Black Knight in Red Square [Hardcover]

Stuart M. Kaminsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1993

Rostnikov must battle international terrorists fighting East and West as he investigates the poisoning deaths of four foreign businessmen in Moscow. Originally in paperback.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Plenty of suspense of the best sort - moving and admirable --Washington Post --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

A PREMIERE OPPORTUNITY
A Pulitzer-winning American journalist is poisoned to death at the Moscow Film Festival, along with two Soviet businessmen and a Japanese visitor. All the same night. All the same hotel.
PREMEDITATED MAYHEM
An international organization of terrorists has launched its most murderous offensive against both East and West. Foreigners continue dying at an alarming rate, in a huge embarrassment the Kremlin can ill afford.
EXPLOSIVE SITUATION
Chief Inspector Rostnikov leads the hunt for a dark-eyed woman of mystery and one very powerful bomb. The trail will take him, along with Karpo and Tkach, to the Soviet Union's most hallowed monument and the terrorist's ultimate target . . . . --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: Armchair Detective Library (February 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562870343
• ISBN-13: 978-1562870348
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,301,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book 2 in the Rostnikov Series, March 20, 2001

By 

Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Knight in Red Square (Mass Market Paperback)

It starts out as a not so simple poisoning of four during the Moscow film festival. Not a good thing and it gets worse when Rostnikov determines that one of the victims is an American investigative journalist. Further digging brings in the KGB, an international terrorist brigade and more deaths. And, as expected, Rostnikov and his assistants, work in and around the system to solve the crime(s).

I enjoyed this story a great deal though not as much as the first book - Death of a Dissident. What I like most about the Rostnikov series is how a generic, could happen anywhere, crime story is altered when seen through Soviet eyes. Dissident was a 100% Soviet story and that was part of it's charm. The introduction of a number of international players in this book somehow blurs the distinctiveness of the earlier book.

As the child of a WW2 veteran, I'm also struck by how Rostnikov, also a WW2 vet, has some of the same "Greatest Generation" traits. Somehow this is a group that is both patriotic yet willing to work outside of the system if the system gets in the way of, say, fixing a toilet. Read the book and you'll understand.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Back in the USSR, December 22, 2003

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Black Knight in Red Square (Paperback)

Kaminsky is an incredibly prolific writer, but I'd never read anything by him until now. This second book in his long running series starring Russian police inspector Porfiry Rostnikov blurs the line between detective fiction and international spy thriller. What begins as a poisoning case linked to the prestigious Moscow International Film Festival soon ties in to a terrorist plot to set off remote control bombs at Soviet landmarks in Moscow. The result is a book that's partly excellent and partly silly. The silly part is this idea of a fictional international terror cell seeking to destabilize both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. It may be the distance of some twenty years since the book was written, but the whole presentation of their aims is laughable.

However, when Kaminsky sticks to his hero detective and his capable underlings (especially Ivan the Vampire), the book is outstanding. It's a common enough trait of police procedural series that one of the key obstacles the detective faces is his own bureaucracy. This is certainly the case for Rostnikov, however the novelty of the Soviet system keeps the book interesting. Not only the political machinations, but the day to day corruption and seedy underbelly of the socialist capital make the book well worth reading. There's just enough of the private lives of the Soviet cops to round things out nicely. On the whole, an intriguing book despite the laughable villains, and one that'll have me seeking out others in the series.

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Rostnikov, November 30, 2010

By 

Nash Black "Troubadour" (Jamestown, KY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Black Knight in Red Square (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries) (Inspctr Rostnikov) (Paperback)

The late Stuart M. Kaminsky's BLACK KNIGHT IN RED SQUARE is the second installment in his Russian series. Chief Inspector Rostnikov, fresh off his last case and is plunged into a hunt for terrorists who would embarrass the Soviet Union during a major film festival.
He enters a dual of wits with Drozhkin of the KGB who controls Rostnikov's son and wishes to have no fallout leveled at the KGB. This book was nominated for an Edgar Award and a later book of the series, A COLD RED SUNRISE won the Edgar for the best mystery novel published in 1988.
Each book in the series is well worth the reader's time and Kaminsky takes you into life in the Soviet Union with deft strokes.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS.