Ukrainian Nights is one of those gritty, unforgettable noir novels that takes its main protagonist to the nadir of love and obsession and then spits him out, almost broken. Hunter, a young New York Times journalist, assigned to investigate sex slavery and money laundering in Kiev just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is not a tough guy, not in the least, but he falls in love with Alina, the mistress of Karasov--the head of Ukraine's largest mafia--and refuses to let go of her. The love story is run against a background of desperate brutality in Kiev and New York City, the result of the competing interests of international geopolitics, drug money, human trafficking, crooked banking--and for the rich spoils of oil and gas. The plot of Ukrainian Nights twists and turns and the reader is left wondering who is right and who is wrong.