Publisher's Synopsis
Remnants of an old Soviet penal colony destroyed long ago, and a commander long thought dead, haunt an American family sent to manage Russia's new hotel in Siberia.
A husband-wife management team, Vera and Dolan Crane lose their jobs at a New York hotel. But is it good fortune when they're offered a management job at triple their former salary, for only four months work? Vera, conditioned by years of her grandmother's terrifying stories of Soviet cold war conquest, and the death of her grandfather at the hands of the Russian KGB, reluctantly travels to Siberia with her husband, Dolan, and 12 year old daughter Sheri, to manage Russia's new resort hotel. Once at the Siberian hotel, the Cranes meet a young Russian named Igor, who, like Russians in general, Vera doesn't trust. After the guest and Igor leave for the winter, the first night alone, Vera is haunted by sounds and images of the old Soviet empire's prison system. Soon after, the Dolan's are menaced by a KGB commander from Russia's dark past. Beyond the hotel walls lies the remnants of Siberia's largest penal colony, long thought destroyed. And the KGB commander, long thought dead; waits to enslave Vera and her family. The KGB commander has unnatural plans, even the Soviet KGB in its day found impossible. But first he needs the Americans in order to set foot beyond the Lair of the Red Wolves colony. Vera must overcome her fear and mistrust of all Russians, from years of indoctrination, to save her family. Her only hope to escape the penal colony's commander comes from the young Russian, Igor. The young man she's been in conflict from the first day in the hotel. To compound Vera's troubles, she faces Russia's notorious winter, and, her daughter, Sheri, befriends a mysterious young girl who ventures out from the wall of the hotel's reading room stationed in the basement of the hotel.
