Kremlin-By-The-Sea

Kremlin-by-the-Sea is the first person account of Jake Gavronski, a third-generation
Russian-American who sells real estate in the upscale community of Ponte Vedra
Beach, Florida. He has recently lost his job as a professor of English at a small college
in nearby St. Augustine due to a dalliance with one of his female students.
Jake now works for his ex-wife, Elena McCrory, who has her own real estate company
in Ponte Vedra. She takes him on as he cannot find employment elsewhere.
A call comes into Elena's office from a mysterious Russian buyer who wants to see an
oceanfront mansion. Wary of the caller, she asks Jake to show the property.
Jake meets the Russian buyer at the house, a man who introduces himself as
Maximilianov Malenkovsky. 'Max, ' as he wants to be called, takes a brief tour of the
house and says that he wants to buy it-for cash.
After some cursory vetting of Mr. Malenkovsky, Elena agrees to present the offer. The
owner, who is presently in hiding under the Federal Witness Protection Program,
accepts and the deal is done.
Max, however, is not done. After inviting Jake to celebrate at the property with a drink,
he makes a proposal: that Jake accompany him to Russia and assist him in the
purchase of properties there. Jake objects that he has no license to practice in Russia,
nor does he know the market..
Max waves these objections aside, saying that he can obtain a license for him. After some discussion with Elena, Jake decides to accept Max's proposal and soon they are off to Moscow.
Max's real objective is to obtain certain oil fields in the Caspian Sea, off the coast of
Azerbaijan. Since he is a rival of Vladimir Putin, he feels he must conceal his intentions
and thus use Jake as a straw man.
While in Moscow, Jake becomes involved with a Russian opera singer who also
happens to be a lawyer-and much else. This is Anna Pavlovna Andropova. Her talents,
her beauty, and her sultry charms completely seduce Jake and though he has a
girlfriend back home, falls head over heels in love with her.
An ex-wife, a girlfriend, a lover in Moscow, along with a very dangerous entanglement
with a Russian oligarch, all threaten to shatter Jake's heretofore complacent bourgeois
life.

Author: Benjamin Pressley Walker
Publisher: Jamin Press
Published: 04/22/2019
Pages: 134
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.31d
ISBN: 9780966614565

About the Author
Walker, Benjamin Pressley: - Ben Walker is also the author of Sentimental Music, a novel set in contemporary Florida, as well as several plays. Blood Relations, a black comedy of race, sex, and dashed dreams was a winner of the 1997 South Carolina Playwrights' Conference Competition in Beaufort, S.C. Return of the Native (2018) is the third in a trilogy set in the Deep South during events of the 19th Century. The first, Winds of the South, set in 1830's Georgia, was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Foundation's Montaigne Medal competition honoring literary works deemed to be 'thought-provoking' by the nominating committee. The second, entitled An Island in the South, was published in 2012 and takes place during Reconstruction. Mr. Walker is a graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, as well as San Francisco State University, where he received an M.A. degree in creative writing. He currently lives and writes in Jacksonville, Florida.