This second book in Elizabeth Camden's Blackstone Legacy series focuses on Natalia Blackstone, the only female business analyst in all of New York City. Employed by the Blackstone Bank, Natalia was the bank's leading analyst for Russian investment. Specifically she was in charge of the bank's financing of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. While never meeting in person, over the years Natalia had developed a friendship with Count Dimitri Sokolov, her point of contact for the railway. While she had imagined what he looked like, and how it might be to meet him in person, she could never have imagined the circumstances that precipitated their finally meeting face-to-face or Dimitri's initial appearance.
Elizabeth Camden's thorough and extensive research is always apparent in her historical fiction. Her understanding of international business and politics of the early 1900s was amazing in this story. Given the current situation between Russia and Ukraine, it was especially interesting to read about Russia's interaction with villages along the Amur River as the Trans-Siberian Railway was being constructed. Camden refers to it as a series of pogroms in her author's note; pogrom meaning an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group.
I am giving this book five stars, and am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of Written on the Wind from Bethany House via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.
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