From Kirkus Reviews
Kaminsky's vacation is more like it, since Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov has taken a trip to Yalta with his wife under strict orders from his superiors (why?), whereas Kaminsky seems to be on holiday from the intensity of A Cold Red Sunrise (1988). As Rostnikov looks into the death of his old colleague Georgi Vassilievich, his buddies back in Moscow--Sasha Tkach and Emil Karpo--are chasing, respectively, a gang of computer thieves and the killer of a German businessman. All very normal, even quiet, for Kaminsky, and the connection between two of these cases--a KGB plot to assassinate Gorbachev?--slips in almost unnoticed between Sasha's adventures trying to pass himself off as Jewish and Rostnikov's new friendship with an American cop and his dying wife. A lesser, lighter entry in this fine series, with the most understated Soviet political plot you're likely ever to see. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
“Kaminsky gets Russia right. . . . Superb.” —Ed McBain “Sweaty-palmed suspense of the best sort, built out of equal parts of likeable characters and believable dangers.” —The Washington Post Book World “[Kaminksy] had an uncanny knack for summoning up the feel of cities and even lost eras, and doing so in a few details.” —Booklist “Quite simply the best cop to come out of the Soviet Union since Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko in Gorky Park.” —The San Francisco Examiner “The Ed McBain of Mother Russia.” —Kirkus Reviews “Stuart Kaminsky’s Rostnikov novels are among the best mysteries being written.” —The San Diego Union-Tribune “Fortified by his love for weight lifting, Ed McBain novels, Russian plumbing and American pizza, the rotund Rostnikov perseveres, strong as a bull, lame in one leg and quite clearly nobody’s fool.” —Publishers Weekly “Kaminsky takes care not to rob the beleaguered cops of their human core—a courtesy he also extends to Moscow, which comes across as a character in its own right: rough and dangerous and somehow tragic.” —The New York Times “A great way to visit Moscow without having to live there.” —San Jose Mercury News
From the Inside Flap
stnikov is vacationing by the seashore, tending to his recuperating wife and reading American crime novels, when a vacationing fellow officer meets with a mysterious demise. Suddenly, Rostnikov is back at work . . . and on the trail of a murderer whose footsteps may lead straight to the heart of the Kremlin.
About the Author
Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934–2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades. Born in Chicago, he spent his youth immersed in pulp fiction and classic cinema—two forms of popular entertainment which he would make his life’s work. After college and a stint in the army, Kaminsky wrote film criticism and biographies of the great actors and directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age. In 1977, when a planned biography of Charlton Heston fell through, Kaminsky wrote Bullet for a Star, his first Toby Peters novel, beginning a fiction career that would last the rest of his life. Kaminsky penned twenty-four novels starring the detective, whom he described as “the anti-Philip Marlowe.” In 1981’s Death of a Dissident, Kaminsky debuted Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov, whose stories were praised for their accurate depiction of Soviet life. His other two series starred Abe Lieberman, a hardened Chicago cop, and Lew Fonseca, a process server. In all, Kaminsky wrote more than sixty novels. He died in St. Louis in 2009.
"Mark Hammer narrates well, with clear, distinct pronunciation and pauses to change characters, episodes of action and chapters; but his reading is too slow for the naturally fast pace of the story." P.A.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
