Everything ambitious geopolitical fiction should be.
“He was a tough guy with a big heart.” If you’re going to be gunned down in your favorite restaurant, this is a fine way to be remembered, though Alex Nicholas’s most recent wife and widow might not characterize him quite so fondly. And that doesn’t really trouble Alex these days, as he is currently living his best virtual life in the cloud. Things are a bit more complicated for his younger brother, Michael, who only wants life to return to normal. But what is normal when you find out your murdered brother lives on as some sort of AI and is wanted by President Vladimir Putin? Alex warns his brother that Putin and his cronies might come for Michael, looking for access to Alex’s source code. Michael, though, doesn’t have time to worry about the Kremlin’s strongman when he has his own job at a Fortune 500 company and his late brother’s seedier business ventures to look after. However, Putin waits for no man. The Russian president isn’t getting younger, healthier, or more patient. The time to seize power is now, and what could be more powerful than immortality, even if the physical body must be surrendered to technology? So, Putin has the living Nicholas brother brought to Moscow, hoping to leverage Michael’s bond with Alex, certain that if grief and guilt don’t grant him the source code, brute force will. What Putin doesn’t realize is just how much AI Alex has learned since his murder. With an army of Russian hackers, an endless supply of operatives, and the world’s largest nuclear arsenal at his disposal, Putin may think he has the upper hand. But he might be underestimating a dead man’s will to live.
Textbook techno‑thriller DNA with a speculative fiction soul, Death in the Kremlin is everything ambitious geopolitical fiction should be. Whenever rival world powers are involved, the stakes are high, but pitting one of the most internationally recognized heads of state against a digitized man loose in the global network feels like the new face of war. With prose that favors drama over tech‑speak, readers don’t need a computer‑science background to enjoy the AI‑forward plotlines. This may be book 5 in the series, but even new E. J. Simon fans will get a clear sense of who the Nicholas brothers are and what motivates them. Other characters, from Russian Orthodox Church leadership to Putin, with his KGB background, are drawn from clear, well‑researched foundations, giving the novel a chilling, truth‑anchored edge. A dead man battles with a living tyrant in Death in the Kremlin, a taut tale at the intersection of digital immortality and global ambition.
