Publisher Description
This thrilling crime novel features "the best cop to come out of the Soviet Union since Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko" (San Francisco Examiner).
After a lifetime in service to the Soviet Union, police inspector Porfiry Rostnikov may have found a way out. A high-profile homicide leads him to a cache of documents packed full of incriminating Kremlin gossip, which he uses as a bargaining chip to secure exit visas for himself and his Jewish wife. But just before the deal is concluded, Brezhnev's death sends the nation into turmoil, and makes escape impossible. His career derailed, the veteran cop is reduced to investigating penny-ante murders—one of which may lead somewhere very big indeed.
An elderly Jewish man is shot to death in his bathtub by killers who steal nothing but a worthless brass candlestick. And as the brutal Moscow summer wears on, the police find themselves the targets of car thieves and snipers. With the help of his two faithful lieutenants, Karpo and Tkach, Rostnikov needs to find a way to solve these cases and salvage his good name—if it doesn't cost him his life.
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About Stuart M. Kaminsky
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.
About John McLain
John McLain is an actor, professional voice talent, and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He has been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. On stage, he has appeared in The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Amahl & the Night Visitors, and The Music Man.