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Riga Rising: International Detectives Thriller Book 5

Riga Rising: International Detectives Thriller Book 5

A family inheritance. A missing sister.
By Luke Richardson

£13.00

Andreja Panasenko thought she knew her mother, but after her death, Andreja must find her long-lost sister to claim her inheritance. When she disappears, investigators Leo & Allissa are drawn into a world of politics, lies, and secrets dating back fifty years.

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Import taxes:
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Also available at:

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Book themes

International thriller fiction
action thriller
missing person
conspiracy thriller
Riga
Race against time

Author's notes

Uncover the truth behind the book (contains spoilers)
Read Luke's notes

Description

Andreja Panasenko thought she knew her mother. But then, death changes everything.

To avoid losing her inheritance, Andreja must reconnect with her estranged sister. One problem, her sister went missing as a child, nearly fifty years ago.

Leo & Allissa travel to Riga to help, but they’re barely off the plane before Andreja’s nowhere to be seen. Taken or fled, they don’t know, but to find her, they must follow clues dating back to a time when powerful men ruled supreme.

From the backstreets of Riga to the vast Latvian forests, Leo & Allissa stumble into a dog-eat-dog world of politics, lies and secrets. Can they find the truth about a woman who hasn’t been seen in fifty years, or will the ghosts of the past get the final word?

Riga is the new international detective thriller from bestselling author, Luke Richardson. If you like Clive Cussler, Nick Thacker, Ernest Dempsey, and Russell Blake, then you’ll love this explosive new adventure.

Additional information

Weight 0.262 kg
Dimensions 20.3 × 12.7 × 1.5 cm

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FAQ

What is Riga Rising about?

Riga Rising is a Cold War mystery and missing person thriller set in Riga, Latvia.

When Latvia’s Soviet-era KGB archives were destroyed or spirited away to Moscow in 1991, they took with them a generation of secrets — who had been an informant, who had a criminal record, and whether people’s qualifications were even legitimate.

Decades later, one of those secrets resurfaces. Leo Keane and Allissa Stockwell are called to Riga, where a case that begins as a straightforward missing persons investigation quickly unravels into something rooted in the darkest chapter of Latvia’s history.

Running alongside the present-day story is a thread set in 1973, following a Latvian family trying to flee the Soviet regime in the dead of night — and the impossible choice a mother is forced to make on a frozen road.

Riga Rising is a Cold War thriller wrapped inside a modern missing persons mystery. It is one of the most historically rich books in the International Detectives series — one foot in the present, one in Latvia’s Soviet past. The tension between those two worlds drives the whole story.

Riga Rising is set primarily in Riga, Latvia — one of Europe’s most beautiful and least visited capitals. Key locations include Riga’s Old Town, the Art Nouveau district, and the vast Central Market, which is housed in five repurposed World War One Zeppelin hangars.

The historical thread is set in rural Latvia in 1973, on the frozen roads of a country living under Soviet occupation. I visited Riga during the 2020 Covid lockdown and had the extraordinary experience of exploring the city almost entirely alone. It is a city, and a country, that deserves to be better known.

I visited Riga during a brief window in the 2020 Covid pandemic and ended up caught in a lockdown. I spent my mornings writing this book and my afternoons walking the empty streets of one of Europe’s most extraordinary cities almost entirely alone.

During those long, quiet evenings, I read more about Latvia’s history: the Soviet occupation, the Russification of the population, the Singing Revolution of the late 1980s, and the country’s long struggle for self-determination.

The detail that lodged itself most firmly was this: when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Latvia’s national archives had vanished. They had either been destroyed or taken to Moscow. The authorities genuinely did not know who had been a KGB informant, who had a criminal record, or even whether people’s professional qualifications were real. A whole country, suddenly free, unable to fully account for its own recent past. That felt like a story.

Yes. Riga Rising is a Cold War thriller and missing persons mystery set in Riga, Latvia. It follows Leo Keane and Allissa Stockwell as they investigate a disappearance connected to Soviet-era secrets, missing KGB archives, and the long shadow of Latvia’s occupation. The book combines a contemporary investigation with a historical thread set in 1973, during the Soviet period, giving the story both a modern mystery and a deeper historical edge.
The International Detectives series begins with location. Each book takes Leo Keane and Allissa Stockwell somewhere new, and the place shapes the investigation as much as any clue or character. These are not traditional police procedurals. There are no forensics labs, police stations, or routine interrogations at the centre of the books. Instead, Leo and Allissa are two people who are very good at finding those who do not want to be found, dropped into corners of the world most detective novels rarely visit.
Riga Rising is for readers who love Cold War history, spy fiction, historical thrillers, and contemporary missing person mysteries. It should appeal to anyone interested in Latvia, Riga, the Baltic states, Soviet occupation, KGB secrets, the Singing Revolution, and the long shadows history casts into the present. Readers who have followed Leo and Allissa from the beginning will also find this one of the most emotionally developed books in the International Detectives series..
As with the rest of the International Detectives series, Riga Rising contains danger and tension, but nothing gratuitously violent or explicit. The historical thread deals with the realities of life under Soviet occupation, including political violence, but it is handled with care. It should be suitable for adults and older teenagers who enjoy thriller fiction.
Riga Rising and the Eden Black books both share a love of vivid locations, but they feel very different in tone. Eden Black is a globe-trotting archaeological adventure series full of ancient mysteries, secret societies, and world-changing relics. Riga Rising is closer to the ground: a Cold War mystery rooted in the real history of Latvia. Where Eden is often trying to save civilisation, Leo Keane and Allissa Stockwell are trying to find one missing person and uncover a truth someone has spent decades burying.
Yes. Riga Rising is book five in the International Detectives series, following Kathmandu Killers, Hong Kong Gone, Berlin Underground, and New York Nightfall. It works as a standalone missing person thriller because the Riga investigation is self-contained. However, Leo and Allissa’s relationship has changed significantly since the first book, so reading the series in order gives the richest experience.

Book Details

Endorsements

Here's what readers think:

Eden Black just gets better and better! I couldn’t put this series down. Nonstop action, lots of emotion, and lots of turning the page to see what comes next. Bravo!
Reader of the The Ark Files
Blow the bloody doors off! Luke Richardson has given me more shivers and jumped up shouting from my seat in this series than I care to talk about. I can't express how much I love the Eden Black series.
Reader of The Giza Protocol
Fans of Indiana Jones will love this book and series. I’m only disappointed that I have to wait for the next book to come out!
Reader of The Atlantis Agenda

Real Locations in This Book

Riga

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