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Title: Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express by Stuart M. Kaminsky ISBN: 0-89296-747-1 Publisher: Mysterious Press Pub. Date: 24 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Nu, so votz the big deal?
Comment: I have never read anything by Kaminsky and solely on the basis of reader reviews, I tried this one. Alas, 'twas a fizzle. Mildly interesting but basically fluff. OK, I'll grant you it's "clever" but in wholly predictable ways. When it comes to an American who can weave together suspense, violence, plot twists, and insight into Mother Russia, Tom Clancy is a cut above Kaminsky. Clancy isn't as showy and he works on a different scale of canvas, but Clancy knows his Russia--he knows where it hurts, where it makes you laugh through your tears, where it makes you curse, and where it makes you incredibly sad. Kaminsky's book stays on the surface of the snowdrifts. It's a formula book wearing a fancy disguise with a great title that deserves far better.
Rating: 5
Summary: Policework in a city without laws
Comment: I'm new to Kaminsky, so all the Russian named characters living in a different world made the early going slow. By Book II, however, I was up to speed and turned onto the pace of three overlapping plots:
1. Porfiry Rostnikov, the seasoned Moscow cop with a plastic leg, along with Sasha Tkach is on a mission on the title train in a compartment with a couple of Americans, an intriguing female agent and Pavel Cherkasov, Russia's answer to Henny Youngman. Igor (the Yak) Yaklovev is Rostnikov's Machiavellian boss. He thrives running a police department in a society that acknowledges law enforcement but has no clearly accepted laws and has his own reasons for sending them on the assignment.
2. Rostnikov's son Iosef and partner Elena are chasing Inna, a psycho whose answer to a father's lack of attention is to plunge a kitchen knife into Moscow commuters who remind her of him.
3. Emil Karpo another hardened police vet and his more mystical junior partner Zelach are looking for the missing lead singer in a skinhead rock band. The Naked Cossack, whose real name is Misha Lovski, is the son of a Rupert Murdoch like Moscow media mogul rebelling against his father's life.
The investigations weave through each chapter moving toward independent but simultaneous conclusions. The drama of the chase or who did what to whom, however, is the sideshow. The real story is about how Kaminsky's characters react to what happens around them, both on and off the job. In the end it's not about justice but rather Rostnikov and the Yak manipulating each other to preserve what passes for order in their chaotic worlds. Even if you can't remember their names or identify with their lifestyles, you'll know what makes Kaminsky's characters tick and empathize with the way each plays the hand life has dealt.
Rating: 4
Summary: Don't you know we're riding on the Trans-Siberian Express?
Comment: (That title had more of a "ring" to it when it was the Marrakesh Express, nyet?)
In his Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov series, Stuart M. Kaminsky has deftly transplanted the Ed McBain police procedural to Russia: individual detectives, each having his/her own serial back stories, (Zelach has a much larger piece this time than he ever has,) investigating different cases. This is all played out against a panoramic backdrop through the time span of the series: the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.
It's not easy trying to be a force for Law and Order in a country having tenuous little of either:
"The laws of Russia were a shambles: a basis in old Soviet law, assumptions of common sense and vague precedents, smatterings of Western manipulations gleaned from reruns of "Law and Order," "L.A. Law," "Rumpole of the Bailey," and ancient black-and-white episodes of "Perry Mason."
The law, in short, was whatever the politically appointed and frequently corrupt judges wanted it to be. While corruption and politics pervaded the old Soviet system, there were still occasional Communist zealots on the bench who stood behind and believed in the oppressive laws in the books they seldom read.
Now the law was written by Kafka."
In the 14th installment of the series, the men and sole woman of the Office of Special Investigations are plunged into the Russian underground heavy metal/neo-Nazi music scene, the Moscow metro subway system, and, of course, riding the Trans-Siberian Express. Prolific author Kaminsky gives the reader a feel for the people and politics while raconting a riveting tale. Rostnikov's immediate supervisor, Igor "The Yak" Yaklovev, a former KGB functionary intent on gathering as much 'dirt" on as many people as possible, is totally devoid of human kindness - reminds this reader of Daniel Benzali's smarmy serpentine character (Robert Quinn) on "The Agency." Through it all, Rostnikov and his crew persevere - like the laborers who built the 6,000-mile Trans-Siberian Express.
reviewed by mbmlaw
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Title: Fall of a Cosmonaut by Stuart M. Kaminsky ISBN: 0892966688 Publisher: Mysterious Press Pub. Date: 21 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Dog Who Bit a Policeman (Inspector Rostnikov Mysteries) by Stuart M. Kaminksy, Stuart M. Kaminsky ISBN: 089296667X Publisher: Mysterious Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Rostnikov's Vacation: An Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Novel by Stuart M. Kaminsky ISBN: 0684190222 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $77.00 |
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Title: Death of a Russian Priest: An Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Novel by Stuart M. Kaminsky ISBN: 0804108366 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Blood and Rubles (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery) by Stuart M. Kaminsky ISBN: 0804112886 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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