Accomplices

Set in a central European country about five years after the fall of communism, K.C. Frederick’s third novel, Accomplices, moves with a fevered urgency reminiscent of Graham Greene. As the nation confronts unprecedented changes, the protagonist, Stivan, must put his own life together. A man who’s become accustomed to thinking of himself as a failure and a victim, he’s driven by a crippling loneliness to seek a relationship with his former nurse. In re-opening this connection, though, Stivan gets a good deal more than he bargained for. Anya, whom he’s considered an icon of solidity, has recently had serious problems of her own and things are further complicated when he agrees to shelter her brother, Leni, who is on the run from his gangster boss in Paris.

When Stivan discovers that the priest he’s working for is involved in illegal activities, he’s faced with more dangerous obstacles. In a landscape that is constantly shifting, Stivan and Anya are determined to believe in a future even as they come to recognize how their personal lives are inescapably entwined with the uncertainties of a larger world, where enemies are hard to tell from friends, and the unlikeliest people may turn out to be accomplices.