Focusing on the Romanov family’s final two weeks alive, “The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg” is an unsettling read. 

Helen Rappaport is an excellent historian and writer. “The Last Days of the Romanovs” has her trademark emphasis on a strong narrative history, but it is less like a conversation with the reader—the history about the murder of eleven people laid out as accurately as possible. This is the most respectful way to present the information to readers. However, it fully drives home how barbaric their botched execution was, which is in sharp contrast to the glamorized version so often passed off as the truth. 

The book included details I had either not known or had forgotten from her other books. Some of them, such as the unfeeling, deliberate orchestration of the murders of the seven Romanovs and their four servants, I think perhaps I wish I hadn’t learned.