The Man Who Killed Rasputin: Prince Youssoupov and the Murder That Helped Bring Down the Russian Empire

King (The Last Empress, LJ 6/15/94) has written a nonacademic work whose strength lies not in shocking revelations of how Felix Youssoupov killed Rasputin. Quite the contrary, after the official version is presented in chapter 15, King reports alternate versions in chapter 16. The real strength of this book lies in its portrayal of Youssoupov living without the trappings of wealth and power of prerevolution days, facing the reality of having plotted the deed that helped bring down imperial Russia. King carefully crafts a mosaic of one of the most enigmatic men of the Russian Revolution. The author does not seem to take advantage of, or has not found much information in, the recently opened Soviet archives. Recommended for public libraries.-Harry Willems, Kansas Lib. System, Iola