Combine[s] fast-paced action and imaginative settings with beautifully developed queer relationships.” —CrimeReads, Queer Mysteries and Thrillers to Read All Year Long
“Pulley's humorous, heartfelt, and occasionally horrifying tale will stay with you long after the last page.” —Paste Magazine, Best Novels of 2022
“Provocative, unsettling . . . explosive.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An absorbing Cold War thriller.” —Christian Science Monitor
“From state tyranny and crimes against humanity to ingenuity and valor under deadly pressure as well as humor and forbidden love, Pulley's brilliantly conceived, vibrantly realized, and complexly suspenseful tale is all the more resounding in the glare of Russia's recklessness at Chernobyl during its latest, horrific invasion of Ukraine.” —Booklist, starred review
“Scientific research, KGB shenanigans, queer love, and the heartache of suffering children are just a few of the enriching intricacies Pulley traces with intelligent wit and confident narration. A gifted writer of well-drawn characters, Pulley has given the nuclear noir genre a fresh and stimulating take on Chernobyl-style terror.” —Library Journal
“Another historical novel written with panache is Rebecca Stott's Dark Earth (4th Estate), the gripping tale of two women who flee to Londinium in 500 AD. It is a novel that puts a female perspective right at the centre of a time period usually dominated by men's stories. I also enjoyed Natasha Pulley's The Half Life of Valery K (Bloomsbury), an engrossing novel set in Siberia in 1963. The story was inspired by some chilling real events after the cover-up of a radiation leak.” —Independent
“With unexpected twists, a paranoid atmosphere, and a fascinating narrator, The Half Life of Valery K is a superb work of historical fiction and an excellent mystery.” —Bookpage, Best Mystery & Suspense of 2022
“Pulley's impeccable prose, vivid and shot through with tenderness, lends a glint of lightness to this unsettling story.” —Daily Mail
“Based on real events in a surreal Soviet city, and told with bestselling author Natasha Pulley's inimitable style, The Half Life of Valery K is a sweeping new adventure for readers of Stuart Turton and Sarah Gailey.” —BookRiot
“History and imagination collide to stunning effect in this utterly beguiling and addictive novel. Unflinching, darkly funny, and all too easy to believe, The Half Life Of Valery K is the kind of book that haunts the reader long after the last page is turned.” —Erin Kelly, author of HE SAID/SHE SAID
“Pulley adds to her impressive oeuvre with another exquisite novel. Many of the author's trademarks are on display here: a finely-drawn period setting, a vein of dark humor, a plot blending historical fact and fiction, and a protagonist seeking to do the right thing in the face of a brutal political machine. An illuminating and immersive historical tale.” —Vaseem Khan, author of THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA
“Exhibiting all the storytelling skills that made her earlier books so readable and popular, Pulley also offers a piercing study of how a police state deforms individual psychologies, personal relationships and professional ethics . . . Pulley's broad perspective distinguishes her work from that of more-routine thriller authors. Studded with memorable characters and deepened by its exploration of thorny moral issues, The Half Life of Valery K is gripping popular entertainment with a pleasing intellectual heft.” —Wendy Smith
★ 05/09/2022
The provocative, unsettling latest by Pulley (The Kingdom) revolves around a horrifying and secretive research project deep in the countryside of the Soviet Union in 1963. After having spent several years in a Siberian prison camp, biochemist Valery Kolkhanov is moved to the facility, where he’s initially pleased with the warm water, plentiful food, and opportunity to study an irradiated ecosystem. Eventually, he begins to suspect that all is not as it seems, despite assurances from his former professor and current boss, the glamorous Dr. Resovskaya. As Valery forms an unusual bond with Konstantin Shenkov, the KGB officer in charge of security for the center, the two discover evidence of a conspiracy along with unspeakable human damage caused by the facility’s experiments with radiation exposure, and find their lives at risk. Pulley, extrapolating out from the records of a historic Soviet research center, raises questions about scientific experimentation and the ways in which it can be manipulated for less than honorable purposes. Her dark humor, which turns on the blind faith given to Soviet authority figures despite their outlandish claims, combines with complex characters and a clear understanding of radiation science to yield an explosive blend. The chilling result feels all too plausible. Agent: Jenny Savill, Andrew Nurnberg Assoc. (July)
04/01/2022
British novelist Pulley (The Kingdoms), noted for her speculative fiction and fantasy titles, here builds a thriller on the true story of a 1957 nuclear explosion near Chelyabinsk, a city in Siberia. Even today, the scientific record of this horrific incident is uninformative. The potential for catastrophe in this still-secret radioecological research center is alarming. Pulley imagines a second disaster in her volatile alt-history exploration. In 1963, Valery K, a biochemist sent to the gulag for political crimes, is reassigned to a lab in the center's "chocolate factory," where radiation research is ongoing. Very quickly he catches on to the explosive dangers bubbling in the lake where waste from 1957 was dumped. The people in charge pooh-pooh his concerns but he snags the attention of the resident KGB director. In an awesome twist, the two heroes work to prevent another massive blowout. VERDICT Scientific research, KGB shenanigans, queer love, and the heartache of suffering children are just a few of the enriching intricacies Pulley traces with intelligent wit and confident narration. A gifted writer of well-drawn characters, Pulley has given the nuclear noir genre a fresh and stimulating take on Chernobyl-style terror.—Barbara Conaty
