Wolf by the Ears ~ Lexi Revellian

• Title: Wolf by the Ears
• Author: Lexi Revellian
• Genre: Mystery
• Format: Kindle
• Source: Own
• Reviewed by: Olga
• Rating: 3 out of 5

Description:  When Tyger Rebel Thomson starts working for a Russian oligarch, she could be on her way to the life of her dreams – assuming, that is, she lives long enough to get there.

Grisha Markovic is a man with enemies. He’s loathed by the Kremlin, under observation by MI6, involved in acrimonious litigation over a Siberian gold mine, and rumoured to possess an explosive dossier containing details of a massive Russian tax fraud.

Grisha is impressed with Tyger’s intelligence; he takes a fatherly interest in her and makes her his personal assistant. This could be the break she has been hoping for. But after a mysterious driver tries to run her down, she begins to suspect that the death of his last PA may not have been an accident.

Review:  This book was surprisingly quiet and low key for a story about the Russian Mafia and MI6. But was it really about that? Or was it about a young woman finding her place in the world?

The protagonist Tyger works as a cleaner for the Russian oligarch Grisha. All she wants is to get education, save for a small flat of her own, and get a good job. But then the job of Grisha’s assistant falls in her lap, and with it all the attendant perils and perks.

When six weeks later, Grisha dies, purportedly from a heart attack, Tyger doesn’t believe it. She knows he was targeted by the Russian government. It must be an assassination. When no one wants to bother investigating his death, Tyger is the only one who persists. While for everyone else he was a super-rich and ruthless businessman, for her he was a nice old man and a good employer. He was kind to her, and in return, she mourns him, seemingly the only one who does. She wouldn’t let his death go unpunished, even if it means risking her own life.

The story flowed easily, always maintaining the right balance between tension and faint humor. It was a light read, undemanding and quick, and I enjoyed it, even though occasionally I rolled my eyes in disbelief and thought “yeah, right!”

Not a bad addition to the ‘amateur PI’ book collection.

I’d also like to point out that for a self-published book, the writing was amazingly clean and terse, free of mistakes, utterly professional. One of the best self-pubs I’ve read.