Lenin's Roller Coaster

The third volume (after Jack of Spies and One Man's Flag) in an engrossing historical series featuring an unflappable Scottish spy and a fiery Irish American journalist concentrates on the final year of World War I as it plays out on the catastrophic contours of revolutionary Russia. As a feminist and agitator, Caitlin is buoyed by the challenges of covering history-in-the-making. Her lover, Jack McColl, is up to Foreign Office skullduggery in Central Asia and Ukraine. The ferocity of the conflicts they witness as they journey through the war zones separately make them doubt both their love for each other and their commitment to their causes. With attention to vivid contemporary detail, this 100-year-old story jumps off the page. Barely mentioning the big names of the 1917 October Revolution, Downing spotlights ordinary people who are drawn to the front lines to advance or defeat the Bolshevik cause. A particularly effective thread is the attention to the revolutionists' question, "What do women want?" as Caitlin reports on Alexandra Kollontai and Maria Spiridonova, leaders of the women's corps of rival parties.