Customer Reviews

Londongrad: An Artie Cohen Mystery (Artie Cohen Mysteries)

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My favorite detective, Artie Cohen, is again at loose in the world. This time in New York, London, and Moscow. The reasons for his wandering are tied so tightly to the plot that I hesitate to spoil it for you by attempting to summarize very much. Suffice it to say that there are multiple murders in all locations and enough twists in the narrative to keep you guessing and engaged. Like me, I suspect you will not be able to put "Londongrad" down. To say that this is a page-turner does not do it justice because its sense of place and character is so strong that you will forget that this is a "just" a thriller and get draw into its literary qualities. Reggie Nadelson's best yet. I can't wait for the next one.

If your summer reading calls for something more in the murder mystery and thriller genre, you can't go wrong with Nadelson's latest installment (the 8th)?in the Artie Cohen mystery series.

Cohen is a hard-drinking, no-nonsense New York cop who also happens to be a first generation Russian-American. His life is tangled with enough unsavory types to provide ample color and grist, and in this instance, it sucks him into the world of Russian oligarchs, FBI investigations and FSB?in trigues. The catalyst is the murder of two young women, one of whom is his lover, Valentina, who also happens to be his best friend's daughter.

Splicing in bits of current events, most notably the radioactive murder of Alexander Litvinenko, Nadelson fashions a timely tale of crossed loyalties and international conspiracies that should serve many well as a guilty summer pleasure. (As reviewed in Russian Life)

Artie Cohen truly came into his own with Disturbed Earth, the first volume of Nadelson's Archipelago Trilogy, and since then has gone from strength to strength - though in these powerful, poignant, novels, strength is often weakness. Artie Cohen her brooding Russian cop has been clinging to his world as it began to crumble - in the heart-wrenching Fresh Kills, he vainly struggles to protect his nephew Billy Farone, but in Londongrad, Nadelson ups the stakes and Artie's world seems as though it might implode. The unearthly chill of the scene in which Artie discovers a body shrouded in silver duct tape turning slowly on a child's swing sets in motion a terrible spiral that sprawls outward from Brooklyn to the London and on to the suppurating corruption of Putin's Moscow. An exceptional thriller.

This is the type of book that incorporates a zillion tiny details that only someone who knows the locale intimately would know. Those names and descriptions lend an authenticity to this fictional thriller; makes one a believer from the get-go. Packed full of current details and fictional bits and pieces---the reader is left wondering just what is the 'real deal'. This is a cloak and dagger book in the very best sense; a true page-turner.

There aren't many books that I have read to date in which my husband has been interested ...But I must say that after reading and very much enjoying Londongrad, I left it on his night stand. By the end of the day he was telling me how much he had enjoyed it!!!

After reading Reggie Nadelson's Londongrad I obtained some of her other Artie Cohen novels (Fresh Kills, Red Hook, and Disturbed Earth). I must say they were all terrific.

If you are looking for a great summer beach read pick up Londongrad If you're anything like me you wont be disappointed!

Enid Abrams

I've always enjoyed Nadelson's series about scraggly jazzophile detective Artie Cohen, and Londongrad didn't disappoint! It's an easy but engaging read, beautifully toeing the line between pop fiction and international panoramic crime expose; if you're looking for a clever and fun read this summer, you should check out Londongrad. It's great travel reading - like lying back and slowly enjoying a taboo pina colada in the middle of the day, that happens to also make you feel a little edgier, cooler, and smarter. I love reading serial novels, too - once you finish this you can gobble the rest of the Artie books up, and wait eagerly for Nadelson's next installment!