Vadim

Constantin Vadim #3

by Donald James

2020: Russia has staggered from the ravages of civil war into a new era of mob corruption and despair. A tuberculosis epidemic has wiped out thousands and a mass emigration threatens the stability of the western world. In New York there is lawlessness and rioting. The only hope seems to be the forthcoming Presidential Election. Chief Inspector Constantin Vadim is seconded to a pro-Russian candidate whose wife has been threatened. As Rushton's campaign gathers pace, so too do the threats. Conspiracy within and without threaten to derail the one remaining hope for Russia as the campaign headquarters are stunned by a sequence of killings. Someone has been paid to silence some of Rushton's closest supporters, but why? And why does the killer use the execution techniques of the previous century to eliminate his victims?

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Crime, Russia

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Donald James (born Donald James Wheal) was a British television writer, novelist and non-fiction writer.

Educated at Sloane Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridge (where he read history), James completed his National Service in the Parachute Regiment before returning to London to work as a supply teacher.

He was the author of the best-selling novels Vadim, Monstrum, The Fortune Teller and The Fall of the Russian Empire, as well as non-fiction books such as The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich. He wrote under a number of pseudonyms, notably Thomas Dresden and James Barwick (originally in collaboration with fellow writer Tony Barwick, another long-term contributor to the various television productions of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and their company, AP Films/Century 21).

James's career as a scriptwriter included work on TV series such as The Adventurer, The Avengers, The Champions, Department S, Joe 90, Mission: Impossible, The Persuaders!, The Protectors, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Saint, The Secret Service, Space: 1999, Terrahawks and UFO. He wrote for a total of 22 titles, including the Century 21 film Doppelgänger, and acted in small three roles between 1961 and 1962.

After spending periods in France and Ireland, he returned to London. His autobiographical account of London life during World War II, World's End, was published in 2005. A second volume of memoirs, White City, was published in March 2007.

James died in London on 24 April 2008. Married three times and divorced once, he is survived by twin daughters

Reviews

[Barbara Elsborg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. Exciting, page turning - I was reading on the exercise bike and stayed on for another 30 minutes to finish it! So many twists and turns and I was always surprised. I liked the basis for the story - written in 2001 but set in 2020 - a little close for comfort. Clever thriller.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable and enjoyable crime story. Starts in Murmansk (far north of Russia) where Vadim is asked by local Russian mafia boss (and mayor) to go to the US to scout out a new striker for the home football team. Along the way our hero attracts trouble wherever he goes and finds himself at the heart of the us presidential campaign... And bizarre murder.