Travel Europe Through Books

It’s October and author V M Karren has been hard at work racing to get his new novel ready for launch in a few weeks. It’s called October Revelations and is the third and final book in The Deceit of Riches Trilogy.

October Revelations, which is scheduled for release on November 12th of this year, follows the escape of a young Russian journalist Yulia Krasnova, who is targeted by corrupt government officials for her exposé of their corruption in a major Russian newspaper. Facing continual threat, she has to keep moving to stay alive. Her connections with intelligence operatives Peter Turner and Del Sanning offer her some reprieve, but it remains to be seen whether she can get the truth out without bargaining her life for it in return.

October Revelations provides the capstone of the trilogy that has been over 25 years in the making. In the first novel of the series, Karren drew from his own experiences in Russia as a young man in the mid 1990s. He thought about writing it for many years, and finally succeeded in 2017 by creating a story that was both convincing as well as entertaining to readers. Although Karren stresses that The Deceit of Riches is fiction, and not an autobiography or memoir, his experiences breathe through the story with life-like quality. The Deceit of Riches, received two international awards (NGIBA & NIEA) after its release.

Bestselling author Mike Ramsdell (A Train to Potevka) had this to say about Karren’s first book:

“This story will be entertaining and enlightening for anyone interested in this period of Russia, especially as seen through the eyes of someone who was actually there. For those who experienced Russia, while all this tumultuous change was happening, this will be a particularly great read. It is a glimpse of life that most outside of Russia and the Soviet Bloc know very little about…”

The second book of the series is called From the Rooftops. In this fast-paced novel, Karren delves deep into the criminal networks of Europe, basing his characters on real known criminals. He introduces a new protagonist: banker Elena Enescu, and setting: post-communist Romania. Again, Karren’s knowledge of the region is stellar and he lays a detailed landscape of the crime world of this region before the reader.

October Revelations is set in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as a few other eastern European and Baltic locations. Karren’s vast knowledge of the region shines through again in this historical and political thriller, as he provides more of the same seasoned understanding of what makes Russia tick. Readers will find an enthralling distillation of history, politics, culture, human interest, and suspense in this complex novel.

We thought you’d like a bit of insider information about October Revelations before it launches on November 12th. Here Karren answers our questions about his inspiration and experiences writing this particular book:

Fly-By-Night Press: What was your inspiration for the story in this book? 

A: This story/plot is based around a true incident of a cargo plane in Siberia losing its payload on the runway as it left the ground. The payload just happened to be crates filled with bars of precious metals which split open on the tarmac when they fell out of the aircraft. While I laughed and brushed it off the report, a day later I was asking myself questions about it. My speculation to those answers formed the plot of this book.  

Fly-By-Night Press: How important is the setting to the plot?  

Karren: Without the setting and the timing of the story, the plot would be unbelievable. As the story is, one can find numerable examples of a similar racket in that place and time.  

Fly-By-Night Press: Where does the title come from?  Is there an underlying message? 

Karren: The title is a play of course on the October Revolution of 1917. Revelations is the name of the (fictive) newspaper, Otkrivenje, that breaks the corruption story that sets the threats, intimidation and killing of journalists into motion. Just like the Ides of March in Rome, October is a month of omens in Russia, for good or for bad. 

Fly-By-Night Press: Who was the most interesting character to develop in this book? 

Karren: The editor-in-chief of Otkrivenje; Ludmilla Pushkarova. She was born with a steal rod for a backbone and pursues truth, justice and transparency with a holy vengeance.

Fly-By-Night Press: What do you hope the reader will take away after reading the novel? 

Karren: First and foremost I hope the reader is entertained. Secondly, I hope the reader comes to understand and sympathize with the plight of Russian journalists as too many have been murdered in the last 25 years, even more attacked and intimidated, Thirdly, I hope the reader is better able to recognize official corruption wherever it happens and call it out, even when they feel helpless to fix it. Corruption thrives when citizens keep their eyes and mouths shut.

Book Launch & Event

Interested in your own copy of October Revelations or either of its prequels? Check HERE for ordering details.

Printed copies will also be available at The English Bookstore in Maastricht (Netherlands), where Karren will be officially launching October Revelations, on Saturday, November 13th at 14.00. More information is available HERE.