Cold Victory by Karl Marlantes

Published by Grove Press on January 9, 2024

Set at the end of World War II, Cold Victory combines a spy thriller with an outdoor adventure. The story’s darkness is offset by the theme of friendship between people of countries that are antagonistic to each other. The world could use more such friendships.

When Lt. Colonel Arnie Koski was assigned to act as a military attaché, Louise became more than an army wife. She became the wife of a spy. Newly arrived in Finland in 1946 (Koski is of Finnish ancestry and fluent in the language), Louise’s job is to help Arnie make social connections that might yield useful intelligence.

Arnie isn’t a cloak-and-dagger spy. His job is to look at roads and bridges and make logistic calculations about supply routes and troop movements in case war breaks out with Russia. While Germany has been defeated, peace treaties are still being negotiated. Russia views Finland as a threat because it sided with Germany during the war. Finland justly views Russia as a threat because Russia seized some of its land. Finland allied with Germany to get its land back, making an enemy of Russia, only to lose the land again (and a bit more). The historical view of Finns who hate Russians and aren’t that fond of Americans (who did too little, in their view, to help their cause) is fascinating.

Near the end of the fighting, Arnie was an Army major who performed reconnaissance in Finland. He came across Russian troops on the other side of a bridge and struck up a friendship with Mikhail Bobrov, a Russian officer. In the present, Arnie meets Mikhail again at a party for diplomats. Both soldiers have been promoted. Arnie and Mikhail get drunk and make a plan to race each other on skis. The race will take ten days.

Mikhail is married to Natalya. Louise and Natalya slowly become friends, their commonalities overcoming their political differences. They volunteer to help an orphanage that is operated by one of Arnie’s relatives. The orphanage needs financial help more than two bodies. Louise comes up with a plan to sell raffle tickets to raise money for the orphanage. The winner will be the person who come closest to predicting the difference in time it will take for Arnie and Mikhail to complete the race. Unfortunately, Louise is from Oklahoma and has no clue about international relations. Her plan to publicize a secret race sets in motion a potential disaster.

The race is an exciting story of courage, sacrifice, and the power of friendship. At the same time, the novel is grim in its depiction of Russia under Stalin and Beria. I give Karl Marlantes credit for having the courage to avoid the kind of shallow ending that is meant only to please readers. The world doesn’t always offer happy endings. Readers who insist upon one will probably want to avoid Cold Victory, although the story does end on an upbeat moment. Readers who appreciate well-told stories that address the world as it exists, stories of good people who exercise bad judgment and face the consequences of their actions, will find much to like in the novel’s strong characters, growing tension, and difficult moral choices.

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