Rasputin's Revenge

Praise for the novels
of John Lescroart

The Oath
A People
Page-Turner

“A particularly strong plot.”—
Los Angeles Times

“Topical and full of intrigue.”—
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Gripping, timely, and extremely satisfying.”—
Booklist

“Lescroat skillfully balances his story, blending the action of the plot with the satisfying details of Hardy’s and Glitsky’s personal lives. The minutiae of marriages, children, and domestic routines not only round out the characters but provide a smart counterpoint to the cops-and-lawyer stuff. And unlike so many other authors, Lescroart handles social commentary with a deft touch.”—
The Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Hearing

“A spine-tingling legal thriller.”—Larry King,
USA Today

“Highly entertaining.”—
Chicago Tribune

“Excellent stuff.”—
San Jose Mercury News

Nothing But the Truth

“The novel’s pacing is reminiscent of classic Ross MacDonald, where a week’s worth of events is condensed into a few hours … a winning thriller.”—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“Riveting … one of Lescroat’s best tales yet.”—
Chicago Tribune

“A rousing courtroom showdown.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

The Mercy Rule

“A thought-provoking and important novel … well written, well plotted, well done.”—Nelson DeMille

“Readers of
The 13th Juror
will already be off reading this book, not this review. Join them.”—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Guilt

“Begin
Guilt
over a weekend…. If you start during the workweek, you will be up very, very late, and your pleasure will be tainted with, well, guilt.”—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

“A well-paced legal thriller … one of the best in this flourishing genre to come along in a while.”—
The Washington Post Book World

A Certain Justice

“Lescroart swings for the fences with a West Coast take on
The Bonfire of the Vanities
… a richly satisfying thriller.”
—
Kirkus Reviews

The 13th Juror

“Fast-paced … sustains interest to the very end.”
—
The Wall Street Journal

Hard Evidence

“A hefty, engrossing legal thriller … compulsively readable, a dense and involving saga of big-city crime and punishment.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle

ALSO BY JOHN LESCROART

The Oath
The Hearing
Nothing But the Truth
The Mercy Rule
Guilt
A Certain Justice
The 13th Juror
Hard Evidence
The Vig
Dead Irish
Son of Holmes
Sunburn

N
EW
A
MERICAN
L
IBRARY
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand,
London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road,
Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
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Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads,
Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

Published by New American Library, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in hardcover and trade paperback editions by Donald I. Fine, Inc. For information address Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

First New American Library Printing, November 2003
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4

Copyright © John T. Lescroart, 1987
All rights reserved

Set in Bembo and Trajan
Printed in the United States of America

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION, PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEWYORK, NEW YORK 10014.

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

To Maurice E. “Les” Lescroart,
father extraordinaire,
1920–86

“It is hard to know whether
war or peace makes the greater
changes in our vocabularies,
both of the tongue and of the spirit.”

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Part One

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Part Two

15

16

17

18

19

Part Three

20

21

22

23

24

25

Epilogue

About the Author

P
REFACE

S
omeone once defined a Russian novel as a book in which people with unpronounceable names do nothing for 362 pages, at which point someone’s aunt dies.

I trust the present work will not fall into that category, although Russian names do present certain difficulties which the reader can overcome by keeping the following in mind:

—the suffix “vich” means “son of.” Thus, the czarevich is the son of the czar. Likewise, the suffix “ovna” means “daughter of.”

—almost all names have a formal and a diminutive form, often characterized by the suffix “sha” or “shka.” Thus, Rasputin’s first name is Gregory or Grishka, the Empress is Matushka, or “little mother,” and so on.

The titles “czar” and “emperor” are both correct and interchangeable, as are “czarina” and “empress.”

In 1918, Russia discontinued use of the old Julian calendar and began using our own Gregorian one. Because the events in this book took place in 1916 and 1917 and the documents are often dated, I have retained the Julian dates, which are thirteen days behind our own. This is especially important in regard to Rasputin. It is often asserted that his death on New Year’s Day, 1917, cursed the year to tragedy. If it did, the lesson escaped most Russians, since to them he did not die on January 1, 1917, but on the night of December 16, 1916.

Rasputin had several nicknames—the starets, Grishka, the black monk, tyemniy, or “the dark one,” and many more. Interestingly, the name Rasputin itself is a nickname for the man born Gregori Efimovich—it means “dissolute” or “depraved.”

I used many sources in researching this novel, but three works stand out:
Nicholas and Alexandra
by Robert K. Massie;
The Guns of August
by Barbara Tuchman; and
The Life and Times of Gregory Rasputin
by Alex de Jonge. Any liberties I may have taken with historical facts and characters—and there are many since this is a work of the imagination—are strictly my own and cannot be traced to these excellent historians.

I would like to thank Frank Seidl for sharing with me both his expertise regarding fine wines and his superb company in sampling so many of them.

Lastly, I tip my hat to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, without whom this book, or its predecessor, would not exist.

P
ROLOGUE