Entering a fiction series without having read its earlier works can leave a reader feeling lost. But Sam Eastland, a pseudonym for Paul Watkins, makes sure readers have all the essential background they need to revel in the action and plot in “The Beast in the Red Forest,” the fifth in his Inspector Pekkala series.

Pekkala is a Finn who was employed as a special inspector by the Russian tsars, then banished to Siberia after the Bolshevik Revolution and expected to die. When Stalin needed a talented investigator, he brought Pekkala back to Moscow.

“The Beast in the Red Forest” starts in 1944, when Pekkala is missing and assumed dead after a mission to Ukraine and the Soviet Army has begun pushing Nazi Germany’s forces through Ukraine and back to Germany. Stalin believes Pekkala is alive and orders Pekkala’s assistant to find him.

The assistant, with help from Pekkala’s friends and associates, finds the inspector hiding in Ukraine with some partisans, who are themselves trying to stay hidden.

Interspersed with the World War II-era events are a series of letters beginning in 1936 from and about autoworker William Vasko and his family, describing how Vasko had left New Jersey, traveled to Russia with his family and worked at a Ford factory there. At first he is doing well, but later the family faces major problems.

Toward the end of the book, the two threads merge. Before disappearing, Pekkala had investigated Vasko, and recommended that Vasko and his family be sent back to America. The report was ignored, and the entire family except Vasko’s son died. The son, who vows to kill Pekkala, joins the Germans, and the two confront each other in Ukraine.

Much of the plot involves Stalin’s efforts to bring Ukrainian partisans, who had helped drive the Germans out of the Soviet Union, under his control. Stalin wants the Ukrainians to join the Soviet Army or give up their weapons, fearing an uprising if the partisan groups stay together. These historical aspects are especially fascinating given the confrontation now going on in Ukraine.

The Germans are still counterattacking and making more secretive attacks on the Russians. It is not always certain who is working for whom or even what Pekkala’s intent is. The action, however, is almost constant, the characters are compelling and the description of the frigid, war-torn landscape is striking. While the ending is believable, 21st-century readers will know that it is not a true ending but a pause in a long story.

“The Beast in the Red Forest” is the first book in which Sam Eastland is identified as a pseudonym for Watkins, an Englishman transplanted to the United States who had written 10 novels and two books of nonfiction before switching to the Pekkala suspense novels. He has not written as Watkins since starting the Eastland books.

Since 1988 Watkins has lived in Jackman when not teaching at Peddie School in New Jersey. He said in a telephone interview that the Jackman area and Pekkala’s home in the former Soviet Union – both in the far north – have similar landscapes.

“Pekkala is someone who has spent a lot of time outdoors, in the Siberian gulag in particular,” Watkins said. “A lot of the forest plants and animals indigenous to northern Maine are also present in Russia. Sometimes when I can’t picture, for example, what it’s like to cross a frozen lake, I need to physically experience it, so I head out to Attean Pond,” which is in Jackman.

Watkins said he loves his teaching job and loves Jackman. In an ideal world, he would move Peddie School to Maine.

Tom Atwell is a freelance writer living in Cape Elizabeth. Contact him at 767-2297 or

tomatwell@me.com

Copy the Story Link