Sell Us The Rope by Stephen May

REVIEW BY IAN PARKER

SANDSTONE PRESS, £8.99 (EBOOK £5.99)

It is May 1907, and several figures who will shape the 20th century are gathering in London. Stephen May takes us to the capital’s squalid streets to meet Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky and more, as they attend the 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party under the watchful eyes of the Tsar’s secret police. May uses less familiar names for these men – Stalin goes by his nickname Koba, Lenin is Ulyanov, and Trotsky is Yanovsky, as they mingle with fictional characters. Current events lend this atmospheric book a different context, a reminder that evil walks amongst us – often with a smiling face.