(From the publisher) On July 16, 1918, the course of Russian history would be altered by one grisly execution—that of the last czar, Nicholas II, and his entire family at the hands of Communist revolutionaries, the brutal Bolsheviki. The Kitchen Boy draws the reader into this heartrending story, as told through the eyes of a real but forgotten witness, the kitchen boy who worked in the Siberian house where the exiled royal family was imprisoned prior to that fatal night.

Using real documents—including Czarina Alexandra's diary and numerous Romanov letters and photographs—Robert Alexander set out to fill in the blanks that historical fact has never revealed, such as:
• When the Romanov gravesite was exhumed in 1991, why were the remains of two children, Alexei and Maria, missing? Could they have survived the brutal attack?
• What happened to the $500 million of missing czarist jewels the royals sewed into corsets and hats, hoping—until their final moments—they could make away with their fortune in a planned escape organized by revolutionary dissidents?
• Finally, who was the kitchen boy? Was he a witness to the murders or even part of a last-minute plan to save the monarchy? If he were still alive today, what tale would he live to tell?

A suspenseful ride through Stalinist Russian history, Robert Alexander has based The Kitchen Boy on decades of painstaking research, during the course of which he was granted access to closed Russian archives and palaces, including the home of the last imperial family. Told from the point of view of Misha, a Russian immigrant to the U.S. and a grandfather who longs to record the true story of his life as the Romanov kitchen boy (on tape for his granddaughter Kate before his death) he explains how he came to be the sole witness of the royal execution. With a surprising twist at the end of thie tale, The Kitchen Boy is a must-read for anyone who has ever said "What if?" to the facts recorded in history books.

About the Author
(From the publisher) Robert Alexander graduated from Michigan State University in 1976 with a degree in Russian language and creative writing. The following summer, he studied at the Leningrad State University. He lived in the Soviet Union for a year in 1978, working on an American exhibition sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency—in that time, he was followed by the KGB for five months. In 1990, Alexander formed a business partnership with a Russian friend in St. Petersburg. Together they own a dental clinic, a chain of coffee shops, and most recently an espresso and wine bar. He currently lives in Minneapolis.

Robert Alexander is the pen name of Minneapolis writer R.D. Zimmerman.