Six Imperial Era Titles

THE KITCHEN BOY
By Robert Alexander
Penguin (January 2004), $14

Interest in the Romanovs’ final days shows no sign of waning. The opening of Russian archives has solved many decades-old mysteries, and, in this case, provided grist for fiction.

Actually, in The Kitchen Boy, Alexander artfully blends fact and fiction to show the Romanovs’ final days through the eyes of one of the royal family’s last servants. There is speculation about the missing jewels, the missing children’s bodies and more, all in a taut tale that makes the events very close and personal.