The Troika Dolls

The Troika Dolls

Introducing a captivating new voice in crime thrillers.

Miranda Darling writes with old-school elegance, confidence and meticulous attention to detail of far flung and glamorous places, where the rich and the famous meet the gorgeous and the villainous. Bringing back the darkness of the Cold war thriller married with the depth of contemporary humanist philosophy, she lights the load with a heroine that is classic Bond crossed with Phryne Fisher on ice; dressed in pearls, cashmere and Chanel, drinking French champagne and smoking Russian cigarettes.

Meet Stevie Duveen: striking, brilliant, gifted in seven languages and all kinds of combat - and strategic analyst for Hazard Ltd, an international trouble-shooting outfit specialising in discreet and very dangerous missions. Surprise is her most effective weapon, apart from her fierce intellect, unflagging determination and razor-sharp intuition. And something even the most battle-scarred operative lacks: she cares, sometimes too much. Which is why she is nursing a broken heart and telling herself she will never fall in love again.

Called to Moscow by an old friend to assess the security risk to the head of the Russian Central Bank, she arrives to find the find the bank regulator's teenage daughter has been kidnapped. Valery Kozcov has been a fearless crusader against widespread corruption in Russia and organised crime's infiltration of the government - and now his enemies are retaliating with deadly force. What they are demanding of him is unthinkable - but they have his beloved Anya. And they will stop at nothing to silence him.

Stevie uncovers unspeakable evil as she penetrates the very heart of the Russian mafia and finds herself caught up in the terrifying world of people trafficking and sex slavery. From the murky alleys of Moscow to forests blanketed in mid-winter snow to Switzerland's exclusive alpine resorts, Stevie tries to stay one step ahead of danger as she edges ever closer to Anya and the terrible fate awaiting her.

Miranda Darling is the daughter of a long line of Australia political thinkers on the one side and a long line of Swiss aristocrats on the other. She had lived variously in Melbourne Milan, Tokyo and Dampier before a career in modeling at a young age took her to the catwalks of London, Paris and New York. She wrote her first novel, B Model (2004), while at Oxford University reading English and Modern Languages and it is now bring turned into a movie. Since that time she has completed her Masters at the ANU in Strategic Studies in Defence, joining a Think Tank in Canberra where she specialised in Non-Traditional Security Threats. She speaks seven languages, travels widely and frequently, fences, dives and rides. Miranad is married to architect Nick Tobias and they live in Sydney and their two children, Samson and Griffin, like Stevie, she is never without her pearls. The Troika Dolls is Stevie Duveen's first adventure.

The Troika Dolls
Allen and Unwin
Author: Miranda Darling
ISBN: 9781741759150
Price: $29.99