daughter of a prominent member of the Politburo, has been living the life she always dreamed of, shopping in Louis Vuitton, treading red carpets in Cannes, and partying the nights away in Saint Tropez and Nice. But then everything changes.
Somehow, and she isn’t quite sure how, she finds herself signed up to the KGB and promoted to the rank of Major. And as if that isn’t bad enough, she now finds herself plucked from her cosy desk, where she’s been soullessly monitoring mind-numbingly tedious pseudo-intellectual telephone conversations, and despatched to London to track down a traitor who is in possession of something that threatens not just her father, but her entire family and their comfortable and privileged life.
Shahzoda somehow triumphs, only to find out that a bigger game is in play, one that eventually leads her to the greatest danger she’s ever faced. And all played out on an island in the frozen wastes of the Bering Strait, only 2.4 miles away from the great enemy, the USA.
‘I trust your father, so I’m going to trust you, Major.’ These were President Garwe's last words to me. Luckily, he ended the call at that point, because I had no idea what to say to that. Only a lunatic would trust my father. Maybe that was the point? Or, maybe, it was simply a threat.
‘What have you done? You've started World War Three!’
Buried By The Stardust
The second book in the Queen Of The Uzbeks series.
‘Think about it. Live or die, they’ll be bona fide heroes of both the Soviet Union and the world. And dead, they’ll be martyrs for the cause. And, of course, in the future all anyone will remember will be that the USSR got to Mars first.’
Major Shahzoda Aleksandrovna Eshonto’rayeva of the KGB finds herself despatched to Kazan to interrogate and torture a group of unlikely subversives. But, mid-session, she finds herself ordered to attend a party in Tashkent to celebrate her father’s 35 years as Finance Minister in the Third Revolution government of the Soviet Union. Things get even more bizarre when the only transport available is a Tupolev TU-95 “Bear”, and the journey includes a detour to launch cruise missiles against Chechen rebels.
Having somehow survived the nightmare of a family reunion, she then finds herself recalled to Moscow, only to be instantly despatched to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the eve of the first manned mission to Mars. A technician has been murdered, and Shahzoda is once again cast in the role of detective.
In the course of her investigation, she discovers that the Soviet Union she thought she knew was nothing but an empty lie, the reality darker than she could ever have imagined. Baikonur Cosmodrome harbours a cesspit of humanity, and the murder of a Flight Engineer seems to be the least of her problems.
Pursued by a perverted and very ancient Hero of the Soviet Union, as well as one of the cosmonauts soon to be heading to Mars, she finds herself knee-deep in conspiracies and sordid lies. As she struggles to make any progress with the murder investigation, she discovers there are secrets buried inside the Cosmodrome that are so powerful they could bring about the collapse of the USSR.
In a world where no one can be trusted, Shahzoda has to walk the increasingly thin line between loyalty to the state and upholding the fragile and seemingly arbitrary rule of law.
