Lethal Metal by Harry Ledowsky

Lethal Metal by Harry Ledowsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in the northern Russian port of Murmansk in 2000, this is a story of the after effects of the decline of the Soviet navy. Murmansk is now home to the Northern fleet of the Russian navy, and has become a dumping ground of Soviet naval hardware no longer in use, including the radioactive waste products from all the ship reactors from the Cold War days. Some young children playing in the woods are contaminated and are seriously ill. What follows is the investigation by a local hospital doctor and friends to find and clear the waste responsible, unaware they are dragging themselves deeper and deeper into the world of illegal arms dealers, terrorists and local mafia. The author Harry Ledowsky cleverly builds up the tension page by page revealing clever twists and turns of this very good thriller. He also uses this story line to graphically describe the outfall from the breakup of the Soviet Union, highlighting how the military hardware and even the waste is up for sale to highest bidder fuelling betrayal and corruption.

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#coldwar #ledowsky #kursk #soviet