The Haunting of Moscow House
“the story provides intense conflict and tension.”
“If someone from their past should catch a glimpse of the formerly aristocratic Goliteva sisters, they would find two wraiths instead of countesses.” This opening sets the tone for the story of The Haunting of Moscow House.
It is 1921 in Moscow, a city taken over by the Bolsheviks after the revolution that changed everything in Russia. Irina and her sister, Lili, are responsible for what is left of their family. To make everything worse, their ancestral home, Moscow House, has been inhabited by a squad of Bolsheviks who make life difficult at every turn.
The family is forced to live in the attic of the house, and in order to keep Granma, Auntie, the two children, and Irina and Lili together and alive, they must search local bazaars for affordable food. In one search, they encounter an American man, Will, who works for a charity organization that is “. . . helping Russia with the famine” and assisting the Russians in reestablishing their country.
Will is friendly, and he is looking for locals to employ at his organization. The young women are initially surprised and reject his offer of employment, but it doesn’t take long for them to give more thought to the possibilities the opportunity presents.
Irina and Lili can use the money, and such work will provide them with a desperately needed income. They agree to take positions with the American Relief Association (ARA) and find they must keep their positions secret from the men occupying their house.
And yet, things get worse when Irina and Lili encounter the specters of recently deceased relations who come to visit them. Are these specters coming to warn them or to hurt them? This is a difficult question to answer, especially when one of the Bolshevik soldiers is found dead, and then another follows quickly behind. Felix, one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks, is ready to blame Irina but without evidence.
He makes his disdain for the previously aristocratic family evident. When he approaches Irina and informs her that he knows the family's secrets—secrets Irina is desperate to keep hidden. The specters continue to appear throughout the story, driving terror through the Bolsheviks. Still, Irina and Lili determine that the family ghosts are sending a message of safety to the women. They must determine the meaning of this message and how to decipher it to save the family.
While the story provides intense conflict and tension, Gilmore also lets the reader look into the personal lives of Irina and Lili. Lili’s childhood friend, Nicholai, reenters her life, and a romance begins. At the same time, Irini begins a relationship with Will—one she both looks forward to and has reservations about.
Family secrets begin to sneak out into the open. The ghosts haunting Moscow House remain something to contend with until a fire resolves all issues.
Throughout the story, Gilmore weaves in romance for both sisters while educating the reader about the horrors of the Russian Revolution. The reader’s interest grows with the entry of the ghosts that appear. What is their goal? Do they want to bring what’s left of the family to the other side, or do they want to make the Bolsheviks disappear? As with most suspense novels, the reader has to get to the end before these questions are answered satisfactorily.
If there is anything adverse to say, it would be the Russian words and phrases that appear with some frequency throughout the story. Left unexplained, the reader will sometimes scratch his or her head as they attempt to understand the meaning of the word or phrase. This is not terribly disrupting, but enough to somewhat distract.
Overall, Gilmore presents a very readable story, and her readers will be satisfied. She has designed an exciting book that evokes compassion for the sisters, disgust for the Bolsheviks, and gratitude for the Americans.