Kyiv: A gripping World War II thriller

By Graham Hurley

The gripping new thriller from Graham Hurley, KYIV is set against the backdrop of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's all-consuming invasion of the Soviet Union.

'Historical fiction of a high order' The Times
'Original and compelling... The fear enveloping Kyiv as the Soviets flee radiates from every page' Financial Times

On Sunday 22nd June 1941 at 03.05, three-and-a-half million Axis troops burst into the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front to launch Operation Barbarossa. The southern thrust of the attack was aimed at the Caucasus and the oil fields beyond. Kyiv was the biggest city to stand in their way.

Within six weeks, the city was under siege. Surrounded by Panzers, bombed and shelled day and night, Soviet Commissar Nikita Khrushchev was amongst the senior Soviet officials co-ordinating the defence. Amid his cadre of trusted personnel is British defector Bella Menzies, once with MI5, now with the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.

With the fall of the city inevitable, the Soviets plan a bloody war of terror that will extort a higher toll on the city's inhabitants than the invaders. As the noose tightens, Bella finds herself trapped, hunted by both the Russians and the Germans.

As the local saying has it: life is dangerous – no one survives it.

Kyiv is part of the SPOILS OF WAR Collection, a thrilling, beguiling blend of fact and fiction born of some of the most tragic, suspenseful, and action-packed events of World War II. From the mind of highly acclaimed thriller author GRAHAM HURLEY, this blockbuster non-chronological collection allows the reader to explore Hurley's masterful storytelling in any order, with compelling recurring characters whose fragmented lives mirror the war that shattered the globe.

'You could read a lot of books before you found a tale better told' The Times

'This is a masterful novel: a war narrative, a spy thriller, and a historical fiction steeped in meticulously-researched factual detail' Dr Christine Berberich, University of Portsmouth

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jul 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781838938352

Graham Hurley

Graham Hurley is a documentary maker and a novelist. For the last two decades he's written full-time, penning nearly fifty books. Two made the short list for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, while Finisterre – the first in the Spoils of War collection – was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award. Graham lives in East Devon with his lovely wife, Lin. Follow Graham at grahamhurley.co.uk