The Man From St Petersburg

By: Ken Follett

Narrated by: Richard Armitage

Read by Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Missing You)

The Man From St Petersburg is a dark tale of family secrets and political consequences. Ken Follett's masterful storytelling brings to life the danger of a world on the brink of war.

A Secret Negotiation
1914. Tensions are rising as Europe finds itself caught in a web of alliances and dangerous warmongering. To help tip the balance in their favour, Britain aims to draw Russia into an alliance with them instead of Germany. Czar Nicholas’s nephew, Prince Aleksei, is sent to London for secret naval talks with Lord Walden.

A Play for Power
Walden has a personal connection to Aleksei; his wife is Aleksei’s aunt. And they are not the only ones interested in the Russian's arrival; so too are Walden’s wilful, idealistic daughter, the head of Special Branch, and a ruthless Russian anarchist.

A World at War
With the British desperately needing a signed treaty and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the destinies of these individuals become inextricably linked, as tragedy threatens to shatter the Waldens’ complacency . . .

Critic reviews

Ken Follett has done it once more . . . goes down with the ease and impact of a well-prepared martini

Eerily plausible . . . one of Follett's finest

Entertaining but not a massive recommendation

After starting the last two Ken Follett novels, I was immediately reminded what a skilled and intelligent writer he is. This story features a great plot and is engaging from the beginning.

I have found that some of Ken Follett's novels can feature too many one-dimensional characters. This book does suffer from that problem, but it doesn't detract overly from the story.

The story is let down by the decisions of two characters in particular that just seem too unreal to be believable. Even so it was entertaining, but I would be in a hurry to recommend it.

The man of St Petersburg

As always Ken Follet take us through time and places by the hand of magnificents characters

a nice story

this is nice read. it hurt me two people survived in the end who I think should not have survived and that hurt me. but nice story. the narrator I know is good but his reading for this one was a bit slow and somehow didn't work for me.

Excellent

I could not stop listening to this book. The story is excellent, and Armitage did a supreme work giving each character a depth so is really easy to get a mental image of them and identify them along the dialogues.

Pure Excellence!

I have listened to almost all of Ken Follett's books and this is most probably the best one so far. Intriguing story excellently narrated. I was spellbound.
Absolutely live the gritty personalities and the clever twists.
Superb book!