0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Characters with a Chilled Charm, 2007-05-06
The characters in this mystery are wonderfully distinct. Emil Karpov is my favorite with his morgue-like face and his surprisingly endearing quality of fanatic communism that bends, just a little, toward humanism. "The man like a tree stump" is the Inspector Rostinokov with his keen mind, realistic vision, and his interest in other people's children, his own son fighting in Afghanistan. The "who" of the whodunit was a satisfactory surprise and the whole novel gave me a much deeper understanding of Siberia and the Russian community at the time.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Small Siberian Town Can Be Like a Locked Room, 2006-08-11
Having lost his last battle with the KGB, and the death of the KGB colonel who had protected him; Porfiry is demoted to working mundane and inconsequential cases. But when a Commissar sent to the Siberian town of Tumsk (pop.12) to look into the death of a dissidents daughter, is murdered. Porfiry and 'the Vampire' are packed off to Siberia to find out what happened to the commissar.
Along with Rostnikov and Karpo is an investigator from the Procurators office who everyone knows is there to spy on Porfiry. Even Karpo will have to report on his boss to the KGB Major who replaced Rostnikov's colonel. The main suspects for the murder are the dissident himself, his second wife of two years, an ex-orthodox priest, and an exiled General. Along to help out is the local policeman (who expects Porfiry to get him out of siberia) and an odd pair of eightysomethings who have been in the town for fifty-one years.
Just like a locked room story, all of the suspects are stuck in the town. The only way out is by helicopter, and the phone exchange is controlled from the naval weather station. To add to Porfiry's worries, his son Josef is back in Afganistan, and his wife Sarah has developed a benign (but large) brain tumor.
As always, Kaminsky develops some great ancillary characters (including an indigenous shaman of the Evenk tribe). Even Tkach is given his own investigation to follow in Moscow since he doesn't go to siberia.
All in all a very fast and good read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The Sleeping Giant: Siberia vs. Rostnikov..., 2005-06-08
I have read about a half dozen Porfiry Rostnikov mysteries by Stuart Kaminsky, and I think A Cold Red Sunrise was the most enjoyable so far.
A young daughter of a dissident living in Siberia dies under mysterious circumstances, and an investigator from Moscow is sent to Tumsk. When he is brutally murdered, Porfiry Rostnikov (a detective in Moscow's Bureau of Special Projects) is dispatched to this same Siberian town. Rostnikov takes with him his trusty associate, Emil Karpo. Rostnikov is expendable and has already been demoted from the procurator's office. He has both procurator spies and the KGB watching him, hoping that he'll do something inappropriate. At the same time, fellow associate Sasha Tkach is back in Moscow, investigating robberies, black market offenses and attacks on tourists.
What made A Cold Red Sunrise so enjoyable is the mini-lesson Kaminsky provides on Siberia. Covering over 5 million square miles, Siberia is short on daylight, summers and warm weather, but rich in beauty and natural resources. Nicknamed The Sleeping Giant, it has long provided a landing place for Russian dissidents, prisoners and misfits. There are not a lot of residents living in Tumsk, but almost everyone is a suspect. How Rostnikov breaks the case is ingenious.
My only suggestion in reading this series is to read them in order. Since the personal lives of the regulars progress with each book, it will make them more meaningful. I only regret that I am reading these books much faster than Kaminsky is writing them. In fact, he hasn't had a new Rostnikov in a number of years.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Soviet Era Crime, 2004-04-27
Not too long ago I attended a seminar by Edgar award winning authors where the topic of discussion included "Could Edgar Alan Poe win an Edgar Today?" Stuart Kaminsky, Edgar winner for A Cold Red Sunrise, held firm in his belief that changing times precludes Poe from an award.Likewise this Cold War mystery has not aged well. Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov, the detective, is dispatched from Moscow to Siberia to investigate the death of a Soviet Commissar, himself dispatched to investigate the death of the child of a famous dissident. This investigation under the watchful eye of the KGB ultimately gives up the secrets of men and women deep in the far north, whose presence there is by choice, chance or exile.
Some of the editing are really terrible, such which as when a native is said "not to even speak English." But the biggest flaw is that the clues are invisible to the reader, and the crime solved much as Jessica Fletcher did on Muder SheWrote.
On hte whole, it offers a satisfying look into the life of Soviet citizens in a time of change.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Siberia is 'snow joke' in Kaminsky thriller, 2000-05-06
If you haven't read Stuart M. Kaminsky's Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series and you like intrigue, foreign settings, absolute suspense, and logical conclusions, you have missed a literary treat.
Kaminsky, writer of such successes as the Toby Peters series, the Lieberman series, and the "Rockford Files," writes most knowledgeably of Moscow and its politics, its social intrigues, its criminal elements, and he does so most convincingly with his Inspector Rostnikov, an iconoclast among the Soviet system and is always one step away from being "shipped to Siberia" (or worse) for his independence. However, his crime solving abilities are so brilliant that he manages to stay "on board."
Rostnikov is a war hero "almost single-handedly stopping a Nazi tank" and highly decorated and praised by his Moscow superiors. He is left with a mangled leg, however, and over the course of the year, despite the lingering pain, has overcome its handicap, primarily by his daily routine of weight lifting, the love and support of his wife and son, and his own strong will and determination. His wife is Jewish, and owing to the (still) anti-Semitic attitudes of the political system there, the inspector continually has to face reality.
He has assembled his own loyal supporters within his office: Emil Karpo (the policeman nicknamed "the Vampire") and handsome Sasha Tkach, as well as other acquaintances. Readers seem to look forward to seeing each of these in each of the episodes, almost as if they are family members. Kaminsky has the ability to penetrate the smog, the freezing temperatures, the long lines at the shops, the graft and corruption seething ubiquitous-like throughout the Soviet system, and in a way that perhaps no outsider could do. It is amazing, especially if you've ever been to the Soviet Union, how he does this!
In "A Cold Red Sunrise" the inspector has been assigned to Tumsk, a far-flung town in Siberia, "where the temperature is forty below on a good day"! His assignment has come due to one of his clashes with the KGB.
Two people are dead, one of them the daughter of a famous dissident, and the other a Moscow police officer sent out to investigate her death. Now it is Rostnikov's turn to solve the crime--and the KGB hopes he won't succeed. But Porfiry is not without his own inimitable resources and once again his brilliance as a police detective emerges. Naturally, there are implications that go all the way back to Moscow and somebody's political intrigue there. But Rostnikov must tread lightly, as if one ice, as he knows one mistake and, war hero or no, he is doomed. Fortunately for him, his Siberian assignment is for only one novel! There is no doubt in the reader's mind that Rostnikov will find the solution, but the suspense is still there all the same. This series is absolutely mesmerizing and, to me, Kaminsky can't write them fast enough!
Billyjhobbs@tyler.net