Leningrad, winter 1952. An invisible killer known as Koshchei – a nightmare of Slavic folklore – stalks the streets, leaving a distinctive and gruesome mark upon its victims.

Three thousand kilometres away in a Gulag labour colony, threatened by the vicious criminals who rule the camp and tormented by the Arctic cold, former militia lieutenant Revol Rossel is close to death.

But then a brutal saviour descends from the skies: the state security interrogator who years ago ruined his life is back, tasking Rossel with tracking down the murderer.

As the hunt continues, the two men uncover riddle after riddle, including a clue to finding a weapon of unimaginable power – a weapon the Kremlin's scheming plotters will kill for...

'A cleverly constructed thriller' * Sunday Times. *
'A fantastically tense atmosphere, thickly spread with historical detail, makes this a spine-tingling page-turner' * The Sun *
'Enthralling ... The dark story is leavened with sharp dialogue and flashes of dry wit' * Financial Times *
'Ben Creed has a genuine gift for conjuring up Stalin's Leningrad in all its beauty and misery' * The Times *
PRAISE FOR CITY OF GHOSTS:
'A highly assured and entertaining debut ... Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park [...] may have a true heir' The Times.
'A worthy successor to Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko ... A fine and often moving thriller' Financial Times.
'Reminded me of Gorky Park, only I liked this tense, complex thriller even better' James Patterson.
'Gripping ... An excellent start to a new historical crime series' -- Vaseem Khan

Ben Creed is the pseudonym for Chris Rickaby and Barney Thompson. Chris found his way into advertising as a copywriter and, after working for various agencies, started his own called Everything Different. Barney is a classically trained musician who studied under the legendary conducting professor Ilya Musin at the St Petersburg Conservatory for two years. He is fluent in Russian and is now an editor.