THE RASPUTIN DAGGER

Soldiers were waiting in the square.
Cossacks and Hussars - with rifles ready.
They did not order us to disperse.
Without warning bullets thudded into the marchers - men, women, children. The Singing stopped and the screaming began. Those unharmed scattered and ran. Others hobbled or crawled on all fours to get away. Banners and bunting lay torn and discarded. In the midst of the melee I stood alone, rigid in terror. An easy target. Another round of fire rattled out, spitting death. Then I was slammed to the ground as my mother threw herself across me like a human shield.
And she fell down, her face close to mine, her blood staining the snow bright red.

As a child, Stefan is rescued by Dr Konstantin from the massacre outside the Winter Palace in St Petersburg 1905. Now a young and idealistic apprentice the doctor, he wants change for Russia and to free its people from the hated Romanoff dynasty.
Nina Ivanovna's world has just collapsed. Her father is dead, her only hope is to travel to St Petersburg, to escape the past and find a future.
Amidst the chaos of a city in revolt, the two meet and...slowly, being to fall in love.
But soon Nina finds herself drawn into the lives of the Russian royal family and their mysterious monk - Grigori Rasputin. The ruby-studded dagger he carries, beautiful and deadly, will save her and Stefan from a cursed life...or condemn them to it.
In the centenary year of the Russian Revolution, Theresa Breslin's epic drama brings to life the turbulent and complex times leading up to the events of 1917.

THERESA BRESLIN is the Carnegie Medal winning author of over thirty books for children & young adults whose work has appeared on stage, radio and TV. Her books are hugely popular with young people, librarians and teachers. Remembrance, her top selling YA novel of youth in WW1, has now been reissued to include Book Notes. The Dream Master was shortlisted for the Children's Book Award. Divided City was shortlisted for ten book awards, winning two outright.