The murder of the Romanovs Book

I like reading Greg King's books as he has a wonderfully engaging writing style, but at times he tends to play fast and loose with the facts. In "The Man Who Killed Rasputin", he seems taken in by Rasputin's claims of divine powers to a certain degree, raising a great deal of skepticism. Far too much credence is given to suppositions that Rasputin wielded very little influence over the tsar and tsarina aside from Alexei's health. While I'll concede the point Rasputin probably did not have as much influence as people believed, to dismiss his influence almost entirely is ridiculous. King also dismisses several theories concerning Rasputin's "healing powers" and concluding only for the mystical, completely disregarding the possibility several factors were in play.

I agree when King says "we will never know with any certainty the true nature of the events of that night at the Moika Palace", but the source for crucial pieces of his "evidence" is shoddy at best. A story he heard from someone who heard it from the sister-in-law of one of Felix's servants. Really? I can't believe he had the nerve to quote this in a serious history book. The information is more than second-hand. It's third or fourth-hand.

I appreciate the consideration of different hypothesis, but don't couch it as fact.

And I did find a blatant discrepancy, though on a relatively minor matter. At one point King states that Felix inherited his father's golden hair and then a few pages later states Felix's brother had the same dark shade of hair as their father. It's either one or the other. The senior Yusopov did not have both.

King also deduces Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich's homosexuality from a letter written by Alexandra to Nicholas, taking a great deal of liberty in inferring a meaning correlating to his theory. Again, I appreciate the hypothesis, but why infer it as positive fact? I have read a great many books about the Romanovs and don't recall any claiming Grand Duke Dmitri was a homosexual. Of course, some were read years ago and I may be mistaken. But it did not ring a bell at all. All I remember concerning the Grand Duke's "love affairs" was the fact he was considered as a match for Maria or Olga at one point before being involved in Rasputin's murder. And we also learn in this book that Dmitri had an extended romantic relationship with Coco Chanel. I suppose I should read the memoirs of Maria Pavlovna, his sister, and find out her take on the matter.

All in all, an entertaining and fairly quick read that offers new and interesting hypotheses on the night of Rasputin's murder.