Serhii Loiko

Reis The Flight
Political thriller. Bright Star Publishing. Kyiv 2017. 430 pages
Enspired by true events, extensive research and war reporting of the former prize-winning Moscow Los Angeles Times correspondent. (L.A. Times editorial award for “Best Reporting in 2014”)

Rejected by Russian publishers for distribution (available within Russian territory only via amazon).

Foreign rights: Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania

Sergei Alyokhin, a former corrupt Russian cop hiding under a false identity in L.A., is anxious to rejoin his beloved wife Lena and two young daughters. He hasn’t seen them for three long years since he busted the cargo transport of a most powerful mafia syndicate in Russia and fled with $62 million. The mafia’s angry leader swore to find the fugitive wherever he might be, and not only get the syndicate’s money back, but avenge his son’s death. Finally Alyokhin believes that he has covered his track sufficiently and invites his wife and daughters, living under false identities in London, to join him for the desired and long awaited family reunion at a luxurious island resort in Thailand. Their flight London-Bangkok perishes with 298 people on board over eastern Ukraine. Alyokhin wants to find the culprits and take his per- sonal revenge not only on the perpetrators but also on those who ordered the heinous crime.

Returning to Russia, he volunteers to join the ranks of pro-Russian separatists. In private investigations he sides up with an ambitious and fearless US journalist Jane Ashley. They help each other to survive and uncover the truth. But their motivations are different: while Alyokhin is not much interested in politics, she wants a Pulitzer Prize which kept evading her, she wants to provide evidence and a live witness for the Hague International Tribunal trial to be. In their deadly quest amid the unfolding armed hostilities between Russia and Ukraine Alyokhin and Jane find themselves doggedly pursued by the military, special service agents, mafia syndicate professional hitmen and ... a manic serial killer, who suddenly emerges from Alyokhin’s violent past to settle old scores with the former homicide investigator.

For a variety of reasons all these forces are poised to thwart Alyokhin’s and Jane’s investigation before it gets too far and too high – into the corridors of supreme power. Very soon they come to realize that they are actually on a suicidal mission with no chance to survive. But against all odds they continue to follow the tracks they uncover. The tracks that ultimately lead them to the highest echelons of Russian power.

Authors