Maid of Baikal: A Novel of the Russian Civil War

I wrote Dynamite Fishermen and Bride of a Bygone War to clear my head after eleven years of government service in places like Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, Jeddah, and Amman.

I had already decided to write novels at age fourteen, during my first year as a boarding student at Exeter. My English instructor, a World War II combat veteran, advised those of us who wanted to follow the path of Melville, Conrad and Hemingway to first go out and live some adventures so that we would have stories that people might want to read.

My adventures started in the Middle East and continued in Washington, Europe, the Russian Far East, Maui, Utah, New York and Boston. Particularly in the Middle East and Russia, I saw failed states and failed societies but was often surprised at how much their people had in common with Americans.

This made me think about whether America might someday suffer its own breed of societal failure. During the 1930’s, Americans watched Germany, Italy and Russia and asked, “Could it happen here?”

Today, one might look around and ask the same. In writing Forty Days at Kamas, Star Chamber Brotherhood and Exile Hunter, my greatest concern was that the novels gain a readership before the events they describe come to pass.

In writing Maid of Baikal, I wanted to look on the positive side and show how a single enlightened and charismatic figure might inspire a country’s political and military elite to become worthy of governing, and thus lead their country forward to freedom and prosperity. In the historical figure of Joan of Arc, I found a template for how this might be achieved, even under the most adverse conditions. As I release Maid of Baikal for publication in late 2017, I pray that America will never fall so low as to require an American Joan to ride to its rescue.

A Final Word: When you turn the page, Kindle’s “Before You Go” feature will give you the opportunity to rate this book and share your rating and comments on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment to let your friends know about it. Better yet, post a Reader Review on Amazon.com, or on Goodreads.com or LibraryThing.com. If the book gives others a few evenings of enjoyment, they’ll be grateful that you reached out to them. And so will I.

With best wishes, Preston Fleming

Books by Preston Fleming

DYNAMITE FISHERMEN

Classic Espionage. “Civil disorder in 1980s Beirut. An extraordinary novel, each page as eruptive as the city providing the setting.” KIRKUS REVIEWS

BRIDE OF A BYGONE WAR

Realist Spy Thriller. “CIA agent in Beirut fears his past has caught up to him. An intelligent thriller teeming with vigor.” KIRKUS REVIEWS

FORTY DAYS AT KAMAS

Dystopian Political Thriller. “A brutal portrait of a dystopian America, full of dramatic irony and shocking revelation.” KIRKUS REVIEWS

STAR CHAMBER BROTHERHOOD

Dystopian Assassination Thriller. “Dystopian thriller about a prison-camp survivor enlisted to assassinate the camp’s warden. A full-bodied thriller relayed by a consummate storyteller.” KIRKUS REVIEWS

EXILE HUNTER

Dystopian Suspense Thriller. “Pure energy in print form, whether the characters are being pursued or simply talking.” KIRKUS REVIEWS

MAID OF BAIKAL

Speculative Historical Fiction. “A Russian war story that lives and breathes from a writer at the peak of his powers.” KIRKUS REVIEWS

Copyright

This eBook is a work of fiction. Names characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2017 by Preston Fleming

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form of by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN-10: 0-999-441809

ISBN-13: 978-0-9994418-0-0

For more information, go to PrestonFleming.com