Nadia’s memories of her father are not happy ones. An angry, secretive man, he died when she was thirteen, leaving his past shrouded in mystery. When a stranger claims to have known her father during his early years in Eastern Europe, she agrees to meet—only to watch the man shot dead on a city sidewalk. With his last breath, he whispers a cryptic clue, one that will propel Nadia on a high-stakes treasure hunt from New York to her ancestral homeland of Ukraine. There she meets an unlikely ally: Adam, a teenage hockey prodigy who honed his skills on the abandoned cooling ponds of Chernobyl. Physically and emotionally scarred by radiation syndrome, Adam possesses a secret that could change the world—if she can keep him alive long enough to do it. A twisting tale of greed, secrets, and lies, The Boy from Reactor 4 will keep readers guessing until the final heart-stopping page.

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From Booklist

This debut thriller takes the reader from New York to Ukraine. Nadia Tesler is an immigrant’s daughter, and while she is fluent in Russian, she is not close to her mother and lost her father as a young teenager. All she remembers of him is a perpetually angry man, and she knows nothing of her family background. A stranger contacts her, saying he knew her father well, and they arrange a meeting, but he is shot dead on the street in front of her, whispering a cryptic message as he dies. She quickly realizes her own life is in danger and sets out on a quest to decipher the message, learn some of her family history, and keep one jump ahead of whoever is after her. It isn’t until she visits her ancestral homeland that she really starts deciphering her family story. The key turns out to be Adam, a young hockey star who grew up skating at Chernobyl and now suffers from radiation syndrome; he has a secret that many want—and will kill to get. This is a fast ride with lots of thrills and will appeal to adrenaline junkies. — Stacy Alesi

Review

"A top-notch, fast-moving thriller with gripping authenticity from Stelmach's knowledge of politics, history, and crime in Eastern Europe and America." —Neil McMahon, New York Times bestselling author of Toys, and Dead Silver

"Stelmach brilliantly pairs breakneck pacing with heart-of-gold insights into regions as beautiful as they are troubled. The Boy From Reactor 4 is phenomenal." —Dan Mayland, author of The Colonel's Mistake and The Leveling

“Bravo to Orest Stelmach for getting it all right…I’ve lived in Alaska, Ukraine, and Siberia, three of the locations featured in the story, and he paints life as it is in those places. I'd swear the characters are real people pulled off the streets. The locations…are laid out brilliantly before the reader.” —Eight Months in Ukraine

"Sweeps you up with...espionage, danger and action. Plot twists and turns all the way through the end." —Night Owl Reviews 

Nadia’s memories of her father are not happy ones. An angry, secretive man, he died when she was thirteen, leaving his past shrouded in mystery. When a stranger claims to have known her father during his early years in Eastern Europe, she agrees to meet—only to watch the man shot dead on a city sidewalk. With his last breath, he whispers a cryptic clue, one that will propel Nadia on a high-stakes treasure hunt from New York to her ancestral homeland of Ukraine. There she meets an unlikely ally: Adam, a teenage hockey prodigy who honed his skills on the abandoned cooling ponds of Chernobyl. Physically and emotionally scarred by radiation syndrome, Adam possesses a secret that could change the world—if she can keep him alive long enough to do it. A twisting tale of greed, secrets, and lies, The Boy from Reactor 4 will keep readers guessing until the final heart-stopping page.

**