THE CURSE OF KATYN LIVES ON!

Good news sometimes comes mixed with tragic news. I was just informed that my second historical novel, THE DARK AND SILENT, has been accepted for publication. The book focuses on the brutal murders of twenty thousand Polish officers at the hands of the Soviet NKVD in April, 1940, and the ensuing cover-up. Then, just a day later, the world was shocked to learn of the plane crash and tragic loss of Poland's government officials. The plane crashed near Smolensk, Russia and the Katyn forest, the same location where the Polish officers were murdered 70 years ago.

In 1940, The government of the Soviet Union secretly ordered the murders in an attempt to eradicate the elite of Polish society. The Soviets denied any involvement in the Katyn massacre for over fifty years, until the 1990's when then Soviet President Boris Yeltsin revealed the secret order signed by Joseph Stalin authorizing the murders. In yesterday's plane crash - 70 years later - more than eighty of Poland's top government officials and military leaders died in the exact same location.