It is winter 1943 and the once victorious armies of the Third Reich are on the retreat, burning, slaughtering and destroying everything in their path.
Under the command of Captain Josef Kleiser, an SS unit massacres the villagers of Prokev.
But seventeen-year-old Anatole Boniak survives, and taking refuge in the hills, he conceives a deep and brooding hatred for the SS Captain.
It is an obsession that will end in a violent confrontation and colour the Russian snows with the crimson stain of blood.
Born and brought up in Hertfordshire, Shaun Hutson now lives and writes in Buckinghamshire where he has lived since 1986. Having made his name as a horror author with bestsellers such as Spawn, Erebus, Relics and Deathday (acquiring the nicknames 'The Godfather of Gore' and 'The Shakespeare of Gore' in the process) he has since produced a number of very dark urban thrillers such as Lucy's Child, Stolen Angels, White Ghost and Purity .
A short book that brilliantly captures the fighting in Russian winter as the German assault into Russia is repulsed and the Germans forced to retreat. The protagonist is a young man who saw the German SS murder his family and destroy his village. As the slaughter continues across the Russian Steppes many emotions come into play as the young man joins an irregular group of Cossacks and fights for vengeance against the Germans. The savage treatment of the Russian peasants by the Germans is portrayed well, creating an accurate record of those dark days. While the characters are fictional, the actions depicted are horrifyingly accurate.
I have always been a fan of history, but knew only a little of World War II involving the battles between the Russians and the German armies. I found it very informative.
The story also seemed to lack credability, the main character gets shot, leaving a hole the size of a fist and next day is in a battle like nothing ever happened.