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Porfiry Rostnikov #7
Rostnikov's Vacation
Inspector Rostnikov 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.
244 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1991
76 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Stuart M. Kaminsky
161 books215 followersStuart M. Kaminsky wrote 50 published novels, 5 biographies, 4 textbooks and 35 short stories. He also has screenwriting credits on four produced films including ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, ENEMY TERRITORY, A WOMAN IN THE WIND and HIDDEN FEARS. He was a past president of the Mystery Writers of America and was nominated for six prestigious Edgar Allen Poe Awards including one for his short story “Snow” in 1999. He won an Edgar for his novel A COLD RED SUNRISE, which was also awarded the Prix De Roman D’Aventure of France. He was nominated for both a Shamus Award and a McCavity Readers Choice Award.
Kaminsky wrote several popular series including those featuring Lew Fonesca, Abraham Lieberman, Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, and Toby Peters. He also wrote two original "Rockford Files " novels. He was the 50th annual recipient of the Grandmaster 2006 for Lifetime Achievement from the Mystery Writers of America.
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievement award) in 2007.
His nonfiction books including BASIC FILMMAKING, WRITING FOR TELEVISION, AMERICAN FILM GENRES, and biographies of GARY COOPER, CLINT EASTWOOD, JOHN HUSTON and DON SIEGEL. BEHIND THE MYSTERY was published by Hot House Press in 2005 and nominated by Mystery Writers of America for Best Critical/Biographical book in 2006.
Kaminsky held a B.S. in Journalism and an M.A. in English from The University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Speech from Northwestern University where he taught for 16 years before becoming a Professor at Florida State. where he headed the Graduate Conservatory in Film and Television Production. He left Florida State in 1994 to pursue full-time writing.
Kaminsky and his wife, Enid Perll, moved to St. Louis, Missouri in March 2009 to await a liver transplant to treat the hepatitis he contracted as an army medic in the late 1950s in France. He suffered a stroke two days after their arrival in St. Louis, which made him ineligible for a transplant. He died on October 9, 2009.
Kaminsky wrote several popular series including those featuring Lew Fonesca, Abraham Lieberman, Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, and Toby Peters. He also wrote two original "Rockford Files " novels. He was the 50th annual recipient of the Grandmaster 2006 for Lifetime Achievement from the Mystery Writers of America.
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievement award) in 2007.
His nonfiction books including BASIC FILMMAKING, WRITING FOR TELEVISION, AMERICAN FILM GENRES, and biographies of GARY COOPER, CLINT EASTWOOD, JOHN HUSTON and DON SIEGEL. BEHIND THE MYSTERY was published by Hot House Press in 2005 and nominated by Mystery Writers of America for Best Critical/Biographical book in 2006.
Kaminsky held a B.S. in Journalism and an M.A. in English from The University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Speech from Northwestern University where he taught for 16 years before becoming a Professor at Florida State. where he headed the Graduate Conservatory in Film and Television Production. He left Florida State in 1994 to pursue full-time writing.
Kaminsky and his wife, Enid Perll, moved to St. Louis, Missouri in March 2009 to await a liver transplant to treat the hepatitis he contracted as an army medic in the late 1950s in France. He suffered a stroke two days after their arrival in St. Louis, which made him ineligible for a transplant. He died on October 9, 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 19, 2021
Conspiracy!
Glastnost! Perestroika! Democracy (don’t remember the Russian name)!
History is happening. Inspector Rostnikov and his team are split into three directions. Rostnikov is on vacation, Emil Karpo is due for one and Sasha Tkach is needing one.
While all three are working on separate assignments, Rostnikov discovers a connection between his suspicions and Karpo’s investigation.
A conspiracy is underway. High ranking official’s lives are on the line and Inspector Rostnikov and his team are ready to intervene.
But will their intervention be in time?
Glastnost! Perestroika! Democracy (don’t remember the Russian name)!
History is happening. Inspector Rostnikov and his team are split into three directions. Rostnikov is on vacation, Emil Karpo is due for one and Sasha Tkach is needing one.
While all three are working on separate assignments, Rostnikov discovers a connection between his suspicions and Karpo’s investigation.
A conspiracy is underway. High ranking official’s lives are on the line and Inspector Rostnikov and his team are ready to intervene.
But will their intervention be in time?
May 18, 2024
Enjoyed this one a lot. Only Rostnikov could go on vacation and save country at the same time. Along with a few helpers who were also on vacation. Kind of odd that everyone was on vacation at the same time...
This was narrated by John McLain, who I didn't like very much. Perhaps because I'm used to a different narrator, Mark Hammer, who is hard to find since I believe McLain does the Audible versions. But his Russian characters all seem to have a somewhat annoying accent (male and female are the same), although Rostinikov has an American accent. He pronounces names differently, but I'm not sure which one is correct. For example, McLain pronounces Tkach's name (Ukrainian?) without the initial 'T' sound, and sounds like "catch" to me.
Rostnikov again shows that he's smarter than most others, and smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut and not try to take too much credit. Apparently, in those days, doing well could be dangerous because you never knew which side might have power and fear losing out. And in this one, it seemed like everyone was following someone else, including the followers. Maybe that was normal.
The story was pretty complicated, so pay attention.
If you have read much of this series, you will especially enjoy this one, as it goes deeper into some of the characters. His boss, Colonel Snitkonoy (the Gray Wolfhound) shows that he is more than just a pointy-headed boss. Karpo, the by-the-books dedicated policeman, shows that he has a heart and feelings, and can think outside the box sometimes. He also shows how smart he is. And even Sasha Tkach shows himself to be more than a boring young wannabe.
This was narrated by John McLain, who I didn't like very much. Perhaps because I'm used to a different narrator, Mark Hammer, who is hard to find since I believe McLain does the Audible versions. But his Russian characters all seem to have a somewhat annoying accent (male and female are the same), although Rostinikov has an American accent. He pronounces names differently, but I'm not sure which one is correct. For example, McLain pronounces Tkach's name (Ukrainian?) without the initial 'T' sound, and sounds like "catch" to me.
Rostnikov again shows that he's smarter than most others, and smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut and not try to take too much credit. Apparently, in those days, doing well could be dangerous because you never knew which side might have power and fear losing out. And in this one, it seemed like everyone was following someone else, including the followers. Maybe that was normal.
The story was pretty complicated, so pay attention.
If you have read much of this series, you will especially enjoy this one, as it goes deeper into some of the characters. His boss, Colonel Snitkonoy (the Gray Wolfhound) shows that he is more than just a pointy-headed boss. Karpo, the by-the-books dedicated policeman, shows that he has a heart and feelings, and can think outside the box sometimes. He also shows how smart he is. And even Sasha Tkach shows himself to be more than a boring young wannabe.
April 11, 2024
Exposure to the previous novels in the series (this is the 7th) would've helped, but despite my unfamiliarity with the main characters this was an nice read, albeit one that requires considerable concentration. Those Russian names are the bane of my enjoyment of any novel with Russian characters.
In this episode based in the Gorbachev era, Moscow's Inspector Rostnikov is vacationing at the beach when a rather elderly fellow officer, an acquaintance of his who happens to be at the same location, dies suddenly. What the locals see as natural causes, Rostnikov quickly ascertains to be murder. He's soon back at work. In the meantime, other members of his team back at the ranch are chasing down a tip about the murder of a German businessman. Conflicting signals from upstairs, KGB involvement, and strange coincidences combine to muddy the waters and lead to an abrupt conclusion.
This was my first foray into Stuart Kaminsky's work and I'm ticked at myself for not finding him sooner. I'm a big fan of Martin Cruz Smith's 'Gorky Park' and its followups and this series looks to be along that same line. I enjoy the spare writing, the dry-as-a-bone Russian humor, the occasional abrupt violence, and the reminders of the 'old days' before the USSR fell apart. Wish I could get past my problems with the names, though.....
In this episode based in the Gorbachev era, Moscow's Inspector Rostnikov is vacationing at the beach when a rather elderly fellow officer, an acquaintance of his who happens to be at the same location, dies suddenly. What the locals see as natural causes, Rostnikov quickly ascertains to be murder. He's soon back at work. In the meantime, other members of his team back at the ranch are chasing down a tip about the murder of a German businessman. Conflicting signals from upstairs, KGB involvement, and strange coincidences combine to muddy the waters and lead to an abrupt conclusion.
This was my first foray into Stuart Kaminsky's work and I'm ticked at myself for not finding him sooner. I'm a big fan of Martin Cruz Smith's 'Gorky Park' and its followups and this series looks to be along that same line. I enjoy the spare writing, the dry-as-a-bone Russian humor, the occasional abrupt violence, and the reminders of the 'old days' before the USSR fell apart. Wish I could get past my problems with the names, though.....
December 17, 2020
Porfiry Petrovich, you’ve done it again.
October 31, 2025
Rostnikov teams up with some allies to explore a conspiracy in the KGB.
September 28, 2013
Events have lead us to the Rostnikov I had meet in the previous titles I had read before I began this run through the entire series. A man a little world weary, nowhere near as cynical as the previous tales, and dedicated to seeking justice. Not enforcing the law, but obtaining justice in all the small ways he can.
With his wife Sara recovering from neurosurgery Rostnikov has been ordered on vacation. As always a vacation in Russia as the start of glasnost is more than a vacation. The death of a GRU investigator vacationing at the same spot Rostnikov is has ramifications for the entire Russian Confederation.
The usual supporting characters are present. Sasha seems to be forever stuck in the rut of being the manchild who's penis constantly betrays him and Karpo, ahh Karpo. Poor Karpo who was dedicated to the Revolution. Now without the Soviet State his life is in upheaval, and he struggles to make sense of the changes around him.
A fun, quick read.
With his wife Sara recovering from neurosurgery Rostnikov has been ordered on vacation. As always a vacation in Russia as the start of glasnost is more than a vacation. The death of a GRU investigator vacationing at the same spot Rostnikov is has ramifications for the entire Russian Confederation.
The usual supporting characters are present. Sasha seems to be forever stuck in the rut of being the manchild who's penis constantly betrays him and Karpo, ahh Karpo. Poor Karpo who was dedicated to the Revolution. Now without the Soviet State his life is in upheaval, and he struggles to make sense of the changes around him.
A fun, quick read.
January 31, 2023
Soon after Mikhail Gorbachev rose to supreme power in the old Soviet Union in 1985, he forced two new words onto the world’s consciousness. Glasnost, meaning more open consultative government and wider dissemination of information, usually dumbed down to “openness.” And perestroika, the policy of restructuring or reforming the economic and political system. Two years later, Gorbachev announced the new policy of demokratizatsiya, or democratization. And on March 26, 1989, nearly ninety percent of the adult population of the USSR turned out to vote in the first competitive elections since the Bolsheviks lost the last one in 1917. To hard-liners, it all looked like a government conspiracy. To the world at large, it appeared that the country was on the cusp of a brilliant new era.
EXPLORING THE ROLE OF THE KGB IN THE RUSSIAN STATE
In spite of all the promising new policies, however, expectations for a better life fell victim to the sour fatalism ingrained in the Russian people by seventy years of Communist rule—and for good reason. Because the Soviet system was coming apart at the seams. Nothing seemed to work anymore. And the same old apparatchiks who had skimmed the cream off the “socialist” system were jockeying to continue in power despite the trappings of democracy.
That’s the setting for Rostnikov’s Vacation, the seventh novel in Stuart Kaminsky’s sixteen-book series of historical mysteries centered around Moscow police Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov. Like the others, which span two decades of Soviet history, the novel explores the pivotal role of the KGB and its successors in the Russian state—and the lengths to which an honest policeman needed to go to do his job.
ROSTNIKOV AND HIS ABLE TEAM
Like most of the six preceding novels in the series, Kaminsky follows three criminal investigations undertaken simultaneously by Inspector Rostnikov and his team in Rostnikov’s Vacation. The inspector had been demoted from his prestigious position in the Procurator’s office for tangling with the KGB. Two of his closest subordinates followed him to the new posting. Now, they’re on the staff of the vainglorious Colonel Snitkonoy, “the Gray Wolfhound.” Officially, they’re to investigate only the most minor of crimes. But Rostnikov has other ideas, and his colleagues Emil Karpo and Sasha Tkach are eager to follow his lead.
EMIL KARPO, THE VAMPIRE
Veteran detective Emil Karpo is on the trail of a homicidal lunatic who has thrown a young woman to her death from a window. The killer is in plain sight at the window but escapes with the help of an accomplice. And one of those who sees him is Rostnikov’s most able colleague. Karpo is known as “the Tartar” or “the Vampire” for his gaunt, menacing looks. “He had lived his adult life with dedication to the Revolution, had lived only to cleanse the state, bring about the world ideal for which Lenin died and which Karpo believed.” As an investigator, he is relentless. And he spends most of his evenings pursuing new leads on some of the hundreds of cold cases he has been involved in over the years.
SASHA TKACH
Emil Karpo’s young colleague, Sasha Tkach, pursues a gang of thieves who are stealing computers. Evidence has mounted that they have targeted only Jewish homes. So Sasha has gone undercover as a young Jewish man named Yon Mandelstem, who was en route to a new home in Israel. Together with a colleague, a dim-witted detective, he has moved into Mandelstam’s apartment in hopes of luring the thieves there. He is in agony because he has been ordered to stay out of contact for several days with the pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter he adores. He has never been apart from them overnight since the little girl was born.
PORFIRY PETROVICH ROSTNIKOV
Rostnikov, now in his early sixties, limps from a wound he suffered in the Great Patriotic War. He is a weightlifting champion and is called “the Washtub” for his broad, heavily muscled body. Rostnikov has been ordered to take a vacation in the Crimea. His wife, who is Jewish, had recently undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor and is recuperating at a sanatorium in Yalta. But once there he stumbles into a murder mystery. A policeman named Georgi Vasilievich has been murdered, and it soon becomes clear that he was secretly investigating a Moscow-based conspiracy that threatened the Gorbachev government. Rostnikov’s investigation soon takes him back to Moscow and the intrigue swirling around the Kremlin.
Only much later will we learn what is actually going on in the conspiracy Vasilievich had uncovered. And it turns out that Inspector Rostnikov’s nemesis, a KGB colonel named Nikolai Zhenya, is deeply involved. Eventually, this will bring the two men face to face.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The late Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934-2009) wrote more than sixty crime novels. He is best known for his long-running series of books featuring Toby Peters, a down-at-the-heels private eye in Hollywood in the 1930s and ’40s. The sixteen novels of the Porfiry Rostnikov series are less well known but interest me more for their historical content. Kaminsky served as President of the Mystery Writers of America and received its highest honor as a Grand Master three years before his death. He was educated at the University of Illinois, which granted him a BA and Master’s degrees, and the University of Illinois, where he earned a doctorate in film studies.
EXPLORING THE ROLE OF THE KGB IN THE RUSSIAN STATE
In spite of all the promising new policies, however, expectations for a better life fell victim to the sour fatalism ingrained in the Russian people by seventy years of Communist rule—and for good reason. Because the Soviet system was coming apart at the seams. Nothing seemed to work anymore. And the same old apparatchiks who had skimmed the cream off the “socialist” system were jockeying to continue in power despite the trappings of democracy.
That’s the setting for Rostnikov’s Vacation, the seventh novel in Stuart Kaminsky’s sixteen-book series of historical mysteries centered around Moscow police Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov. Like the others, which span two decades of Soviet history, the novel explores the pivotal role of the KGB and its successors in the Russian state—and the lengths to which an honest policeman needed to go to do his job.
ROSTNIKOV AND HIS ABLE TEAM
Like most of the six preceding novels in the series, Kaminsky follows three criminal investigations undertaken simultaneously by Inspector Rostnikov and his team in Rostnikov’s Vacation. The inspector had been demoted from his prestigious position in the Procurator’s office for tangling with the KGB. Two of his closest subordinates followed him to the new posting. Now, they’re on the staff of the vainglorious Colonel Snitkonoy, “the Gray Wolfhound.” Officially, they’re to investigate only the most minor of crimes. But Rostnikov has other ideas, and his colleagues Emil Karpo and Sasha Tkach are eager to follow his lead.
EMIL KARPO, THE VAMPIRE
Veteran detective Emil Karpo is on the trail of a homicidal lunatic who has thrown a young woman to her death from a window. The killer is in plain sight at the window but escapes with the help of an accomplice. And one of those who sees him is Rostnikov’s most able colleague. Karpo is known as “the Tartar” or “the Vampire” for his gaunt, menacing looks. “He had lived his adult life with dedication to the Revolution, had lived only to cleanse the state, bring about the world ideal for which Lenin died and which Karpo believed.” As an investigator, he is relentless. And he spends most of his evenings pursuing new leads on some of the hundreds of cold cases he has been involved in over the years.
SASHA TKACH
Emil Karpo’s young colleague, Sasha Tkach, pursues a gang of thieves who are stealing computers. Evidence has mounted that they have targeted only Jewish homes. So Sasha has gone undercover as a young Jewish man named Yon Mandelstem, who was en route to a new home in Israel. Together with a colleague, a dim-witted detective, he has moved into Mandelstam’s apartment in hopes of luring the thieves there. He is in agony because he has been ordered to stay out of contact for several days with the pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter he adores. He has never been apart from them overnight since the little girl was born.
PORFIRY PETROVICH ROSTNIKOV
Rostnikov, now in his early sixties, limps from a wound he suffered in the Great Patriotic War. He is a weightlifting champion and is called “the Washtub” for his broad, heavily muscled body. Rostnikov has been ordered to take a vacation in the Crimea. His wife, who is Jewish, had recently undergone surgery to remove a brain tumor and is recuperating at a sanatorium in Yalta. But once there he stumbles into a murder mystery. A policeman named Georgi Vasilievich has been murdered, and it soon becomes clear that he was secretly investigating a Moscow-based conspiracy that threatened the Gorbachev government. Rostnikov’s investigation soon takes him back to Moscow and the intrigue swirling around the Kremlin.
Only much later will we learn what is actually going on in the conspiracy Vasilievich had uncovered. And it turns out that Inspector Rostnikov’s nemesis, a KGB colonel named Nikolai Zhenya, is deeply involved. Eventually, this will bring the two men face to face.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The late Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934-2009) wrote more than sixty crime novels. He is best known for his long-running series of books featuring Toby Peters, a down-at-the-heels private eye in Hollywood in the 1930s and ’40s. The sixteen novels of the Porfiry Rostnikov series are less well known but interest me more for their historical content. Kaminsky served as President of the Mystery Writers of America and received its highest honor as a Grand Master three years before his death. He was educated at the University of Illinois, which granted him a BA and Master’s degrees, and the University of Illinois, where he earned a doctorate in film studies.
April 30, 2010
A little Russian history and understanding of modern day Russia just goes along with these novels. Russian names are a problem but the plots are good enough to make these books worthwhile
August 9, 2011
One of the weaker books in an excellent series.
September 15, 2020
Summary: Rostnikov, on vacation in Yalta, learns that the death of a fellow investigator on vacation was murder, and that top investigators throughout Moscow are being sent on vacation at the time of a major political rally.
Porfiry Rostnikov is on vacation in Yalta. Rather, he was sent on vacation. He accepts it because it is a chance for recuperation of his wife, Sarah, from brain surgery. He meets another investigator, Georgi Vasilievich, has pleasant conversations with him in the evenings, until Vasilievich turns up dead from an apparent heart attack, only it turns out to be murder. The signs show that his killers inflicted painful interrogation first, and searched his room.
Meanwhile, his assistant Emil Karpo is investigating the murder of an East German, until he is also ordered on vacation. He stretches his departure to finish his investigation while the others on the team pursue a band of computer thieves preying on Jewish computer specialists, resulting in Sasha Tkach discovering he is all too human, failing his partner Zelach, who winds up in the hospital. He ends up joining Karpo.
What is it Vasilievich had discovered? What connection did this have with all the top investigators around Moscow being sent on vacation? Who was doing this and why, in a Moscow caught in a power struggle between Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin? And why does all this coincide with a major political rally?
You probably have a sense of where this is going. That’s what made this diverting rather than riveting. You want to see how Rostnikov and his team figure out what’s going on. There are predictable instances of things being not as they seem. Perhaps one of the reasons Kaminsky sends Rostnikov on vacation is it offers a chance to develop other characters on the team–Tkach, Karpo, and even Zelach.
This was not the most outstanding in the series. Kaminsky develops Rostnikov’s team, explores the labyrinthine maneuverings of the Kremlin with an engaging enough plot to hold your interest. Sometimes, that’s all a book needs to do.
Porfiry Rostnikov is on vacation in Yalta. Rather, he was sent on vacation. He accepts it because it is a chance for recuperation of his wife, Sarah, from brain surgery. He meets another investigator, Georgi Vasilievich, has pleasant conversations with him in the evenings, until Vasilievich turns up dead from an apparent heart attack, only it turns out to be murder. The signs show that his killers inflicted painful interrogation first, and searched his room.
Meanwhile, his assistant Emil Karpo is investigating the murder of an East German, until he is also ordered on vacation. He stretches his departure to finish his investigation while the others on the team pursue a band of computer thieves preying on Jewish computer specialists, resulting in Sasha Tkach discovering he is all too human, failing his partner Zelach, who winds up in the hospital. He ends up joining Karpo.
What is it Vasilievich had discovered? What connection did this have with all the top investigators around Moscow being sent on vacation? Who was doing this and why, in a Moscow caught in a power struggle between Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin? And why does all this coincide with a major political rally?
You probably have a sense of where this is going. That’s what made this diverting rather than riveting. You want to see how Rostnikov and his team figure out what’s going on. There are predictable instances of things being not as they seem. Perhaps one of the reasons Kaminsky sends Rostnikov on vacation is it offers a chance to develop other characters on the team–Tkach, Karpo, and even Zelach.
This was not the most outstanding in the series. Kaminsky develops Rostnikov’s team, explores the labyrinthine maneuverings of the Kremlin with an engaging enough plot to hold your interest. Sometimes, that’s all a book needs to do.
June 17, 2020
Another in the excellent Rostnikov series by Stuart Kaminsky. In this one, Rostnikov has been sent on a well-deserved vacation to Yalta on the Black Sea, where his wife can continue to recuperate from her recent brain surgery. He stumbles onto a conspiracy when a KGB officer he has met at Yalta is murdered. Of course, thinks in Moscow are not standing still. His team there is involved in a seemingly separate case, and the whole thing proceeds with the confusion and mayhem for which this series is known. The story works itself out as the pages go by, this one involving Gorbachev and Yeltsin's Perestroika movement. Entertaining as always.
November 11, 2019
No vacation for the Detectives
This is the 7th book in the series that I have come to enjoy. I thoroughly enjoy the character of Porfiry Rostnikov, as well as his wife Sarah, and his assistants Emil Karpo and Sasha Takach, and the other charters who repeatedly appear in these stories. I am only sorry that eventually the series will be done, because of the recent death of Mr. Kaminsky. My fondest wish would be to be able to tell a story like he does, with such developed characters. A really fun read, always leaves me wanting more.
This is the 7th book in the series that I have come to enjoy. I thoroughly enjoy the character of Porfiry Rostnikov, as well as his wife Sarah, and his assistants Emil Karpo and Sasha Takach, and the other charters who repeatedly appear in these stories. I am only sorry that eventually the series will be done, because of the recent death of Mr. Kaminsky. My fondest wish would be to be able to tell a story like he does, with such developed characters. A really fun read, always leaves me wanting more.
March 26, 2020
I obviously enjoy thesebooks as I’m working may way through the whole series. I wouldn’t put them up with Louise Penny or Jacqueline Winspear or Elizabeth Peters, but they’re betterthan most of the “cozy” mysteries churned out these days. Strengths are the characters and the sense of place. Plots are good as well, but in yhis iteration as in the previous ones, there are gaps and leaps that leave you dissatisfied with the resolutions. Nonetheless, I look forward to the rest of the series.
November 18, 2023
3.5 stars.
I think this is the first Rostnikov book I've rated less than 4 stars. It's not bad, still a good mystery, it just didn't give me that oomph that the previous ones did.
Kaminsky does really good research on specific things: a specific building in Moscow, for example. But it feels like his sense of the Russian people is just... off. I don't know how to explain it. It just feels like he doesn't truly understand what it felt like to be a person living in Moscow during the Soviet era.
I think this is the first Rostnikov book I've rated less than 4 stars. It's not bad, still a good mystery, it just didn't give me that oomph that the previous ones did.
Kaminsky does really good research on specific things: a specific building in Moscow, for example. But it feels like his sense of the Russian people is just... off. I don't know how to explain it. It just feels like he doesn't truly understand what it felt like to be a person living in Moscow during the Soviet era.
March 30, 2022
Reading all Kaminsky's I can find.
The Rostnikov series is about a Moscow police inspector and his detective team. All good characters with interesting back stories.
This one's plot is convoluted but still entertaining.
The Rostnikov series is about a Moscow police inspector and his detective team. All good characters with interesting back stories.
This one's plot is convoluted but still entertaining.
June 5, 2025
James Joyce kaminski
The series is wonderful.
How ever I think our author must have just finished Trinity before this novel.
The jumping around was in my opinion distracting and the gear shifts were not smooth but sometimes confusing .
The series is wonderful.
How ever I think our author must have just finished Trinity before this novel.
The jumping around was in my opinion distracting and the gear shifts were not smooth but sometimes confusing .
February 1, 2018
Excellent story line. Good growth of characters. A coming together of underlying subplots beginning with book 1 in series.
April 19, 2019
Alwaуs delightful Kaminskу - if onlу he would do something about these ridiculous "Russian" names of his... like get them out of a Moscow phone book
April 20, 2019
This series get better with every book. A most enjoyable read.
December 28, 2019
Somehow I thought this the first in Rostnikov series, so I forgive any minor quibble as the double double crosses stack up. I can see why Kaminsky got the Edgar!
July 7, 2020
A bit gimmicky and not exciting enough. And once again a novel in English about the Soviet Union riddled with 'russian' words and phrases that are sometimes wrong or out of place.
April 2, 2021
Moscow and Yalta (the sanatoriums for the ill)
August 20, 2022
O inspector vai de férias para Ialta e os sarilhos seguem-no.
July 30, 2023
3.5 ⭐ rounded up. A very good read. Well-paced, proper characters set in russia in the gorbachev era. The plot is interesting and seems very russian.
February 3, 2025
Not one of his best, but they're all very good and this one is too.
August 5, 2025
Vacations are not all that relaxing when you are ordered to take one.
July 2, 2016
There was a time I much preferred Stuart Kaminsky to Martin Cruz Smith. Its been a long time since i Read a Kaminsky and I recently read a Smith. Smith definitely got better. I hope Kaminsky stayed good.
March 2, 2022
The main character of this Russian detective story, Porfiry Rostnikov is mandated to go on vacation to the Black Sea. This is the seventh in a series of wonderful novels by Stuart Kaminsky. The stories follow Rostnikov and his investigators, Sasha Tkach and Emil Karpo in their work and home lives.
April 8, 2012
Great (as usual) Russian detective story.
March 26, 2013
Wouldn't use this one as an introduction to the series. Falls a little flat.
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