First time in paperback: The acclaimed life of the "mad monk" who wielded immeasurable influence over the last Czar and his family Grigory Efimovich Rasputin-drinker, thief, womanizer-arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903 as if from the medieval past...tattered, black-clad, muttering. By the time of his sensational murder thirteen years later, the peasant was the "beloved Friend" of Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, with a seemingly supernatural power to stop the bleeding attacks of their hemophiliac son, Alexis. Drawing on confidential police reports, cabinet meeting memos, and many documents only now available, Moynahan sheds new light on Rasputin's life and disputes some of the widely held details of his death. The Detroit Free Press hailed the book as "truly mesmerizing....The text is based on carefully documented historical research, but the story rolls along like a good novel with rising suspense and an array of colorful action as vast as Russia itself."