Sylvia Christmas

One Way Ticket to Moscow Sylvia Christmas

Anna Haskin, recovering from a traumatic divorce and change of social status, goes to Moscow on a complex business mission. For fifty years, five Chagall paintings have been hidden inside the Kremlin Wall. Anna is determined to return to Chicago with the Chagalls and a collection of contemporary Russian art. Anna's task becomes more frightening when she discovers that Yuri, her guide and bodyguard, is an elusive killer and that Dmitri, her lover, is an ex-KGB man and friend of the Moscow police chief. An eccentric, dedicated rabbi and a friendly American journalist help Anna to outsmart her guide and her lover, each of whom are determined to steal the Chagalls for themselves. As a rainstorm rages, Anna, with art in hand, makes her secret getaway on an overnight train from Moscow. Before leaving, she orchestrates a final encounter between the Moscow police, Dmitri, and Yuri. On his way to the final encounter Yuri collides with the police chief's car and is killed. Dmitri is left wet and empty handed in the lobby of a Moscow hotel. At the Russian borer Anna encounters one last adversary, a Jewish patriot she can't outsmart or outrun. Anna returns to Chicago a little poorer but much smarter. AUTHOR BIO: Sylvia was born in Latvia and lived in refugee camps in Germany until 1950 when her family was resettled in rural Indiana. She graduated from college, married, raised two children, and had a variety of occupations. The novel's principal character, Anna, lives out a series of adventures not unlike the author's who also worked in a Chicago art gallery and visited Moscow.