This fast-paced detec­tive sto­ry is dis­tinc­tive in that it weaves two events in 1968— Berkeley’s stu­dent protests and the Czech upris­ing against the Sovi­et Union, for which the book is named, and mix­es in flash­backs by the cen­tral char­ac­ter to his time as a pris­on­er in There­sien­stadt and Auschwitz. Inspec­tor Simon Wolfe works for the San Fran­cis­co Police Depart­ment, and is a Holo­caust sur­vivor who was a mem­ber of the Mossad’s ​“Nokim,” a group that killed Nazis. When a congressman’s son is mur­dered, Wolfe’s attempts to solve the crime are inhib­it­ed by the police and the con­gress­man as he is black­mailed about his past. He is fur­ther com­pro­mised by his feel­ings for the mur­der victim’s psy­chi­a­trist, who is a child of Holo­caust sur­vivors her­self. Wolfe is a sym­pa­thet­ic char­ac­ter, though he is a lon­er with unshak­able opin­ions. Wolfe’s insis­tence on fol­low­ing through with this case leads the read­er to explore the ideas of polit­i­cal cor­rup­tion, revenge, jus­tice, and survival.