The Lost Crown by Sarah Miller 412 pages

This is not so much the story of how a crown was lost as the tragic year of the last Russian royal family. It is told in the form of diary entries, with each chapter told from the point of view of one four grand duchesses: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.These final days of Imperial Russia are told with great compassion.The author does a fine job of portraying the differences between the daughters, as well as showing Nicholas, the great czar trying to cope with the political changes as an everyman who works out his frustrations chopping lumber and shoveling snow.While I remembered the skeleton of the tale of the family's demise, I had no idea that it happened so gradually. The sisters shared duties working at the hospital taking care of stricken soldiers, before they became  political prisoners themselves. It was especially interesting reading this historical novel after reading the biography of Catherine the Great a few months earlier.