Dancing With Shadows

The Puppet Meisters Trilogy #2

by Adrian Churchward

Human rights lawyer of the year Scott Mitchell is publicly arrested on suspicion of laundering $250 million for the Chechen mafia. The social media trolls come out in force to vilify him and he’s immediately sacked from his six-figure job at a prestigious London law firm. With the threat of a criminal trial, no employment prospects, no income, and dwindling savings, Scott sets out to prove his innocence.
As he embarks on a journey taking him to Malta, Hungary and Russia, he becomes a pawn in a power play being fought out in the shadows between UK and Russian intelligence agencies. Scott must choose between his unswerving belief in the supremacy of the rule of law and pragmatism…
'Dancing With Shadows' is the second book in The Puppet Meisters trilogy, dealing with state abuse of power.

333 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2017

About the author

Between 1984 and 1998 Adrian Churchward lived and worked in Moscow, Budapest and Prague as an East-West trade lawyer, representing British, American and German corporations. During this period he became proficient in
translating Russian commercial and legal texts into English. He was one of the few Western lawyers working in the day-to-day arena of President Gorbachev's liberalisation process of perestroika and glasnost, and which ultimately resulted in the collapse of communism and disintegration of the Soviet Union. In 1991, he witnessed the abortive coup against Gorbachev and in 1993, he was again present in Moscow when Yeltsin ordered the shelling of the Russian parliament building, aka the "The Russian White House". He lives in London, has two daughters, three grandsons and a cat that eats furniture. Read more about Adrian at www.adrianchurchward.com.

Reviews

[Kieran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic follow up to the impressive "Moscow Bound" - the sequel follows Scott Mitchell (laconic human rights lawyer) on his odyssey of paranoia as the screws tighten around him.

The book is written in the traditions of Le Carré, Clancy, Ian Fleming, Ludlum and even Kafka in portraying an atmospheric and claustrophobic thriller with additional Anglo-Russo political undertones set against the "Second Cold War". It rifles with conspiracy and danger, has three dimensional characters and the breakneck plot has devastating effects. I couldn't recommend this one enough - the read of the year for me.

[Toni Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book #2, in The Puppet Meisters trilogy

“Dancing With Shadows” is the second book dealing with state abuse of power featuring Scott Mitchell, a human rights lawyer. This sequel to “Moscow Bound” is a gripping and exciting read from start to finish. This time we have Scott on suspicion of laundering $250 million for the Chechen mafia and we follow him through a sea of untrustworthy characters from London, to different Russian cities, to Budapest and Malta in a cat and mouse game while he tries to prove his innocence.

Scott is the lead in this story but many characters we came to know in the first book are re-introduced and play important roles: Ekaterina, Gravchenko and Pravda. Ms. Churchward doesn’t shy away from introducing multiple new characters also. The plot has multiple threads to follow that need our attention and can be overwhelming but the author set the stage expertly by including a group of well-developed players, beautiful surroundings and a touch of gastronomy delights. No doubt, this gripping tale filled with unexpected twists and turns is well worth reading. If you enjoy a thriller rifles with conspiracy and danger and have a soft spot for some Anglo-Russian shenanigans, give this one a try.

My thanks to NetGalley and to Silverwood Books for the opportunity to read this book

[Shruti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Scott Mitchell is a human rights lawyer who is arrested on money laundering charges in a very public manner. The whole case seems shady, but that doesn’t stop social media trolls from passing their judgement. In a classic case of “I came out to have a good time and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now“, he gets involved in a lot of legal turmoil and power plays by government officials in UK and Russia, when all he wanted was his lawyer of the year award.

This is a story that should work. Churchward has all the elements in place–an oligarch, a shady professor, scheming police officers, and meddling Russian military officials. But this huge list of elements is probably why this story doesn’t work. There’s just an information dump. And people keep getting added to the mix, as the others die.

The writing was stellar, but it wasn’t used properly in the story. There’s a lot of information that doesn’t really help the story in any way. Take this one for example:

“…He wouldn’t do so, but he wanted to hear her voice again, to hold her; better still, to be held by her. It was a familial type of yearning, nothing sexual.”

This comes a paragraph after one explaining how the main character and Sophie (the “her”) were almost like brother and sister. We don’t care. You don’t need to dump all this information on us. If a woman other than the presumed love interest even talks to Scott, the author is quick to point out that she is gay. And don’t even get me started about Ekaterina, the love interest. She’s written poorly and is extremely one-dimensional.

This book could have been so much better than it actually is. I hope the next book by this author does better and holds my interest even beyond the blurb.

[Jeremy Reppy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best suspense novels I have read in awhile. The main character, Scott Mitchell, is a British human rights lawyer who has been framed as helping launder money for Chechnyans and the story focuses on his efforts to prove his innocence, which is a complicated process involving powerful figures in Russia and the British government, all of whom have their own agendas that they want Scott to assist with.

The story is full of twists and turns and just when you think you are piecing it all together, there is another surprise twist. The author does a great job of maintaining a complex plot with interesting and somewhat mysterious characters and plenty of action. The story is also very topical, with mention of events that actually happened in 2016, as well as references to doxing, use of Twitter as a source of breaking news and a source for personal attacks and defamation, and the Panama Papers. The story focuses on Russia and the powerful people around Putin, as well as issues involving Ukraine, Chechnya, Russian oligarchs, corruption, and money laundering.

I want to read the previous novel, as well as the third book in the series.

I received a copy of the e-book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

[Hannelore Cheney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 2nd book in the Puppet Meisters Trilogy is even better than the 1st, Moscow Bound. I enjoyed it a lot.
Scott Mitchell, British human rights lawyer, is suspected of laundering $250 million for the Chechen mafia. As he tries to prove his innocence, it takes him from London through Russia, Budapest and Malta. I particularly loved the visit to Malta as I spent 3 weeks there on holiday.
The whole atmosphere of the different locales, the suspense and also the foods, yum, is a treat, like being on an adventurous vacation.
The brutal machinations of those in power is frightening and very relevant - all you have to do is turn on the news to realize how real all this is.
Holding my breath at times, fearing for Scott's life, I found him more fleshed out in this story and was rooting for him all the way. Highly recommended!

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this novel, but once I did, I was hooked. Our protagonist is a British attorney who generally dealt with human rights cases. His last major victory was over the Russian government in dealing with the Chechen situation. He is, afterwards, publicly arrested for money laundering, loses his job and begins a search for those who are attempting to destroy him. The story, after the slow start, is riveting and his adventures will quickly grab the reader’s interest. The ending makes the reader think and hope there will be more to come. Thanks to Net Galley and the Author for an ARC for an honest review.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absolutely thrilling story with lots of twists and turns. I would rate it higher but at times it felt like there were too many characters being introduced in ways that made them seem like they were important, when really they were more background characters (which just got very distracting). Corrupt government and a lawyer fighting for human rights is a great setup for tension and thrills. I couldn't help but hold my breath at times, waiting to see how Mitchell would escape when the powers that be were after him. Overall an enjoyable read.

[Tom Cobley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another white knuckled ride around Moscow and further afield and a further insight into the underworld activities of those government agencies we wouldn’t want to become involved with. If you’ve lived there it brings back memories of the places and sights and if not then the detailed descriptions make you feel as though you are actually present.
Give yourself some time when you read this, you’ll find your day will go as you’re gripped to find out what happens next.

[Asia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I was immediately intrigued by the idea of a lawyer fighting for his own innocence. Once you add in the sketchy police charges and all the officials that have an interest in the outcome, sounds like a great read. Overall this book was entertaining.

Scott was a very interesting main character. Having a lawyer at the centre of the very serious accusation of laundering millions really got me invested in the story. I had this constant feeling that Scott was in panic mode, not understanding how he got into this predicament and why it was so complicated to get out of it all. He was a human rights lawyer receiving an award when arrested. How could this happen….and why?

The plot of the story had twists and turns. I had no idea which way it was going to go. With so many people influencing the outcome of the case, it was hard to tell who was actually on Scott’s side. Were the officials really trying to help or Were their motives selfish? This book kept me guessing.

The issues I had with the book that made this a two and a half star rating were the other characters. There were so many characters and new ones were being introduced throughout. I had a very hard time remembering who they were and what their significance was. It felt like I hadn’t even come to understand the characters’ motives before another one was introduced, and found myself spending a bit too much time trying to remember who was who.

Overall it was an interesting read but I felt like it had more potential. With all that being said, I think it could make a really good movie; the plot was great and having the visual would help keep everything straight I think.