The Body Outside the Kremlin

The discovery of a body propels May’s richly evocative, if flawed, first novel. One morning in 1926, the deceased, Gennady Antonov, a prisoner in a Soviet detention camp located on a desolate island in the White Sea, is found floating in the icy waters off the island. The authorities choose another prisoner, Tolya Bogomolov, a 20-year-old mathematician serving a three-year term “for reactionary political association,” to assist in the investigation. What follows is a gripping, if lumbering, look at the desperation and grimness of prison life under early Chekist rule. Bogomolov discovers that Antonov, who worked in the museum formerly occupied by monks on the island, was tied to several suspicious recent events: the theft of gold leaf, rumors of an escape plot, and the disappearance of 38 religious icons from the museum. A flabby middle section slows the action, but this thriller deserves high marks for the captivating tone of the writing and attention to historical detail about a prison that served as a key link in the gulag chain. Readers will be curious to see what May does next. Agent: Mitchell Waters, Brandt & Hochman. (Jan.)