Leningrad 1951. Five frozen corpses are found on a railway line. Bitingly cold in every sense, it’s no mean feat for a debut novel (the first in a trilogy) to be compared with Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park, especially in the arresting opening scenes. “Ben Creed” is an author-duo who met on a writing course. In real life are: Barney Thompson, a classically trained musician and fluent Russian speaker, and Chris Rickaby, formerly an advertising copywriter from not-as-cold Newcastle on Tyne.