Here is a novel of Russia under Stalin. In the course of a thrilling story, we learn of the desperate hazards which beset the traveler entering the Soviet Republic upon a secret mission and endeavoring to re-cross the frontier without official papers. In the epicurean Duke de Richleau, the Jewish financier Simon Aron, and the wealthy young American Rex Van Ryn, a modern trinity of devoted friends has been created whose audacious exploits may well compare with those of Dumas’ famous Musketeers. Vivid, exciting, ingenious, it combines high qualities of style with thrilling and provocative narrative