Pun Salad

This book made the WSJ's best-mysteries list for 2022. And it's not too shabby, a definite page turner. Even though I was turning some of those pages pretty fast to get to the action I knew was coming up at some point.

It's a fictional take on the life of Mila Pavlichenko, a very deadly sniper for the USSR during World War II. Once a bookish Ukrainian student looking to become a historian, her career plans are knocked for a loop when Germany invades. She immediately volunteers to defend her homeland. Fortunately, she's got mad sharpshooter skills, and a knack for stealth. She becomes known as "Lady Death".

The war story intertwines with a thriller plot. Her 300+ confirmed kills bring her to the attention of Moscow, and in 1942 they send her off to America as part of a delegation to lobby FDR to open a "second front" in Europe to take pressure off the USSR. This actually happened as well. But, fictionally, there's a nasty assassination scheme afoot! An anonymous hitman, also a sharpshooter, has been hired to take out FDR and frame Mila for the deed. Thereby wrecking USA-USSR relations, sowing isolationism, and setting the stage for a fascist coup. The actual details about the plot's string-pullers, and how this was all supposed to work are left hazy.

While on tour in America, Mila becomes acquainted with Eleanor Roosevelt. I couldn't help but wonder if Eleanor would attempt to make her an intimate acquaintance, if you know what I mean. No spoilers here!

There's also a (heterosexual) romantic thread! In her teens, Mila was cruelly seduced and impregnated by Alexei, an egotistical doctor. Alexei is a full-time cad, has no interest in being a dad, so they separate but never quite divorce. Mila becomes intrigued with a charismatic Red Army officer…

So there's a lot going on. There are occasional resigned nods to the reality of Stalinism, one brief mention of the Holodomor. I found myself wondering if we'd get a neat plot twist: the Kremlin is revealed to be behind the assassination plot, placing USSR-sycophant Henry Wallace in the Oval Office. But no.