The Romanov Conspiracy

June 18, 2012
A British plot to rescue the imprisoned Nicholas II and his family from the Bolsheviks propels this intriguing if overly long historical from Meade (The Second Messiah). In the present, Dr. Laura Pavlov, while engaged in an archeological dig outside the Russian city of Ekaterinburg, discovers an unidentified female body preserved in the permafrost. In the corpse’s hand is a locket with the seal of the Romanovs that may hold a clue to their fate. Flashback to 1918. The agent in charge of the rescue mission, Irish-Canadian Joe Boyle, enlists Lydia Ryan, an Irish gun runner, and Uri Andrev, an escaped czarist army captain, in what proves to be a wildly complex effort involving scores of characters to save the Russian royal family. While Meade strains at time to dovetail fiction with history, he puts a fresh spin on the mystery surrounding the deaths of the Romanovs, in particular the possible escape of princess Anastasia. Agent: Claudia Cross, Sterling Lord Literistic.