LIESE SHERWOOD-FABRE (Cont.)
SAVING HOPE
BLURB EXCERPT
Alexandra Pavlova must choose: save her daughter...or the
world.
In one of Siberia‟s formerly closed cities, Nadezhda
Pavlova‟s unemployed parents struggle to provide for her
following a bout with pneumonia that weakens her heart.
Racked with guilt that her former job in the Soviet Un-
ion‟s bioweapons labs may have created the child‟s heart
condition, Alexandra vows to do all she can to save her
daughter‟s life.
Through Vladimir, a lifelong friend, Alexandra enters
the post-Soviet economy and Russia‟s gray market. Her
association with Vladimir and his Iranian contacts bring
them to the attention of an FSB—formerly the KGB—
agent. When she learns of a plot to export a deadly virus
to Iran, Alexandra must decide whether she can trust Ser-
gei, the FSB agent, to help her save both her daughter
and the world. Siberia, 2000
Alexandra Pavlova jolted upright, her maternal senses
snapping to alert. The garlic she‟d placed about the room
tinged each breath and settled on her tongue. From the
overstuffed chair, she scanned the dark, finally focusing
her attention on the small lump her daughter made under
the pododeyalnik on the bed beside her. A shallow rasping
sounded from below the linen coverlet.
She leaned forward from where she‟d been keeping
vigil and peeled back the blanket to caress Nadezhda‟s
forehead. For two days, she‟d spoon-fed the girl warm
broth and tea with honey and arranged garlic cloves to
nurse her through a bad cold. She stroked Nadezhda‟s
near-white curls from her thin face and yanked back her
hand. The child‟s skin had seared her fingers.
The girl cracked her eyes and winced. “Hot, Mommy.
I‟m hot.”
Her lids fluttered shut, and she drifted back into a too
-deep sleep.
Alexandra bit her lip to stifle the cry. Her worst fear
had been realized. Pneumonia. She knew the signs only too
well after her mother‟s own battle with the disease just a
year ago.
**** Review by S. J. Stanton at Chanticleer
Book Reviews: Liese Sherwood-Fabre “comes
through with flying colors, creating her cliffhanging
thriller not only with literary
skill and authenticity regarding
life, crime, and medicine in
Russia..., but also with great
emotion and story-telling abil-
ity.”
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