By Rea Keech
From the prize-winning author of A Hundred Veils—
Saint Sergey’s Head is a darkly humorous CIA farce with satirical undertones and an unconventional love story.
In 2024, Alexey, a young Russian of draftable age, is sent on a mission to Istanbul to retrieve the true head of Saint Sergey of Radonezh, the patron saint of Russia. At the same time, Angela, a young CIA officer, is sent to Istanbul to receive a secret device from a Russian defector.
Angela at first mistakes Alexey for the defector but soon realizes her mistake. Alexey and Angela, who has learned Russian from her grandmother, become close friends.
But a colonel in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, who has been assigned to work with Angela, continues to believe that Alexey is the defector, and his efforts to retrieve what is actually the head of Saint Sergey cause a ridiculous amount of trouble.
In this mysterious city plagued by Russian and Turkish intrigue over the war in Ukraine, Alexey has some absurd problems trying to get the saint’s head back to Russia, while Angela finds herself in danger as she continues trying to find the real defector and retrieve the secret device.