Death of a Russian Priest [Audiobook] (Audio Cassette)

In the Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov series, Kaminsky has deftly transplanted the Ed McBain police procedural to Russia: individual detectives, each having his/her own serial back stories, investigating different cases. And through the time span of the series, the reader also watches as the Soviet Union disintegrates.This time, there is the mysterious disappearance of a Syrian Oil Minister's daughter and the murders of a Russian Orthodox Priest and Nun.

'With faith in his mission, Father Merhum [the eponymous dead Russian Orthodox Priest] had stood up to commissars, the leaders of his own church, the KGB, and state leaders from Stalin to Gorbachev. And now, days after the end of the seventy-year failure of Soviet socialism, he stood ready to take up the demands for reform with Yeltsin himself." ... "He would supply the names. He would read them in Red Square atop the empty tomb that had held the profane icon of Lenin." Hunh? Lenin isn't in Lenin's Tomb anymore?!? Where is he? I guess the old "stumper" of "Who is buried in Lenin's Tomb?" isn't so obvious anymore, nyet?

Here's a savvy and snappy comment on the State of Russian Dys-union at the time: "Tatyana smiled. `You are a year too late, pretty policeman,' she said. `You can't do such things anymore. People will run and tell on you and you will have to say five Hail Yeltsins in penance."

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Stuart Kaminsky, himself an Edgar Award winner, proves once again that his Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series in not one to miss. Set in Russia amid the rumblings and eventual fall of the Iron Curtain, the series captures convincingly the Russian atmosphere, politically, socially, criminally, and with such conviction, especially for an American writer who has not devoted his life to Russian studies.

In "Death of a Russian Priest," Inspector Rostnikov, accompanied by one of the few individuals he can fully trust, journeys to Arkush to investigate the murder of a local priest, an outspoken cleric and one whose death has shocked the local community.

Of course, as with all the Rostnikov books, nothing is as it seems and it takes the cunning, the skill, and the intellect of his team to bring all this together. He and Karpo, known as "the Vampire," are busy solving this murder while meanwhile back in Moscow, Sasha Tkach, Rostinok's handsome and randy and very married assistant, is involved in another investigation. Tkach has a new partner, Elena Timofeyeva (which opens up other complications!), and they are trying to find a missing girl and a cold-blooded killer. Kaminsky manages to tie these assignments together and quite satsifactorily by the book's conclusion. He, once again, has managed to provide humanity in an area where little is often found! Kaminsky's Russian tales are absorbing, and it is nail-biting waiting for the next episode.

Billyjhobbs@tyler.net

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