The Dark Clouds Shining (A Jack McColl Novel)

In this final volume of the Jack McColl/Caitlin Hanley series we pick up the action in 1921, three years after they split up in Russia. McColl is sprung from jail by MI-6 (foreign intelligence) and returns to Russia to foil a MI-5 (domestic intelligence including India) plot to assassinate Gandhi. Of course he meets up with his old flame Caitlin who is working in the Women’s Bureau run by Alexandra Kollontai, a real person. Although working very hard for the revolution, Caitlin is increasingly demoralized by the course the Russian Revolution has taken. The thrill of a radically new society is turning into a police state with an omnipresent bureaucracy. This is not what she fought the revolution for.The assassins which include McColl and Hanley’s old nemesis Aiden Brady are also disillusioned. Their goal is to kill the “Menshevik” Gandhi and with that end a Russo-British trade deal that would torpedo Lenin’s New Economic Program. Yes, the plot is a bit contorted. Along the way we meet the detective and Chekist Yuri Komarov, a well- drawn character, who is both a cynic and a supporter of the revolution. He is not a real person, but we do meet Yacov Peters, the real number two in the Cheka.McColl and Hanley venture from Moscow to Tashkent and then on to India. In India we meet a Sherlock Holmes-like detective who adds spice to the story. At times the book is plodding, but it ends with suspense and high drama.

If you’re an expert in the Russian Revolution and the politics surrounding those events, you’ll like this book. If not, it’s the big yawn.The characters were unlike able and the plot was convoluted and dense with Chekas, Bolshevism, Whites and other arcane bits of Russian history.Mainly for professors and other history mavens.

Once again, Mr. Downing amazes me. I could hardly put this book down, having lived through the Jack/Catlin/Brady triangle of three previous books. I was so delighted to hear of this final installment, I did something I hardly ever do - I BOUGHT it! The perfect ending to the Jack McColl series - or is it? David, please continue with your historical fiction, it breaks me out on my NON-fiction stagnation. Cheers!

I learned more of the subtleties of the Russian revolution than before. More importantly, as fiction, the book brought alive the revolution with interesting, thoughtful characters. Bravo.

Great book - such great story telling. Characters come out of the page.

Another great yarn to finish this terrific series. A wonderful combination of fact and fiction. Perhaps another episode please David.

I found this book to be a perfect ending to a totally fascinating series. I recommend it to all readers of great historyseries novels.

It's the fourth in a fascinating series. I've yet to read it. The others were great reads.

This completes Downing's Jack McColl series, with an ambitious plot played out across thousands of miles of the still-new Soviet Union in 1921, from Moscow to Smarkand and down into India. Downing excels at putting himself into the shoes of very different people - idealists, conspirators, fanatics, spies, ordinary people trying to get by.I know a fair amount about the period - my mother's family lived there in this period - and I'm astonished by the accuracy of the book. I think you do need to be interested in the Russian revolution and sympathetic to its best ideals to enjoy the book - there are convincing descriptions of many types of men and women, but the author's sympathies are clearly with the idealists trying to make the Soviet Union match their dreams.

I have now read all the author's works and they convey much more than the story. Also included are the thinking behind a character's motives and actions which help to keep the historical context so real.

Great story with lots of twists and turns,

Seems to drag on too much. The previous books seemed to advance at a much better pace.

The book is historically very interesting. Quite thrilling too.