The producers of The Crown missed a trick. If they’d wanted a royal family with twisting storylines, a sense of the epic and genuinely world-changing pedigree, they should have focussed on the Romanovs. Even the secondary characters would have been more interesting. Paul Burrell vs Rasputin? Come on! It isn’t even a fair fight!
My new contemporary thriller, The Romanov Code, draws on the mysteries, allure and downright dazzling wonder of Russia’s last Imperial rulers. Okay, first up, let’s address the elephant in the library. Yes, I know title is far from original, but I wanted to convey the idea that this, like a certain other Code book, will present historically authentic questions and offer solutions that are both plausible and audacious.
The book opens with my private detective, Marc Novak, being approached to find the lost treasure of the Romanovs. So far so good. True enough, the last Tsar and his family left an awful lot of riches behind. Even in their final residence, the jail that was ominously known as ‘the House of Special Purpose’, they managed to conceal more jewellery and gemstones than the V&A’s insurance quota could comfortably allow them to display in a single exhibition. In fact, so many diamonds were sewn into the lining of the Romanova’s clothing that when their execution began, the jewels offered an effective bullet-proofing from the incessant gunfire.
This treasure, along with that taken from their previous residences, was catalogued and later auctioned, although several of the items in question went missing before the sale. Historians often focus on their disappearance and overlook the bigger picture: literally billions of dollars worth of gold, precious stones and royal regalia - including several of the fabled Fabergé Eggs - vanished during the period between Tsar Nicholas II’s ‘abdication’ in 1917 and the aftermath of the Romanov massacre in July, 1918.
So my detective, Marc Novak, asks two questions. First, and most obviously – what happened to all this loot? And secondly, how did the soldiers at the House of Special Purpose manage to overlook the enormous stash of precious objects the Romanovs kept in what were effectively their cells? Aside from the gems hidden in the women’s clothing - 18lb of diamonds alone were recovered – following their deaths, hundreds of other valuables were found in their rooms, ranging from gold chains and a platinum cigar case, to rubies, furs and dozens of items made of solid silver.
We know the guards were vigilant to the point of torment, implementing spot checks and vigorous searches on the Romanovs on a daily basis. So, how did the soldiers somehow miss this vast hoard as their bayonets brushed aside the blankets and their fingers sifted through the suitcases?
Well, there’s an obvious answer, of course, but it’s a fascinating thread that you can keep pulling and pulling until accepted so-called truths are slowly unravelled. And naturally, that’s exactly what Marc Novak does – not so much gently tugging these strands of inconsistency, but yanking them into the light like his life depends upon it. Which, funnily enough, it sort of does: he’s been given one week to find the Romanov riches or his friends and loved ones will be executed. As incentives go, it’s not as welcome as that offer of a 5% pay rise, but it’s a damn site more motivating.
And that’s just the start. Quite apart from the Romanovs’ missing riches, throughout history, a mind-boggling wealth of masterpieces and treasure has vanished. In the last fifty years alone thousands – let’s pause over that word – thousands of significant paintings have been stolen and never rediscovered. The ‘misplaced’ art ranges from the works of modern artists like Geddes, to Old Masters such as Rembrandt and the greats including Degas, Cezanne and Renoir. And we can add ‘ephemera’ to this mysterious roll-call… The Florentine Diamond, the Comtesse de Vendome’s necklace (valued at over $30 million), the Ivory Coast Crown Jewels, Tucker’s Cross (the most valuable object ever found in a shipwreck), the treasure stolen from the palace of Prince Faisal… All this and thousands of other irreplaceable items - poof! – gone! The police ostensibly as helpless and hapless as Inspector Clouseau seeking the Pink Panther in this continuing seepage.
Yes, make no mistake, it is a continuing seepage. Because when viewed not simply as individual thefts but an ongoing process of removal, it begins to look like a over-arching procedure.
How would you explain it?
Why not join Novak’s investigation in The Romanov Code to see if his explanation bears any resemblance to yours!
The Romanov Code by Gavin Collinson is published by Welbeck, £8.99 paperback. Also available in ebook.
'Danger, intrigue and glamour. My job's got the lot. If it wasn't for the hitmen paid to kill me and this ticking bomb of a case I should have never accepted, who knows? I might even enjoy it . . .' Private detective Marc Novak is given one week to find the lost treasure of the Romanovs, or his friends and family will be killed. But he's got to stay one step ahead of assassins, the Russian secret service and a mysterious, beautiful former spy if he's to stand any chance of saving his own life, let alone those of his loved ones. Outnumbered, outgunned but never out-thought, Novak must use all his guile and audacity if he's to unravel the deadly riddle of the Romanov Code . . .
Please visit gavincollinson.com for more information on The Romanov Code.
No comments:
Post a Comment