What do you think?
Rate this book
Porfiry Rostnikov #13
Fall of a Cosmonaut
More persistent than fearless, Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov makes his way through a ferocious storm, whose record breaking winds and rain push an iron bench along the street, to get inside the Petrovka headquarters where three peculiar investigations await him.Cosmonaut Tsimion Vladovka's last words on Mir's recorders were instructions to contact rostnikov in case something went wrong with the mission. Vladovka is missing, and his fellow Mir cosmonauts are turning up dead.
Film director Yuri Kriskov is in fear of his life, threatened by the same chess-crazed lunatic who stole the only extant footage of his grand documentary on Tolstoy.
And two detectives enter the strange world of paranormal research to discover who murdered a leading scientist working on psychic phenomena during dream states...
Film director Yuri Kriskov is in fear of his life, threatened by the same chess-crazed lunatic who stole the only extant footage of his grand documentary on Tolstoy.
And two detectives enter the strange world of paranormal research to discover who murdered a leading scientist working on psychic phenomena during dream states...
277 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
111 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Stuart M. Kaminsky
159 books213 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 12, 2019
Summary: Chief Inspector Rostnikov and his team are charged with investigating three cases, a missing cosmonaut, a stolen film, and a brutal murder in a Paranormal Research Institute, only the first of the murders in the course of the story.
My son often manages to find books I probably never would have noticed that end up as fascinating reads. This book was such a case. It is actually the thirteenth installment in Stuart M. Kaminsky's Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series and the real find here is the character of Rostnikov who combines the savvy political instincts necessary to survive in a cutthroat Russian bureacracy with an intuition about human behavior that leads him to surround himself with shrewd associates, and solve crimes.
In this installment, there is not one, but three cases that his boss, the Yak, has assigned him, expecting results. One is a cosmonaut that has disappeared, along with secret knowledge of events on the Mir space station, knowledge that others have already died without revealing, the most recent by a swift injection from an umbrella-bearing man that is following Rostnikov and his son Iosef, as they travel to the village where Tsimion Vladovka grew up.
In the second case, a movie director, Yuri Kriskov has just completed what is adverted to be a great epic on the life of Leo Tolstoy. Then he receives word that the movie and its negatives have been stolen, and are being held for a ransom that if not paid will result both in the destruction of the movie and the death of Kriskov. It turns out that this is a plot of an assistant, Valery Grachev who is in love with Vera, Kriskov's wife, and Vera, who wants to be rid of Yuri. Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva are assigned to this case, trying to find the manic genius who has stolen the film, and is seeking a way to kill Yuri.
The third case involves the gruesome death by claw hammer of a sleep and dream researcher at a Paranormal Studies Institute. Emil Karpo and his understudy Zelech are assigned this one. Zelech is sidetracked by a woman researcher who suspects him of special abilities. Karpo collects shoes, finds a suspect who is a reclusive researcher who claims he is framed, and homes in on a jealous fellow scientist good at covering tracks.
Rostnikov has the skill to adeptly counsel each both on the cases and their personal lives. Karpo needs a personal life. Tkach is estranged from his wife. Elena and his son Iosef are engaged. Zelech is single. They eventually unravel each case, but not before others die and their own lives in several instances are endangered. The cases also provide "information" that "the Yak" can use to advance his own ambitions, and his ability to control and manipulate others.
I mention all the figures associated with the cases because, like any good Russian novel, keeping track of the names and who is doing what is more than half the battle! The narrative keeps moving back and forth between the cases briskly enough that we don't lose the thread of any of them as we move to the climax and resolution of each.
Altogether, there are sixteen numbers in Kaminsky's Rostnikov series. I don't know if I'll get around to reading all of them, but I did pick up another one as a result of reading this. I think one of the most intriguing thing about mysteries is the distinctive character of the detectives--Holmes, Poirot, J. B. Fletcher, Kay Scarpetta, Robicheaux, Maigret, and Rostnikov--each seems a world different from the others and the delight is as much in the depths of these characters as in the resolution of these cases. I think I'm going to have to modify the bibliophile's complaint and say, "So many series and so little time!"
My son often manages to find books I probably never would have noticed that end up as fascinating reads. This book was such a case. It is actually the thirteenth installment in Stuart M. Kaminsky's Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series and the real find here is the character of Rostnikov who combines the savvy political instincts necessary to survive in a cutthroat Russian bureacracy with an intuition about human behavior that leads him to surround himself with shrewd associates, and solve crimes.
In this installment, there is not one, but three cases that his boss, the Yak, has assigned him, expecting results. One is a cosmonaut that has disappeared, along with secret knowledge of events on the Mir space station, knowledge that others have already died without revealing, the most recent by a swift injection from an umbrella-bearing man that is following Rostnikov and his son Iosef, as they travel to the village where Tsimion Vladovka grew up.
In the second case, a movie director, Yuri Kriskov has just completed what is adverted to be a great epic on the life of Leo Tolstoy. Then he receives word that the movie and its negatives have been stolen, and are being held for a ransom that if not paid will result both in the destruction of the movie and the death of Kriskov. It turns out that this is a plot of an assistant, Valery Grachev who is in love with Vera, Kriskov's wife, and Vera, who wants to be rid of Yuri. Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva are assigned to this case, trying to find the manic genius who has stolen the film, and is seeking a way to kill Yuri.
The third case involves the gruesome death by claw hammer of a sleep and dream researcher at a Paranormal Studies Institute. Emil Karpo and his understudy Zelech are assigned this one. Zelech is sidetracked by a woman researcher who suspects him of special abilities. Karpo collects shoes, finds a suspect who is a reclusive researcher who claims he is framed, and homes in on a jealous fellow scientist good at covering tracks.
Rostnikov has the skill to adeptly counsel each both on the cases and their personal lives. Karpo needs a personal life. Tkach is estranged from his wife. Elena and his son Iosef are engaged. Zelech is single. They eventually unravel each case, but not before others die and their own lives in several instances are endangered. The cases also provide "information" that "the Yak" can use to advance his own ambitions, and his ability to control and manipulate others.
I mention all the figures associated with the cases because, like any good Russian novel, keeping track of the names and who is doing what is more than half the battle! The narrative keeps moving back and forth between the cases briskly enough that we don't lose the thread of any of them as we move to the climax and resolution of each.
Altogether, there are sixteen numbers in Kaminsky's Rostnikov series. I don't know if I'll get around to reading all of them, but I did pick up another one as a result of reading this. I think one of the most intriguing thing about mysteries is the distinctive character of the detectives--Holmes, Poirot, J. B. Fletcher, Kay Scarpetta, Robicheaux, Maigret, and Rostnikov--each seems a world different from the others and the delight is as much in the depths of these characters as in the resolution of these cases. I think I'm going to have to modify the bibliophile's complaint and say, "So many series and so little time!"
September 2, 2025
Politics and intrigue bedevil the police in the early years of Putin's regime
From 1986 to 2001, the massive Russian space station Mir (“peace”) hurtled around the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, circling the planet approximately every hour and a half. Usually, three cosmonauts lived aboard for periods lasting from several months to over a year. Cosmonaut Tsimion Vladovka and his two crewmates are eight months into their lives on board when one of them begins to act strangely.
Then violence erupts, and officials in Star City send a three-person rescue mission to replace the crew. But no sooner are the rescued cosmonauts back on solid ground when one dies mysteriously. A second flees. And, when they return, the replacement crew are clearly in danger as well. Which opens up a case that lands on the desk of Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov. His assignment: Tsimion Vladovka has disappeared, and he is to find him, dead or alive.
Three difficult cases in this police procedural
In Fall of a Cosmonaut, the 13th in a series of Russian police procedurals by the late Stuart Kaminsky, Rostnikov’s search for Vladovka is one of three cases we follow. Igor Yakovlev (“the Yak”), chief of the Office of Special Investigation, has required Rostnikov to detail his colleagues to pursue other matters.
** Emil Karpo (“the Vampire”) will get to the bottom of a blackmail scheme with political implications. Someone is holding hostage the original print of a forthcoming film biography of Leo Tolstoy, destined to be a classic and popular with the government. The intimidating Karpo will have the assistance of Akardy Zelach (“the Slouch”), whose nickname is also descriptive.
** And young Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva are to unravel what’s happening at the Center for the Study of Technical Parapsychology. There, someone has murdered a specialist in “telekinesis, dream states, several things.” Suspects abound.
** Meanwhile, Rostnikov (“the Washtub”), who resembles his nickname, will have the assistance of his son, Iosef, a former soldier and failed playwright who has joined the unit.
Unlike most police procedurals, which focus the efforts of a large force of investigators on a single difficult case, Kaminsky uses this device of portraying Rostnikov and his colleagues as they engage in three separate investigations.
Revealing what life in Russia is like in Putin’s early years in power
Russia early in the 21st century has left behind the certainties and artificial shortages of the Communist era. Yet little has changed for the majority of the population. Most remain poor. Healthcare, no longer free, now depends on bribes. Doctors are poorly trained, underpaid, and often of little help to their patients. Life expectancy lags far behind that of Europe and the United States. The abundant brand-name goods on display in Moscow and other large cities are far out of reach for most Russians. And organized crime (the “Mafias”) runs rampant while the country’s biggest crooks, the oligarchs, dominate the central government.
In this grim setting, the Yak has engineered an agreement with Porfiry Rostnikov. The Chief Inspector will have a free hand to conduct investigations as he wishes, without interference. But, once concluded, the Yak will lay claim to the information he and his colleagues uncover and use it at his discretion. Which he puts to work in his never-ending quest for higher and more powerful posts in the Ministry of State Security. And Rostnikov’s current case, locating the missing cosmonaut, may turn up information that will vault the Yak to the very top, as Minister. Because whatever happened on that Russian space station represents a secret that the government cannot afford to admit. If only the Chief Inspector continues to play ball . . .
Three beguiling central characters
In another significant way, the Porfiry Rostnikov mysteries do resemble other police procedurals. Kaminsky writes in the omniscient third person, taking us into the private lives and the minds of the people of the Office of Special Investigation. They’re all continuurng characters in the series, and over time—this novel is the 13th of 16 that Kaminsky wrote—we have gotten to know them all rather well. This is especially true in the case of the three central figures in the ongoing story.
Chief Inspector Rostnikov
Now past 50, Porfiry Rostnikov is a champion senior weightlifter. He lost the use of a leg as a child soldier in the Great Patriotic War and now wears a prosthesis. He is deeply in love with his wife of many years, Sarah, who is Jewish and whose religion has prevented him from rising any further in the Ministry. But the Chief Inspector’s neighbors know him best for his hobby as a plumber. He’s masterful with a wrench.
“The Vampire”
Emil Karpo was for decades a deeply committed Communist. He has never reconciled himself to the fall of the state early in the decade. Humorless and unrelenting as an investigator, he strikes fear into most people merely at a glance. He maintains vast files of unsolved cases which he continues to work after hours. Somehow, though, he fell in love with a prostitute years earlier. Her death in a crossfire between two Mafias left him devastated and lonelier than ever.
The boyish inspector
Sasha Tkach, now 34, continues to look far younger than his years. Tall, blond, and boyishly handsome, his philandering and repeated absences for him to do his duty undercover have driven his wife, Maya, to leave for her hometown, Kiev, with their two children. He misses them terribly, especially so as his insufferable mother has insisted on moving in with him. Life with her is torture, but he needs the money she has made as a businesswoman.
All the while the team pursues its various investigations, readers who follow the series continue to grow closer to these three unique individuals.
About the author
According to the popular website Book Series in Order, “Stuart M. Kaminsky was an American author best known for writing the Toby Peters series of detective novels, the Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov series, the Abe Lieberman series, and the Lew Fonesca series. During his career, Stuart wrote sixty-three novels and eleven non-fiction books.” You can see all those books listed, with links, on the site.
Kaminsky (1934-2009) was a professor of film studies as well as a mystery writer. He was born in Chicago and educated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which granted him both a BS and an MA, and Northwestern University, where he earned a PhD in speech. Wikipedia notes that “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.”
From 1986 to 2001, the massive Russian space station Mir (“peace”) hurtled around the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, circling the planet approximately every hour and a half. Usually, three cosmonauts lived aboard for periods lasting from several months to over a year. Cosmonaut Tsimion Vladovka and his two crewmates are eight months into their lives on board when one of them begins to act strangely.
Then violence erupts, and officials in Star City send a three-person rescue mission to replace the crew. But no sooner are the rescued cosmonauts back on solid ground when one dies mysteriously. A second flees. And, when they return, the replacement crew are clearly in danger as well. Which opens up a case that lands on the desk of Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov. His assignment: Tsimion Vladovka has disappeared, and he is to find him, dead or alive.
Three difficult cases in this police procedural
In Fall of a Cosmonaut, the 13th in a series of Russian police procedurals by the late Stuart Kaminsky, Rostnikov’s search for Vladovka is one of three cases we follow. Igor Yakovlev (“the Yak”), chief of the Office of Special Investigation, has required Rostnikov to detail his colleagues to pursue other matters.
** Emil Karpo (“the Vampire”) will get to the bottom of a blackmail scheme with political implications. Someone is holding hostage the original print of a forthcoming film biography of Leo Tolstoy, destined to be a classic and popular with the government. The intimidating Karpo will have the assistance of Akardy Zelach (“the Slouch”), whose nickname is also descriptive.
** And young Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva are to unravel what’s happening at the Center for the Study of Technical Parapsychology. There, someone has murdered a specialist in “telekinesis, dream states, several things.” Suspects abound.
** Meanwhile, Rostnikov (“the Washtub”), who resembles his nickname, will have the assistance of his son, Iosef, a former soldier and failed playwright who has joined the unit.
Unlike most police procedurals, which focus the efforts of a large force of investigators on a single difficult case, Kaminsky uses this device of portraying Rostnikov and his colleagues as they engage in three separate investigations.
Revealing what life in Russia is like in Putin’s early years in power
Russia early in the 21st century has left behind the certainties and artificial shortages of the Communist era. Yet little has changed for the majority of the population. Most remain poor. Healthcare, no longer free, now depends on bribes. Doctors are poorly trained, underpaid, and often of little help to their patients. Life expectancy lags far behind that of Europe and the United States. The abundant brand-name goods on display in Moscow and other large cities are far out of reach for most Russians. And organized crime (the “Mafias”) runs rampant while the country’s biggest crooks, the oligarchs, dominate the central government.
In this grim setting, the Yak has engineered an agreement with Porfiry Rostnikov. The Chief Inspector will have a free hand to conduct investigations as he wishes, without interference. But, once concluded, the Yak will lay claim to the information he and his colleagues uncover and use it at his discretion. Which he puts to work in his never-ending quest for higher and more powerful posts in the Ministry of State Security. And Rostnikov’s current case, locating the missing cosmonaut, may turn up information that will vault the Yak to the very top, as Minister. Because whatever happened on that Russian space station represents a secret that the government cannot afford to admit. If only the Chief Inspector continues to play ball . . .
Three beguiling central characters
In another significant way, the Porfiry Rostnikov mysteries do resemble other police procedurals. Kaminsky writes in the omniscient third person, taking us into the private lives and the minds of the people of the Office of Special Investigation. They’re all continuurng characters in the series, and over time—this novel is the 13th of 16 that Kaminsky wrote—we have gotten to know them all rather well. This is especially true in the case of the three central figures in the ongoing story.
Chief Inspector Rostnikov
Now past 50, Porfiry Rostnikov is a champion senior weightlifter. He lost the use of a leg as a child soldier in the Great Patriotic War and now wears a prosthesis. He is deeply in love with his wife of many years, Sarah, who is Jewish and whose religion has prevented him from rising any further in the Ministry. But the Chief Inspector’s neighbors know him best for his hobby as a plumber. He’s masterful with a wrench.
“The Vampire”
Emil Karpo was for decades a deeply committed Communist. He has never reconciled himself to the fall of the state early in the decade. Humorless and unrelenting as an investigator, he strikes fear into most people merely at a glance. He maintains vast files of unsolved cases which he continues to work after hours. Somehow, though, he fell in love with a prostitute years earlier. Her death in a crossfire between two Mafias left him devastated and lonelier than ever.
The boyish inspector
Sasha Tkach, now 34, continues to look far younger than his years. Tall, blond, and boyishly handsome, his philandering and repeated absences for him to do his duty undercover have driven his wife, Maya, to leave for her hometown, Kiev, with their two children. He misses them terribly, especially so as his insufferable mother has insisted on moving in with him. Life with her is torture, but he needs the money she has made as a businesswoman.
All the while the team pursues its various investigations, readers who follow the series continue to grow closer to these three unique individuals.
About the author
According to the popular website Book Series in Order, “Stuart M. Kaminsky was an American author best known for writing the Toby Peters series of detective novels, the Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov series, the Abe Lieberman series, and the Lew Fonesca series. During his career, Stuart wrote sixty-three novels and eleven non-fiction books.” You can see all those books listed, with links, on the site.
Kaminsky (1934-2009) was a professor of film studies as well as a mystery writer. He was born in Chicago and educated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which granted him both a BS and an MA, and Northwestern University, where he earned a PhD in speech. Wikipedia notes that “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.”
July 4, 2020
This is one of the author’s best. I like the characters in this series and the plots are just about right in terms of complexity and creativity. And it’s a page-turner.
Just right for shutting out this summer’s political and medical embarrassments.
Just right for shutting out this summer’s political and medical embarrassments.
August 9, 2021
Porfiry Petrovich is one of my favorite characters, and this is another fine addition to the series which I have almost throughly completed and very much enjoy. Perhaps, if I had read these earlier, I might have sought to be a policeman.?
February 27, 2018
I threw in the towel at 50%. Too emotionless for me. And difficult to relate to. Maybe its just me.
June 8, 2018
I just couldn’t get into this book. Gave up after 50 pages
November 21, 2020
I am totally hooked on the Rostnikov mysteries. Well plotted, great characters, the insight into Russian character and culture is fascinating. Funny and wise stories.
June 14, 2021
The three threads come together in a parallel fashion at the end. I would like to see the Tolstoy film.
December 7, 2022
A série do Sr. Inspector Rostnikov começa a esmorecer um pouco, já não gostei tanto deste.
March 17, 2025
I really tried but this series is not for me. I give up on Resnikov. The books I've read just bored me.
March 4, 2016
Stuart Kominsky's ace detective, Porfiry Rostnikov, continues to be a favorite sleuth of mine. Similar to his previous work, there are parallel cases being solved here, by various members of his Department.
We are in post-Cold War Russia, and the men and women of the Department are adjusting to their new "democracy" with varying success.
The secret that the Cosmonoaut is hiding, and which is resulting in himself and other 'nauts being hunted down/killed, is rather mundane, that is to say, it is hard to understand why there is a long term hunt occurring for these men.
Kaminsky dabbles a bit in para-psychology in a parallel murder in an ESP think tank place. Interesting, offbeat, a little far out. The most believable of the three cases involves a mentally devolving man utilized by a femme fatale to murder her husband.
No matter the small breaks in plot believability; the characters, settings, and developments braid together to make another satisfying Porfiry Rostnikov story.
We are in post-Cold War Russia, and the men and women of the Department are adjusting to their new "democracy" with varying success.
The secret that the Cosmonoaut is hiding, and which is resulting in himself and other 'nauts being hunted down/killed, is rather mundane, that is to say, it is hard to understand why there is a long term hunt occurring for these men.
Kaminsky dabbles a bit in para-psychology in a parallel murder in an ESP think tank place. Interesting, offbeat, a little far out. The most believable of the three cases involves a mentally devolving man utilized by a femme fatale to murder her husband.
No matter the small breaks in plot believability; the characters, settings, and developments braid together to make another satisfying Porfiry Rostnikov story.
August 6, 2014
Detection and crime solving again takes a back seat to character and descriptions of life in a changing Russia. For Rostinkov he is again handed what seems to be a near impossible case to resolve (emphasis on resolve and not solve). Three years earlier a cosmonaut had radioed in to ground control to tell Rostinkov if he didn't make it back. The cosmonaut returned, but now he has disappeared. And memebers of his crew and the replacement crew are having accidents.
At the same time Sasha and Elena have to solve the case of a a missing film negative while Sasha's marriage is slowly crumbling. Karpo and Zelach solve a nicely executed locked room murder and a little more of Zelach's character is revealed (possibly because Zelach is one of the newer and therefore least developed memebers of the cast).
As always each case has political implications, especially for their director, The Yak who is accumulating favors to cash in on his slow rise to power.
At the same time Sasha and Elena have to solve the case of a a missing film negative while Sasha's marriage is slowly crumbling. Karpo and Zelach solve a nicely executed locked room murder and a little more of Zelach's character is revealed (possibly because Zelach is one of the newer and therefore least developed memebers of the cast).
As always each case has political implications, especially for their director, The Yak who is accumulating favors to cash in on his slow rise to power.
April 6, 2012
Rostnikov is betting more poetic, philosophical, artistic, imaginative etc etc than ever in this book. Perhaps its the influence of the central mystery--who killed the cosmonaut and why. The regular characters are so well fleshed out by this time in the series that I can't help but cast them for a movie, which, if it were made, would no doubt be a big disappointment. Also, because by this time we know them so well, the repetitious descriptions, which until now have not bothered me, are beginning to. I'm sure others would have gotten impatient with them long ago. It is the new things we learn about them that is interesting, and, of course, the plot twists.
July 31, 2022
This is the 13th in the series of police novels by Stuart Kaminsky. The main character is Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov, a senior detective in Moscow. He is one legged, is an accomplished weight lifter and is an amateur plumber in the apartment building where he and his wife share an apartment with a woman he had arrested and her 2 granddaughters. He leads a team of five detectives and in this novel they are working three cases. The stories are interesting and the characters throughout are likeable but I found this to be slower going than the previous books in the series. Still, it is a pretty good read.
July 11, 2017
The quality of these books drops later in the series, in part I think because the Soviet backdrop is replaced, as it was in real life, by chaos. I also find the numerous inconsistencies (in dates, characters' story lines, etc.) more distracting. By this point however I really like the characters and want to see what happens to them - had Kaminsky not died, I would have continued to read about Rostnikov et al. indefinitely.
August 20, 2008
I got about halfway through the book and decided it was too confusing to me and I didn't want to finish it. I don't think it is my mood, I think the book just didn't grab me. Plus life is too short to waste reading books you don't like or don't interest you!
June 1, 2014
Excellent entry in another good series written by Kaminsky; detective story set back in the USSR.
March 5, 2015
good why is russian govt trying to kill everyone who knows what happened on the mir? movie producer movie is stolen for ransom
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews