Tsarina's Crown

**Hemingway Book Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction, First Place 2023**

In 1915, Simon Temple, a young naval officer from northeast England, finds himself aboard RMS Guardian, patrolling the North Sea as part of the Germany blockade. By midyear, he's in Petrograd, Russia on a private assignment for King George. The three-month task turns into three years, embroiling him in the intrigues of two royal families, Russian politics and British espionage. As the Russian revolution consumes the country, Simon's cover is threatened, and his safety compromised. He must escape the chaos before he's captured, but his scheme becomes complicated when two others unexpectedly join him in a hasty departure.

High seas adventures. Russian vistas. Royal exposé. Political conspiracy. The stuff of which spies are made. Tsarina's Crown is a fast-paced, historical drama that leads the reader from World War I at sea to the desperation of the Russian revolution. Full of action and intrigue. And just a little romance.