Customer Reviews

Monstrum

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Being a Russian living in Moscow I have a certain advantage over the readers who were not brought up in Russia and have no knowledge of the Russian literary tradition.

You can believe me - this book is superb if you see it in a way that makes the enjoyment unhindered. Please do not compare it to Gorky Park and the schlock of this kind. Also it's unwise to test the novel's characters and events against the patterns of the real life. Just see it as a modern Russian fairy tale.

I am sure the author is familiar with the Russian fantastic tradition of Bulgakov, Odoevsky, etc.- the authors inspired by E.T.A.Hoffman.

If you'll read these tales you will see that usually they start with quite veritable everyday happenings and the characters occupation and rank is stated. But a few pages later the fabric of reality is torn and the world of supernatural is shining through the gaps.

The mood of the novel is dark - it's definitely Russian. Cowards turn into heroes and the heroes are traitors, former classmates are united by vodka but one of them is the chief of the secret police and another - the prime suspect.

I was amused that one of the reviewers could not buy the fact that the rebellious general's husband was recruited as the dictators body double. What would you say about Stalin's comrade Molotov, who had his wife rotting in a death camp and still stood at the Mausoleum near his boss, flinching at his jovial inquiries about the woman's health?

So see this novel as a perfect opportunity to experience the life very different from your own and even if you do not care for the Russian literary tradition the novel's beautiful(and mostly evil) heroines, courageous underdogs and exotic settings will make a couple of your evening very enjoyable.

Don't fool yourself it is a difficult book to read and I strongly recommend a sound knowledge of Russian history and Russian habits. Otherwise superb read,deep and breathtaking,original,and a well executed novel. Bravo Donald.

Monstrum has a sensational premise: gory serial killer terrorizes post-civil war Moscow; inexperienced provincial investigator must confront sinister political forces to apprehend the criminal. Unfortunately, Mr. James confuses the issue by adding two addition plot lines that do little service to the story. The first, a backstory about the investigator's wife, a general with the losing side of the civil war, has little relevance to the story and uses up a great deal of ink; the second, involving a scheme to alter the investigator's appearance through plastic surgery and then use him as a public double for the president, is, to say the least, far-fetched. Without knowing a great deal about secret police strategy, I think its a safe bet to say that the spouse of an avowed enemy of the state would be an unlikely choice for such a role. Regardless, the space required to detail these two extraneous elements means that the book has an underwritten feel. The characters are thinly drawn, in particular the one who should have been the most fascinating - the killer. There was an odd moment when after reading most of the novel, I realized that the author was going to have to tie up an awful lot in the last few pages. Unsurprisingly, the ending was rushed and frankly, pretty stupid. It's a shame, because Mr. James grasp of the Russian culture and its vernacular is tremendous, and had he gone a little lighter on concept and heavier on detail this could have been a tremendous novel. As it is, it's a fun read but not much more.

Comparisons of _Monstrum_ to Martin Cruz Smith's _Gorky Park_ are apt. A very similar sort of thriller, Donald James' novel follows the investigation of homicide inspector, Constantin Vadim, as he searches for a serial killer operating in the rubble of war-torn Moscow, circa 2015. The future setting doesn't really give this book a science-fictional feel, but allows James to add a complicated political underpinning to his serial-killer plot. The Anarchists and the Nationalists have just stopped fighting a civil war for the soul of Russia and the clean-up and aftermath of the war only hamper Vadim's investigation, as they also make it possible for the serial-killer "monstrum" of the title to operate. The characters were very absorbing, the mystery first-rate, and James' exploration of the human condition very gripping. The conclusion did feel a bit rushed, following a long, leisurely set-up, and the book is a bit too dependent on Vadim's inability to develop political beliefs of his own, but this was, on the whole, a riveting mystery and I'd highly recommend it.

"Monstrum" is a clever story with various twists and turns--part science fiction, part thriller, part murder mystery, part political novel. I became one with Constantine--felt his humanity, his idealism, his pain. But Montrum is more than a story about a series of mass murders--it is a commentary on the state of the world: who is the real monstrum--the mass murder loose in Moscow's slums or those political figures who run the world? Read this book--it is wonderful on many different levels

In the year 2?015 , The National Democracy forces under Leonid Kobra ended the civil war by defeating the Anarchist/Marxist forces, taking back the city of Moscow. Cheka (secret service) official Roy Rolkin asks for the transfer of his friend, Inspector Constantin Vadim, from his home grounds of Murmansk to Moscow. There, Vadim should find a serial murderer who kills and carves up young women. He is placed in the worst possible district of the city, completely bombed out and destroyed,without water or electricity, and the meager population reduced to fighting for the barest survival. Slowly and energetically, he burrows his way into this underground of absolute human misery. He finds that the promised amnesty for the anarchists brings a one way ticket to Siberian hell once they surrender. Dr. Imogen Sheperd, the American supervisor of the program, is more interested in the luxury life the party bosses lead in another part of town. Vadim is also interested in the fate of his ex-wife Lydia, the anarchist commander of a regiment of women, and of their son Misha. He visits the buildings where bands of teenage robbers and murderers congregate, and goes into the underground passages where Father Alexander celebrates his libidinous church. Nothing ever is what it seems to be. The former enemies surface as top party officials of the new government. The people at the bottom of the ladder are persecuted as before, tortured and murdered. Everything has changed, and yet nothing is different.

Mr. James published this book in 1997 when Jelzin was in power. His previous book, ?the Fortune Teller?, places Vadim in the hopeless harbor scene of Murmansk. His next one, ?Vadim?, plays in 2?020 and will be published shortly. A fourth one, ?the Benefactor?, is scheduled for next year. Mr. James wrote the 10-part series on Russia for PBS. He also published a book on modern Russian history. To compare the present book to ?Gorki Park? does it an immense injustice. The author uses the form of a mystery to tell us about Russia, and he comes through very loud and clear.

Mr James makes a very strong point: The lot of the Russian citizen is a sad one. In command is the Cheka, the KGB, or whatever name it gives itself. And no matter how much they smile and act human they still imprison, torture and kill. At this point we should remember that Vladimir Putin is a product of the KGB.

I found this book to be very well written. The author obviously knows Russia. Others have brought up the point that the main character seemed not to know what was going on and to them that was a minus. I considered it to be very realistic. It made Constantin Vadim more real to me. After reading some of the stupid serial murder mysteries out there I found this one entertaining. The author does not insult his reader's intelligence. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes thriller/mysteries.

This book was such a pleasant surprise that I couldn't let go of it for weeks after I read it - and ended up going back to it at least twice since then. Donald James creates an entirely believable landscape in 2015 Moscow, and tells the possible story of the country through the eyes of his characters. I think one of the main reasons why I fell in love with Monstrum was the protagonist character, Vadim, a would-be passive police inspector who just wants to have a quiet job and a quiet apartment where he can miss his dead son and a wife who left him. Instead, through little fault of his own, he gets involved in events seemingly beyond his control. And as he stumbles through life, increasingly becoming more and more involved, making choices and searching for the truth, one can't help but ache for his fate and for the fate of those around him.

Female characters here are also especially interesting - I haven't seen such strong, complex women in many other novels.

Donald James is a historian and that is a great plus for Monstrum: he knows the shifts and spirals of history. The future he imagines for Russia (hopefully it can be avoided) is in tune at once with this country's turbulent past and its ambivalent present. I don't think even after 2015, this novel will possibly be outdated: instead it could be thought of as an alternate reality. A serial killer mystery is overshadowed here by its political connections, and that gives the writer room to go in many surprising directions.

While dark in content, it's ultimately uplifting, and wonderfully so, since after as much as the characters go through in this story, they deserve some hope at the end. This is a mystery with a heart of a romantic quest and a historic novel - and it does honor to all these genres.

I so wish he would write a sequel. There is room enough for it. I probably will be waiting hopelessly for it, but my point is...this book is too good to pass up.

How did this book not become one of the most popular ever? So well written. Grabbed me more than Gorky Park by far!

Boo Walker
Author of Lowcountry Punch

I know very few books that have managed to capture the drudgery, hopelessness and dreams of modern Russia as Donald James did in the excellent MONSTRUM. It is simultaneously a love story, police procedural and political drama.

It is 2015, post civil war Russia in which the Nationalists - Democrats finally defeated the Anarchists - Communists in a war that nearly destroyed the country. Although a democrat becomes president, real power rests with a Nationalist general. The story concerns 3 people from Murmansk, childhood friends and their lives. Julia became a leader in an all-women's Anarchist brigade, Roy joined the military wing of the Nationalist party, Constantin became a policeman, married Julia and split over politics.

In Moscow a depraved killer known as the Monstrum is slicing open young girls. Constantin must play roles - he is ordered to Moscow where he will play a police chief in charge of the case. His real job is portraying the General (he is a double). Torn between his former wife (Julia), a ravishing American woman newly arrived and Natalya, a police doctor, he discovers betrayal from two of them. The story is almost perfect in that each of the themes - serial killer, romance and political intrigue - blend almost effortlessly, none outweighing the others. The ending is very satisfying if bitter sweet - a good read.