1917—Empress Alexandria understands that the Bolsheviks will soon topple the Czar. She charges her godson, Kirik Pirogov, to carry the imperial crown of Catherine the Great and a cache of Romanov jewelry to a secret Czarist refuge in western China. Alexandra, determined to continue the direct line of the Romanov Dynasty, charges her youngest daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia, to forsake Russia and seek refuge in a White Russian community in western China.

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Kirik and Anastasia make the perilous journeys across Siberia via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Their story is told against the background of revolution, their hardscrabble life in the Russian village, constant fear of the Soviet secret police, and unscrupulous treasure-hunters.

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Lamplight Press, 2013

513 pages

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches