Monstrum (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Donald James (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Planeta (October 2000)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 9684068573
• ISBN-13: 978-9684068575
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,916,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Future fiction masquerading as mystery novel, March 6, 2003

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monstrum (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Donald James has written a strange novel that I enjoyed, but only in a limited fashion. In it the stage is set in 2015, in Russia. Constantin Vadim has been transferred from Murmansk to Moscow to run a homicide squad, for which he has no experience and little talent. This, however, is a cover, as he in reality is to act as a double impersonating the Vice President of the new country, Leonid Koba, who is really the power behind the throne.

No sooner does Vadim arrive in Moscow than it develops that his assignment as homicide investigator is going to be a real problem for him. For one thing, though his staff is large, most of them only engage in private enterprise for one of his superiors, and he can't complain about this. As a result, his squad of investigators is very small. In addition, there's a particularly nasty serial killer on the loose, nicknamed Monstrum because of the gruesome mutilations he inflicts on his female prostitute victims.

Then there are Vadim's personal problems. He's divorced from an ideologue who joined the losing side in the just-concluded Civil War, an anarchist with a seemingly endless ability to prevaricate and justify her actions, though they are less and less moral as time goes on. Vadim also has an affair with an American official who's helping with the Amnesty program locally in Russia, and a flirtation with the medical examiner. There's a dead son by the ex-wife, who figures in the plot, and various other characters.

One of the problems with this story is the way it's structured. I recently read a Mickey Spillane novel where the author managed to hold the final surprise of the book to the last sentence: there's no pretence of that here, instead the mystery concludes 40 pages from the end of the book, and the author then has to wind up the various plots. It's a bit anti-climactic...

I will say, though, that I did enjoy this book, and would recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, July 6, 2002

By 

Bixford Clowsell (Antwerp) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monstrum (Hardcover)

Mr. James has written an immensely satisfying novel that is layered with converging plot lines that implode (rather than explode) in a multi-climatic continuum that is both reminiscent of noir classics and as energized as contemporary pulp fiction.

A decidedly subtle read so evocatively written that you are subconsciously drawn in. Be prepared to be thoughtfully distracted between readings as your mind unwillingly reviews the details of the story and the intricacies of the characters.

While the story may seem to lack in areas such as character development, the author seems to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions by way of character action - verses character description. In doing so, the novel becomes a palpable reflection of the reader's own experience and interpretation.

For those who might ascribe the authors story line development with being too convenient or implausibly coincidental, which is the common thread of any thriller, the understated inflections of the lead character - Constantin Vadim - told in first person, more than compensate.

Very good read for discerning tastes that lean towards the more intelligent story.

2.0 out of 5 stars From Russia with Tedium, January 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Monstrum (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

It is the year 2015, and a post-civil war Russia attempts to build a new democracy and discard centuries of Totalitarianism. Constantin Vadim, a militiaman from Murmansk, is assigned to Moscow as the chief homicide inspector of a destitute and war-torn district of Moscow to take charge of a brutal string of murders of young women by a fiend dubbed the "monstrum". For sure, an unusual and ambitious setting for a serial murder mystery, which historian Donald James tackles in "Monstrum". It is this ambition, however, that fatally flaws what could have been an intriguing novel; there are simply too many plots set in motion and too many messages that James is trying to deliver. Told by Vadim in first person, the all-too-frequent addresses to the reader as "my brothers" becomes tedious. While in the end most of these threads come together, payoff feels contrived, wholly implausible, and ultimately disappointing.