The "Russian" Dan Brown?

Steve Berry may very well be the next Dan Brown.
In fact, Dan says "Writes with the self-assured style of a veteran."

I recently read his 2nd (written first but published second!) novel The Romanov Prophecy:



(Book image from Amazon.co.uk)

It's fast paced and full of interesting characters like Rasputin, the mad Siberian monk, Felix Yussoupov, a cross-dressing noble, and of course the Romanovs themselves:


(Photo from here)

It's set in the present day in Russia, mainly Moscow & St Petersburg, and the USA and is basically a non-stop chase, involving violence, corruption, death, the mafiya, prophecy deciphering, borzois and snippets of Russian history. All your basic thriller ingredients! It's definitely not a piece of literature, but is an enjoyable romp nevertheless.

Interestingly, it took Berry 12 years to get published but he now has 4 books on the market (The Amber Room, The Romanov Prophecy, The Third Secret and The Templar Legacy) with another 3 due in the next 3 years. Perseverance really does pay off!