The Shadow of the Czar

The year is 1845. Captain Paul Cressingham, restless with garrison duty in Corfu, wanders into the dark pine forests of Dalmatia seeking something he cannot name. What he finds is Barbara, a young woman who has fled a convent under circumstances she refuses to fully explain, her eyes bright with terror and defiance. She is being hunted. Something in her voice, in the way she looks over her shoulder at every shadow, tells Paul that the danger following her reaches far beyond local authorities. It stretches all the way to St. Petersburg. As Paul and Barbara navigate the rocky coast and ancient villages of Dalmatia, they are drawn into a web of political intrigue and ecclesiastical power. Cardinal Ravenna moves in the background like a smoke, his allegiances unclear, his reach long. The shadow of the Czar falls across this frontier land, and the couple must decide what they will sacrifice to survive it. Carling builds tension with the deliberate pace of old adventure novels, layering rustic atmosphere over currents of danger that surface without warning. For readers who want their historical romance with teeth: a tale of flight through a twilight empire, where chivalry might be foolishness and love might be a death sentence.