‘Alexei and the Mad Monk Rasputin’ author to appear Aug. 25

Browseabout Books will host “Alexei and the Mad Monk Rasputin” author Greer Firestone for a signing event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 25, at 133 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach. 

The world has long been fascinated with the compelling characters and cataclysmic events surrounding the end of the 300-year Romanov dynasty of Russia and the Communist Revolution of 1917.

Few books have touched on what was once the greatest secret of the age: Tsarevich Alexei's curse of hemophilia, known as the royal disease. Entwined in this tale of incalculable wealth and global dominance is the enigmatic Gregori Rasputin, peasant and holy man. Medical doctors could not help Alexei. Only Rasputin had the power to stop the flow of blood through his brittle veins. Was he saint or sinner?  

Taken from first-person historical accounts, this is a novel about a boy whose murder changed the course of history. “Alexei and the Mad Monk Rasputin” gives a face, a personality and a soul to the boy whose small body bore two impossible burdens – heir and hemophiliac.

The novel won first place for fiction in the Delaware Press Association awards.