The Case of the General's Thumb [Paperback]

When looked at objectively, the plot of this book is quite serious with dispassionate murders, cold assassinations, and security service parlor games. Yet it is the tone that seemingly becomes a character unto itself. There is an overriding detached nonchalance in almost every incredible action that takes place. Though set in 1999 and mostly dealing with Ukraine and Russia, one would think the Cold War was still on with its grey drabness and the Soviet citizenry's resignation that nothing will ever change. I found all of that completely fascinating.

Where it lost marks from me was in the crisscrossing plot between Ukrainian Police Lieutenant Viktor Slutsky and Russian KGB officer Nik Tsensky. Both are being played by higher-ups and we are let in onto that fact from the start. So suspense was lacking and at times the chapter-to-chapter switch between them grew confusing and disjointed. What helped was the speed and length of the book which grew to the fairly obvious conclusion that Ukraine and Russia are symbiotically, economically, and historically entwined and that the serfs of the day continue to be pawns in the game of Czars.

This is a fast moving mystery story set in a realistically - even precisely - described Kiev, Ukraine, with scenes in Paris, London, Germany, Belgium, Cyprus and elsewhere. The year is 1997. Kiev has changed since then, but in its essentials not a lot. Happily, unexplained violent deaths of the politically inconvenient, and disappearing or tampered-with corpses have latterly been less commonplace than during the time of the Kuchma regime.

If unacquainted with Kuchma and his ways, recall for a moment President Nixon and his criminal entourage and reflect on what the final body count might have been if they had been in a position to realistically expect to get away with staged road accidents and deaths by firearms set up to look like suicides. Not that Kuchma is mentioned by name in this novel, but it is made clear that the corruption, criminality and avarice described reaches down from the very top. On the way down it infects the military, various police and intelligence agencies, even the humble traffic cop detailed to sit through the night watching for stolen cars. Communication between the different forces of law and order (if they can be called that) is poor to non-existent, and there is of course rivalry, even hostility. However, there is communication at some levels with former colleagues from other states in the now fragmented Soviet Union.

The cover blurb invokes Bulgakov and John Le Carré. It's a much lighter read than either. As readers of the novel we are, however, expected to remember the names and functions of a large number of characters, even the names of wives and children. If we feel reluctant to make the effort there will be times when we struggle to grasp just where we are as the short chapters jump between the various locations. In the end, it is worth that effort, and for the final chapters several of the key players are brought together. That others have been killed along the way also helps. You will probably work out the significance of the General's thumb some time before it is explained, but other aspects of the denouement will still come as a surprise.

Unlike Kerkov's earlier work 'Death and the Penguin', a hit with myself and many other readers, 'The Case of the General's Thumb' doesn't quite reach the heights of genius I've come to expect from the author. The dark humour is barely noticable, although the farcical elements that do appear are great and certainly memorable. The plot is twisty, but the loose characterisations of the main protagonists Viktor and Nik mean that two plotlines we as readers are supposed to see as completely seperate (until the respectable finale) merge and can be confused. The whole novel, actually, is a little confusing, with all the information being there, only hidden behind largely anonymous dialogue and bewildering, if amusing, events.

An average read from an author that we know can do better! Still, worth a rent from the library, at least - I can't garauntee I'll read my own copy again anytime.