Set in Helsinki right after World War II, COLD VICTORY is a thriller about the battle for the West, told through the intertwined stories of Soviet, American and Finnish diplomats and their entourages.

Arnie Koski is a military attaché to the American legation. His wife, Louise, is a young woman from Oklahoma who hopes to start a family soon. Arnie is a Finn by heritage and speaks the language fluently; Louise majored in French. So, when they bump into a Russian officer with whom Arnie had shared a victory lap at the end of the war, he and Mikhail Bobrova strike up a friendship, and she begins chatting in French with his aristocratic wife, Natalya. At the embassy party where they meet, the men proceed to get drunk and challenge each other to a clandestine ski race through Northern Finland.

"The fast-paced final third of the book traces the race, [Louise's] efforts to affect the outcome, and the fallout.... [Marlantes'] larger message --- set as it is in the complex world of Cold War diplomacy --- resonates."

As the husbands prepare for the multi-day competition, Louise and Natalya bond and resolve to work together to raise money for a Finnish orphanage. Louise and the orphanage matron, Kaarina Varila, decide to run a raffle for which skier wins. In a far-fetched plot twist, Louise goes along with Kaarina’s idea to publicize it --- neglecting to realize that the race will become a proxy battle between Russia and the U.S. Horrified when all the major newspapers carry the story, Natalya fears that Mikhail’s life will be in danger if he doesn’t bring victory to his country.

Louise quickly understands that her lack of foresight has brought about this terrifying possibility, so she goes to heroic lengths to rectify it. The fast-paced final third of the book traces the race, her efforts to affect the outcome, and the fallout.

While Karl Marlantes isn’t above writing an awkward sentence or depicting a stereotypically conniving Russian or naive American woman, his larger message --- set as it is in the complex world of Cold War diplomacy --- resonates. When Arnie rails against the political machinations that turned his race with Mikhail into a battle for world supremacy, his boss pushes back:

“Arnie, your dirty word, ‘politics,’ was invented to settle differences without violence. The Soviets want to control Europe without going to war. We want to stop them without going to war. The Finnish Communists want to control Finland without a civil war. The Finns who see things our way want to do the same. Republicans and Democrats want to run the USA but don’t want to go to war to do so. Politics allows this to happen.”

In COLD VICTORY, Marlantes has ably demonstrated the cost of that equation.