by Stuart M. Kaminsky
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Product Description
After a very long absence, Forge is delighted to be bringing back one of Edgar award winning Stuart Kaminsky’s best loved characters, Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov. Rostnikov is a Russian bear of a man, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union Russia. Known as “The Washtub,” Rostnikov is one of the most engaging and relevant characters in crime fiction, a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing (that is, disintegrating) Russia. Surviving pogroms and politburos, he has solved crimes, mostly in spite of the powers that be that rule his world. In People Who Walk in Darkness, Rostnikov travels to Siberia to investigate a murder at a diamond mine, where he discovers an old secret…and an even older personal problem. His compatriots head to Kiev on a trail of smuggled diamonds and kidnapped guest workers…and what they discover leads them to a vast conspiracy that not only has international repercussions but threatens them on a very personal level.
People Who Walk in Darkness is a fast-paced novel of modern Russia told by one of mystery’s finest storytellers.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Diamonds are For Never, 2008-11-13
Rostnikov is what we hope Russia's soul is really like: intelligent, compassionate, insightful and just. Kaminsky takes us on a journey through the powers that were and the powers that are. It is brilliant revelation.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 People who walk in darkness, 2008-09-02
I've very much looked forward to another Inspector Rostnikov book. Maybe that was the problem....My expectations were too high. The very small part that dealt with the inspector was good. It's just all of the other characters (Way too many) that got confusing and in the way. I don't normally go for the hardcover addition, I can usually wait for the paperback, this added to my disappointment at spending the extra to get hold of this book. It is still worth a look. Just wait for the paperback.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 "The intrigues of the living were pointless.", 2008-08-24
Stuart Kaminsky's "People Who Walk in Darkness" brings back Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, Chief Inspector of the Office of Special Investigations in Moscow. Rostnikov's boss, Igor "the Yak" Yaklovev, is a self-promoting apparatchik who hopes to piggyback on Porfiry's investigative triumphs to attain more power and a higher position. The Yak has a new project for his star detective. Rostnikov must travel to a small mining town named Devochka in Siberia where a Canadian geologist died under mysterious circumstances. This case and several others (the torture-murder of two black South Africans, and the stabbing of a prostitute found dead in a train headed from Kiev to Moscow) must be solved in no more than nine days, since General Mikhail Frankovich , Director of the Division of Murder, is planning a coup of sorts. He wants to take over the Yak's office and incorporate it into his own. This takeover will fail only if Rostnikov and his team prove their mettle by bringing their cases to a quick and successful conclusion.
Kaminsky's plot is a bit too complicated, with many disparate elements in addition to the aforementioned murders, including diamond smuggling, corruption, greed, infidelity, racism, and betrayal. The action moves frequently from Moscow to Kiev to Devochka, and the reader will need to focus carefully to keep track of the large number of characters and their incessant double-dealing. For the most part, the novel has a strong and varied cast: Porfiry is a squat man with an artificial leg who is extremely bright, intuitive, inordinately curious, and appreciative of the ironies of life. "Rostnikov addressed puzzles...and, when possible, engaged in the dispensation of justice, something the courts did only on occasion." Sasha Tkach is a detective who is disconsolate after his wife leaves him; a beautiful model named Oxana Balakona is willing to commit heinous acts in order to make her fortune; Elena Timofeyeva, the only female in the Office of Special Investigations, desperately wants to please her superior and future father in law, Porfiry Petrovich. Inspector Emil Karpo, known as the Vampire, is a lonely and morose individual whose one chance at love and happiness ended tragically. Unfortunately, the villains are a fairly predictable lot--uniformly grasping, sadistic, selfish, and conniving.
"People Who Walk in Darkness" is, in some ways, a social commentary. Kaminsky conveys the idea that after the fall of the old Soviet Union, little has changed for the better. There are still a great many people who drown their sorrows in vodka, women who sell their bodies for whatever price they can get, and thugs who kill without compunction in order to get their hands on whatever commodity will make them rich. Altruism is less common than ambition and so-called legitimate businessmen hide their misdeeds behind a veneer of respectability. Kaminsky wisely injects many passages of sardonic humor to lighten up this dark and compelling story of duplicity and death. The author includes a few red herrings to throw the reader off the scent and adds some clever surprises at the end. This is a solid and atmospheric mystery in which Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov and his team valiantly battle the forces of avarice and cynicism.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Could This be the Last of Rostnikov?, 2008-08-23
A Canadian geologist is murdered in a Siberian diamond mine that is haunted by the ghost of a ten year old girl who died there. Later the mine manager is also murdered. The bodies of two Botswanan diamond smugglers are found after having been tortured; and a woman is found murdered in a first class compartment of the Moskow/Kiev train. Are they related (with French accent) but of course.
Though it has been five/six years from the last novel, little time has passed in the Rostnikov world (maybe only a few months). But when the "Yak" calls Rostnikov in to discuss the murder in Siberia, he tell him that they need to solve the murders in nine days at which time the future of the Office of Special Investigations will be decided.
Wow! Could the Yak and Rostnikov be out of jobs, will they solve the crimes in time, will Porfiry Petrovich come to terms with his artificial leg, will Sasha get his wife and children back, will Elena of Iosef finally get married, will Karpo try to smile and die of a stroke from the effort? Some of these will be answered, some not. Your guess is as good as Putin's.
But it's still an enjoyable read. Much like his friend (and Porfiry's favorite author) Ed McBain, many of these novels are straight forward and only the sub-characters and the name change. It's the same procedural and before it starts you know that all will be made whole in the end.
Zeb Kantrowitz
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Too many variables, not enough depth, 2008-08-21
I'm also a fan who's been waiting for the first new Rostnikov novel in seven years, but I'm afraid I ended up agreeing with the previous reviewer who said "... Too large a cast, too many places and too many plot lines occupying a short two hundred eighty-seven pages."
There's just way too much going on here and not enough space to develop it which results in most of the minor characters feeling interchangeable and redundant. We have two psychopaths, Kolokov and Balta, who seem a lot alike; two scheming beautiful women Oxana, and Rochelle; two determined "everyman" types, James Harumbaki and Luc the Canadian; two eccentric old guys Boris and Gennadi Ivanov.
The two old guys don't get viewpoints, but all the others do as do a lecherous Polish-Ukrainian cop, an English diamond tycoon, Rostnikov's boss the Yak, and a couple of the three Botswanan henchmen involved in the action. For me, it's too much information touched upon so shallowly that it's hard to keep in mind and starts distracting from the story.
The good points: hey, this is a new installment in the Rostnikov series, and we fans have got to be glad that the series is moving forwards even if this is one of the "off" books.
Also good:
1. A suspenseful premise with the possible destruction of Rostnikov's department, and reassignment of all personnel, in nine days depending on resolution of the case.
2. Several examples of Rostnikov's quirky dialog in which he engages with, and pokes fun at, several characters. He comes across as deeply curious about people in a compassionate way which makes him memorable.
3. Space was somehow carved out of the cluttered narrative to focus a little more in-depth on two of the more interesting cops on Rostnikov's staff: Karpo and Sasha. I wish a bit more had been done with Karpo who still seems like a bomb waiting to explode. But Sasha's situation with his ex-wife and kids injected some realism and emotional connection into a story that was becoming too hectic.
Overall, I think fans of the Rostnikov series will find this installment worth getting because it's fairly interesting, it rounds out the series collection, and it advances some character storylines (e.g., Karpo and Sasha). But it's not as good as Fall of a Cosmonaut or Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: A Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Novel: two excellent books in which Kaminsky narrowed the focus and deepened the character interactions.
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