Inspector Rostnikov is a Russian bear of a man, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet 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 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.
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“A character-driven novel in which Rostnikov, a good man in a bad system, must battle corrupt leaders, canny criminals, and an entrenched bureaucracy, besides solving a mystery. Kaminsky is adept at navigating the shoals of post-Soviet Russia while delivering solid suspense and knockout characterization.”
— Booklist
“One of the better contemporary examples of an honest policeman navigating the shoals of a corrupt society…The particularly high stakes make this one of Rostnikov’s more exciting investigations.”
— Publishers Weekly“Kaminsky expertly ties all the disparate threads together into one satisfying read.”
— Library JournalBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Stuart Kaminsky (1934–2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades. He wrote sixty books in all and penned twenty-four novels starring the detective Toby Peters, whom he described as “the anti–Philip Marlowe.” In 1981’s Death of a Dissident, he debuted Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov, whose stories were praised for their accurate depiction of Soviet life. His other two series starred Abe Lieberman, a hardened Chicago cop, and Lew Fonseca, a process server. Born in Chicago, he spent his youth immersed in pulp fiction and classic cinema—two forms of popular entertainment which he would make his life’s work. After college and a stint in the army, he wrote film criticism and biographies of the great actors and directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age. In 1977, when a planned biography of Charlton Heston fell through, he wrote Bullet for a Star, his first Toby Peters novel, beginning a fiction career that would last the rest of his life.