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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Master Storyteller is off his game..., August 10, 2008
This review is from: People Who Walk In Darkness (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery) (Hardcover)
PEOPLE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS is the first new entry in Stuart M. Kaminsky's classic Porfiry Rostnikov series since MURDER ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS was published in 2001. This book brings the Edgar award winning series to volume fifteen.
First let me say that I have been a huge fan of Stuart Kaminsky for nearly thirty years and some seventy novels. Mr. Kaminsky has a way with quirky characters and nearly always manages to eke out some very human elements in his stories regardless of how strangely some of his plots develop. Almost no other writer of mysteries can match him at his best and few can do so even when, as in this book, he's a bit off his game.
The story is a bit complicated to easily summarize but involves diamonds being smuggled out of Siberia for sale in the west and various criminal elements preying on each other to gain control. Toss in a psychopath or two, a couple of murders, the ghost of a little girl killed in a long ago mining disaster and a motley crew of very Russian characters and you've got a story with a lot to offer. As with any Kaminsky book the cast of characters is its biggest strength, this time out it includes miners, diamond smugglers, fashion-models, crazy old men preparing for a long threatened Japanese invasion of Russia, female impersonators, African gang members, weight lifters, criminal masterminds and Rostnikov's usual team of mismatched detectives and their families. The story takes place over a far flung field - from Moscow to London to Kiev to Siberia, with individual plot lines developing in each place involving a large cast of characters.
These elements, the plot and the characters, usually both strong points of a Kaminsky novel, are, this time out, simply too complicated and too far flung to hold together well. Too large a cast, too many places and too many plot lines occupying a short two hundred eighty-seven pages make for a book that is frankly a bit of mess.
That is something I never dreamed I would say about a book by Stuart Kaminsky.
Perhaps if the book was longer and the individual plot lines had more substance this would be a better read. For example one of the story lines takes place in an isolated Siberian mining camp that was once part of the infamous gulag system, this setting is made to order for some interesting plot and character elements that could have enlivened the story but Mr. Kaminsky simply doesn't do anything with it. If it could not be longer, perhaps for contractual reasons, then it could certainly be tighter, more coherently structured such as longer segments on each of the various plot lines rather then having so many shorter passages spread too far apart thus lessening their impact. I'd like to think that both of these issues are the fault of the editor rather then Mr. Kaminsky.
Let me suggest that those interested in the Rostnikov series seek out the recent reprints by the Felony & Mayhem Press of the first two volumes in this fine series, THE DEATH OF A DISSIDENT and BLACK KNIGHT IN RED SQUARE. These books demonstrate why Stuart Kaminsky was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and are available from Amazon.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too many variables, not enough depth, August 21, 2008
This review is from: People Who Walk In Darkness (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery) (Hardcover)
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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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
People who walk in darkness, September 2, 2008
This review is from: People Who Walk In Darkness (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery) (Hardcover)
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.
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