It is the kind of book to read during Covid 19.

By an interesting set of events, our hero – Count Rustov – comes to be under Hotel arrest – lucky for him – in a 5 star hotel with 2 restaurants.

The story starts with him being moved from a Suite to a very small room. Still under arrest.

The story goes how the count goes from his morning exercise routine – starts from 60 odd pushups and squats to 5 towards the end of the story – the markers the author inserts to show the Count is getting old. He is 60+ at the end of the story.

The second half gets really good – when he adopts a daughter – Sofia. The story – to me – really begins after that.

The plot inserts itself into the Russian revolution – quite critical of the destruction of nobility and the bland culture communism steam rolled onto the society.

The author – doing research for this book – seems to have visited all the 5 star hotels across the world – in New York, France, Moscow, Japan and picked up the menu from all these locations.

But it was quite entertaining. The end was pretty thrilling. In fact the entire book was never boring. It was a nice breezy read.