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La Reliquia de Rasputín
SOLO SE CONSERVA DE ÉL UNA MANO INCORRUPTA, PERO EN ELLA SE HALLAN EL PODER Y LA MUERTE. Antes de dedicarse a la literatura a tiempo completo, William Valtos trabajó como ejecutivo publicitario con gran éxito, y ganó el codiciado premio Clio. Su novela "Resurrection" inspiró la producción de la HBO "Almost Dead". Pensilvania. Época actual. Descubren una mano amputada en una caja de seguridad que lleva cerrada más de cincuenta años. La nota que envuelve la extremidad, escrita en antiguo eslavo, dice que es la mano derecha de Rasputín, el legendario monje que murió en 1916. Aun así, está en perfecto estado de conservación, y de la herida todavía brota sangre. Los fieles creen que las reliquias tienen el poder de curar. Sin embargo, todos aquellos que entran en contacto con la mano empiezan a morir. Esta extraña serie de defunciones es el pistoletazo de salida de una carrera contrarreloj; cuando Victor Rhostok empieza a investigar, se ve arrastrado a una red de misticismo y superstición rusa.
«Los lectores de Dan Brown no dudarán en incluir a Valtos en su lista de autores indispensables. Con su ágil prosa nos conduce a buen ritmo a través de leyendas como la de Rasputín para sorprendernos al volver cada página.»—Review Journal
«El autor de ‘La Magdalena’ vuelve pegando fuerte para tratar otra leyenda histórica, la de Rasputín, que tanto ha dado que hablar. No puedes perdértelo.»—Kirkus Review
«Un thriller vertiginoso al mismo estilo de ‘El Código DaVinci’.»—Tribune Herald
«Un buen misterio que vale la pena leer, con un punto de vista diferente sobre la leyenda de Rasputín.»—Denver Post
«Los lectores de Dan Brown no dudarán en incluir a Valtos en su lista de autores indispensables. Con su ágil prosa nos conduce a buen ritmo a través de leyendas como la de Rasputín para sorprendernos al volver cada página.»—Review Journal
«El autor de ‘La Magdalena’ vuelve pegando fuerte para tratar otra leyenda histórica, la de Rasputín, que tanto ha dado que hablar. No puedes perdértelo.»—Kirkus Review
«Un thriller vertiginoso al mismo estilo de ‘El Código DaVinci’.»—Tribune Herald
«Un buen misterio que vale la pena leer, con un punto de vista diferente sobre la leyenda de Rasputín.»—Denver Post
- GenresFictionRussiaHistorical
379 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
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121 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 21, 2011
I don't remember how I heard about The Rasputin Relic but I ordered it and, once I started reading it I had a very hard time time putting it down. This is one of those books that, as a novel has some flaws, but as story-telling is just flat mesmerizing - appropriately so considering the subject matter.
The story begins in a Pennsylvania town that has slipped into decline since the closing of the mines that once made the entire area prosperous and attracted thousands of immigrants,largely Eastern European and Russian to work in those mines. Since I grew up not far from there I heard stories about the hundreds of miles of mining shafts under towns where fires burned for years, noxious gasses were emitted, and sudden collapses and cave-ins shook the entire town. Because many of the immigrants were Eastern Orthodox the skylines of these towns were punctuated with onion-dome steeples and I have lots of memories of looking at those skylines and being intrigued by those exotic-looking churches throughout the Lackawana River Valley.
The story opens in Middle Valley, Pennsylvania where Viktor Rhostok, a third generation Russian-American, is the acting chief of police. An old man named Vanya has died under very mysterious circumstances - he was confined to the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital - and, though the coroner rules it an accident, Rhostok has his doubts about an 80 year old man managing to crush all the bones in his right hand before falling off the roof of the hospital. The old man, it turns out, is one of three old men who have died in different parts of the country, all with destroyed right hands - and, Rhostok discovers, all veterans of the WWII era 101 Airborne all of whom were part of Operation Overlord, the preparation for D-Day. Rhostok knows one thing for sure, they might have been old men, but they were not weak, easily intimidated old men. (I want to add that, as the story progressed, I could not help but be reminded of Chekov's play, Uncle Vanya, the theme of which was unhappy people and wasted lives.)
Two months later another strange death occurs. Vanya's 50-something son returns from Las Vegas with a stunningly beautiful young wife and, within a few weeks, dies while making love to his bride. The young widow, still in shock, discovers a key to a safety deposit box that her father-in-law rented in 1946 and which has not been opened since. When the box is finally opened it is found to contain a huge male hand, still plump and bloody and fresh. Within hours the game is a-foot and all the people present at the opening of the box begin to die - all of them bleeding to death.
Rhostok, who was taught to read an ancient and arcane form of Russian, is the only one present who recognizes the writing on the paper in which the relic is wrapped. It is the name Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the Mad Monk of Russia who beguiled the Tsarina Alexandra and was credited with saving the life of her young hemophiliac son, Alexi. It is up to Rhostok to find out what is going on, why all these people are dying, and to do it all while keeping it quiet lest unwanted publicity erupt into religious hysteria.
The book is just plain fascinating. The writing is straight-forward and never intrusive and the author, William M. Valtos, has done a tremendous amount of research. In the past I have criticized books for containing long passages of speeches and explanations - a fictional form that seems to be growing in popularity since The Da Vinci Code: A Novel: 1 - and Valtos' characters do a lot of that but the stories they have to tell are so interesting I was very willing to overlook the form. The plot involves phenomenal amounts of Russian history, culture, mythology, religious mysticism, and medical anomalies. There is discussion of the phenomena of the "incorruptibles", the role of the 101st Airborne, and contemporary biological warfare.
And some of the characters are just great. Rhostok is delicious, as are the two women he is forced to deal with, the widow Nicole whose life has been traumatized by years of sexual abuse and slavery, and a news reporter, Robyn, who is only too willing to use her sexuality to get what she wants. There are mad scientists and another equally mad Russian priest as well as a pantheon of really nasty bad guys.
If you are intrigued by Russian history and willing to suspend disbelief, this is a delicious read. I found it to be somewhat reminiscent of some of the books by one of my favorite authors Arturo Perez-Reverte, especially The Flanders Panel and The Club Dumas. I've ordered Valtos' novel La Magdalena: A Theo Nikonos Mystery and if it is as good as this one I'll be thrilled.
The story begins in a Pennsylvania town that has slipped into decline since the closing of the mines that once made the entire area prosperous and attracted thousands of immigrants,largely Eastern European and Russian to work in those mines. Since I grew up not far from there I heard stories about the hundreds of miles of mining shafts under towns where fires burned for years, noxious gasses were emitted, and sudden collapses and cave-ins shook the entire town. Because many of the immigrants were Eastern Orthodox the skylines of these towns were punctuated with onion-dome steeples and I have lots of memories of looking at those skylines and being intrigued by those exotic-looking churches throughout the Lackawana River Valley.
The story opens in Middle Valley, Pennsylvania where Viktor Rhostok, a third generation Russian-American, is the acting chief of police. An old man named Vanya has died under very mysterious circumstances - he was confined to the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital - and, though the coroner rules it an accident, Rhostok has his doubts about an 80 year old man managing to crush all the bones in his right hand before falling off the roof of the hospital. The old man, it turns out, is one of three old men who have died in different parts of the country, all with destroyed right hands - and, Rhostok discovers, all veterans of the WWII era 101 Airborne all of whom were part of Operation Overlord, the preparation for D-Day. Rhostok knows one thing for sure, they might have been old men, but they were not weak, easily intimidated old men. (I want to add that, as the story progressed, I could not help but be reminded of Chekov's play, Uncle Vanya, the theme of which was unhappy people and wasted lives.)
Two months later another strange death occurs. Vanya's 50-something son returns from Las Vegas with a stunningly beautiful young wife and, within a few weeks, dies while making love to his bride. The young widow, still in shock, discovers a key to a safety deposit box that her father-in-law rented in 1946 and which has not been opened since. When the box is finally opened it is found to contain a huge male hand, still plump and bloody and fresh. Within hours the game is a-foot and all the people present at the opening of the box begin to die - all of them bleeding to death.
Rhostok, who was taught to read an ancient and arcane form of Russian, is the only one present who recognizes the writing on the paper in which the relic is wrapped. It is the name Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the Mad Monk of Russia who beguiled the Tsarina Alexandra and was credited with saving the life of her young hemophiliac son, Alexi. It is up to Rhostok to find out what is going on, why all these people are dying, and to do it all while keeping it quiet lest unwanted publicity erupt into religious hysteria.
The book is just plain fascinating. The writing is straight-forward and never intrusive and the author, William M. Valtos, has done a tremendous amount of research. In the past I have criticized books for containing long passages of speeches and explanations - a fictional form that seems to be growing in popularity since The Da Vinci Code: A Novel: 1 - and Valtos' characters do a lot of that but the stories they have to tell are so interesting I was very willing to overlook the form. The plot involves phenomenal amounts of Russian history, culture, mythology, religious mysticism, and medical anomalies. There is discussion of the phenomena of the "incorruptibles", the role of the 101st Airborne, and contemporary biological warfare.
And some of the characters are just great. Rhostok is delicious, as are the two women he is forced to deal with, the widow Nicole whose life has been traumatized by years of sexual abuse and slavery, and a news reporter, Robyn, who is only too willing to use her sexuality to get what she wants. There are mad scientists and another equally mad Russian priest as well as a pantheon of really nasty bad guys.
If you are intrigued by Russian history and willing to suspend disbelief, this is a delicious read. I found it to be somewhat reminiscent of some of the books by one of my favorite authors Arturo Perez-Reverte, especially The Flanders Panel and The Club Dumas. I've ordered Valtos' novel La Magdalena: A Theo Nikonos Mystery and if it is as good as this one I'll be thrilled.
March 28, 2018
I hated the female characters of this book. Read it because I'm very intrigued by Rasputin and thought would have more info on him.. instead I was caught in the middle of some policial novel in a small town in the US which was far from my interest. However the story was very well researched and I liked the way it was told, so I kept reading it. I didn't love it but it wasn't terrible.
June 9, 2025
3.5
No fue lo que esperaba, creí que sería algo mas esoterico, pero estuvo policiaco y no me desagrado
Lo que me desquició, fue que solo 1 mujer no fue descrita hacia lo sexual, y el protagonista creyendo que todas las mujeres se le insinuaban pero haciendose el heroe por contenerse le da en la madre.
No fue lo que esperaba, creí que sería algo mas esoterico, pero estuvo policiaco y no me desagrado
Lo que me desquició, fue que solo 1 mujer no fue descrita hacia lo sexual, y el protagonista creyendo que todas las mujeres se le insinuaban pero haciendose el heroe por contenerse le da en la madre.
March 11, 2018
Me quedo a deber, una trama muy lenta y poco desarrollo de los personajes
La ambientación hubiera cobrado fuerza si la historia hubiera se hubiera desarrollado en Rusia
El final predecible, sobre sale los datos históricos pero nada que resalte en la trama de la misma historia
La ambientación hubiera cobrado fuerza si la historia hubiera se hubiera desarrollado en Rusia
El final predecible, sobre sale los datos históricos pero nada que resalte en la trama de la misma historia
June 17, 2020
Vahel harva sunnib Lugemise väljakutse ka tõelist kräppi lugema :( noh, nüüd on see tehtud
February 26, 2023
Kohutav, ülepaisutatud müstiline jamps.
March 1, 2016
I loved this book!!!!! It's great, I always had a great interest about Rasputin's story and this book impelled me to know more about Rasputin's life. On the other hand, it's a great thriller, very intriguing, good from the very first page until the ending! I recommend it!!
trad.: Adorei este livro!!!! É fantástico, eu sempre tive um grande interesse pela história de Rasputin e este livros impeliu-me a conhecer mais sobre a sua vida. Por outro lado, é um thriller fantástico, muito intrigante, bom desde a primeira página até ao final! Recomendo!
trad.: Adorei este livro!!!! É fantástico, eu sempre tive um grande interesse pela história de Rasputin e este livros impeliu-me a conhecer mais sobre a sua vida. Por outro lado, é um thriller fantástico, muito intrigante, bom desde a primeira página até ao final! Recomendo!
May 8, 2024
Disfrute mucho leyéndolo. Opino que el final es decepcionante, y me pareció bastante molesta la descripción del personaje femenino, que lamentablemente no solo no sumaba nada a la trama, sino estaba simplemente para satisfacer la fantasía erótica del escritor. Cada vez que era mencionada simplemente hacia enfoque es sus atributos físicos y la atracción que los personajes masculinos sentían hacia ella.
April 9, 2009
A fast moving mystery that will keep you at the edge of your seat until its finished. It is a mixture of real history and some almost believable fiction. All in all a pleasure to read.
February 19, 2011
Uma escrita rica em enredo e personagens, adorei!
January 10, 2013
O título em portugal é "A Mão de Rasputine"
Foi a primeira obra que li de William Valtos e não achei nada de especial. Não digo que tenha dado o tempo como perdido, mas enfim...
Foi a primeira obra que li de William Valtos e não achei nada de especial. Não digo que tenha dado o tempo como perdido, mas enfim...
March 9, 2014
I couldn't finish this book because his female characters were ridiculous. The story was OK, but didn't keep me entertain enough to finish.
November 24, 2013
Este sería el libro que una Dan Brown para dormir, tiene la misma intriga que un capítulo de Heidi
March 2, 2015
Fantasía intensa
La obra te atrapa desde el inicio. Tiene una forma de ser relatada que te introduce en todo el misticismo que conlleva su lectura.
La obra te atrapa desde el inicio. Tiene una forma de ser relatada que te introduce en todo el misticismo que conlleva su lectura.
August 18, 2014
Fascinante, emocionante e intenso, o encontro perfeito entre religião e ciência no mundo moderno.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews