Finding Katarina M

I have read a few novels recently that have protagonists that seemingly have little control over their destiny, instead stepping into the stream of the narrative and being carried along. On occasion this is a flood and the character flails around with no impact on the wider story, but there is another way. In Elisabeth Elo’s Finding Katarina M, Dr. Natalie March does not step into one river, but a series of story streams of her own choosing, taking her on an adventure across the globe from a prestigious post at a hospital to the darkest areas of modern Russia. 

Dr. March has a good life. A highly respected professional tipped to go further, but her social life has suffered. With only an ailing mother to talk to after work, Natalie is looking for more and this may have arrived in the form of a mysterious young woman claiming to be her cousin. It appears that Natalie’s maternal Grandmother did not die in a Russian Gulag but survived to have another family. Another family that needs Dr March’s help. 

A crime thriller will often have a Private Investigator or a Police Office at the centre, but there is something about an every person getting wrapped up in international espionage that is great entertainment. Dr Natalie March is not just anyone, an intelligent professional on top of their game, but that game is not investigating murder and travelling to Russia to seek her estranged family. Natalie is out of her depth and every step seems to take her deeper. 

It is the choice-making of Natalie that makes the book so interesting. The decision to converse with her ‘cousin,’ to get involved with her lost family, to visit Russia and more. If some of the earlier decisions were out of character, at least they were cautious, by the end Natalie is making the type of decisions that an earlier version of her would have called misguided at best, stupid if being harsh. However, without some of the odd decisions made by this medial professional, the book would have been far less exciting. 

Finding is a highly entertaining thriller that moves over to modern day Russia and has many of the twists and turns you hope from a story set there. Dr March finds herself embedded over a few weeks in some interesting places. Places that will change her personality and way of thinking forever. 

Can you take Finding as a serious treatise on modern Russia? Certainly not, but you can enjoy it as a fun thriller that takes a likable protagonist and places them in heightened situations. Dr March’s skills as a medical professional aid her in her adventures, but it is her personality and drive to learn about her wider family that draws the reader in. This is a thriller for readers who like to be taken on a ride, unsure of where the story will take them.