Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: A Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Novel [Hardcover]

Stuart M. Kaminsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2001

Inside the Moscow Police Department, madness regins. Inspectors Karpo and Zelach enter the underground world of post-punk rock clubs searching for clues to the disappearance of an anti-Semitic rock star who happens to be the son of one of Moscow's most powerful Jewish citizens. Then there is the young woman, dubbed the Phantom of the Underground by the media, who is randomly stabbing well-dressed men in the Moscow Metro. And Chief Inspector Rostnikov is en route to Vladivostok in a first-class carriage on the Trans-Siberian Express - the greatest train in the world. It now carries two hand-picked officials of the Moscow Police...and an extortionist who may have information that could bring down the entire Russian government.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, December 2001: This is a compulsively readable tour de force that keeps more balls in the air than a pitching machine. On top of that, in this 14th novel featuring the one-legged Moscow cop Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, Stuart Kaminsky once again catapults us straight from our armchairs into the mindset of modern Russia in all its perverse dysfunctions.

Kaminsky must have had fun cooking up the plotlines, which ingeniously plunder the storage bins of mystery history. There's everything from a Jane the Ripper to homages to train-bound thrillers like The Lady Vanishes, North by Northwest, and the more obvious Murder on the Orient Express. At the same time, there's the conscious, skillfully presented element of social realism, an aspect that never intruded into the action of any of those tales. Kaminsky is wonderfully artful at conveying the pervasive cynicism that comes with the territory at all strata of existence in the former Soviet Union, and he does it without ever being repetitious. At an organic level, it seeps into and informs every level of the mystery as it unfolds.

One must marvel at the manipulations of the political and legal systems engaged in by Chief Inspector Rostnikov and his dedicated colleagues as they endeavor to deliver the semblance of a not-always-welcome law and order. To top it off, there are some terrific set-piece scenes, such as when the policeman Zelach reveals his unexpected familiarity with heavy-metal arcana as he and his partner interrogate some punks about a missing pal.

Kaminsky won the Edgar Allan Poe award in 1989 for the Rostnikov mystery A Cold Red Sunrise. Reading Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express, it's not hard to understand why, only difficult to know how he keeps the series' quality so high. --Otto Penzler

From Publishers Weekly

Edgar-winner Kaminsky's 14th Rostnikov novel (after 2000's Fall of a Cosmonaut), about the imperturbable one-legged Russian policeman, weightlifter, plumber and family man, lacks narrative force due to its episodic structure. But while it may not be one of the author's best, his cast of oddball characters and view of post-Soviet Russia continue to fascinate. Chief Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, now working for Moscow's Office of Special Investigation and reporting to its director, Igor Yaklovev, gets assigned with one of his men to ride the 6,000-mile Trans-Siberian Express to intercept a courier exchanging money for a package somewhere along the route. Yaklovev believes the package contains a 100-year-old secret document belonging to Czar Nicholas II; Rostnikov follows orders, though he knows there's much his boss hasn't told him. Meanwhile, detectives Iosef Rostnikov, the chief inspector's son, and Elena Timofeyeva lead the effort to locate a madwoman whose seemingly random knife attacks have injured or slain three men in four weeks at subway stops. And detectives Emil Karpo and Zelach pursue a kidnapped rock rebel called Naked Cossack, who happens to be the son of a powerful Jewish magnate. The result is a busy and entertaining trio of stories woven together with vignettes about the building of the Trans-Siberian railway.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; First Edition edition (October 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892967471
• ISBN-13: 978-0892967476
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #487,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Travel > Asia > Russia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best of an excellent series, January 26, 2002

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: A Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Novel (Hardcover)

Stuart Kaminsky's series about Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov and his team of Moscow detectives bears a strong similarity to Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" police procedural novels. And that is no coincidence -- Inspector Rostnikov can often be found relaxing with a tattered paperback Ed McBain novel in hand. "Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express" is one of the best of the books in the entire series. Three cases unfold in parallel: An unknown woman is stabbing men seemingly at random on the Moscow subway. A skinhead rock star, the son of a wealthy media magnate, has been kidnapped. And Rostnikov is sent on a journey aboard the Trans-Siberian Express train because of a report that a courier is to exchange a suitcase full of money for a mysterious package. Interwoven with these threads are the evolving personal stories of the detectives. Is Karpo mentally disintegrating? Will Sasha Tlach reconcile with his wife? What does the future hold for Iosef Rostnikov and Elena Timofeyeva? And what plumbing problems await Porfiry? Although a newcomer to the series could read "Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express" with pleasure both for the mysteries presented and for the social commentary upon present-day Russia (a strong point of this Kaminsky series has been its portrait of, first, a decaying Soviet Union and, later, of a new Russia stumbling through chaos), such a reader would not fully appreciate the significance of the background material dealing with the personal lives of the various detectives. My recommendation is to read this novel, most certainly, but first go back and read those which came before. In Porfiry Rostnikov Stuart Kaminsky has created an admirable protagonist, both strong and wise. Fueled by deep compassion, Rostnikov serves justice, not the letter of the law, and he has long ago learned the art of the possible, tempering his quest for justice with the knowledge that such justice is not always obtainable in a world ruled by power and corruption. Some times -- most times -- a partial victory is all that can be achieved.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kudos from Dave, January 7, 2002

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: A Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Novel (Hardcover)

In my humble opinion the Porfiry Rostnikov mystery series is the best one going. It rivals Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park for a realistic portrayal of Russia. Stuart Kaminsky's series may be better, though. Cruz Smith gave up writing about mother Russia after the Wall came crashing down. Kaminsky has done his research and he makes modern Russia one of the characters.
The ensemble of human characters jumps right off the page, especially Porfiry, chief inspector in the Office of Special Investigations of the Moscow Police, a unit that handles cases no one else wants. His nickname is "The Washtub" because of his weightlifter build; he's lost one of his legs due to a war wound; and he "meditates" by doing volunteer plumbing around his apartment building. His immediate underling, Emil Karpov, is an unrepentant Communist who looks like Bela Lugosi, only taller. Other detectives include Rostinikov's son Iosef, a former actor and Afghani veteran; his fiancé, and Sasha Tkach, the Robert Redford of the cast, whose wife has left him, mainly because of his meddling mother who had lived with them.
Kaminsky's strategy in Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express is to have the detectives divvy up three cases. Tkach pursues a woman is murdering subway businessmen, up close and personal, with a kitchen knife. Karpov tackles the case of a missing punk rocker, a possible kidnapping victim. Rostinov takes a trip on the Trans-Siberian Express in search of an intriguing historical document involving the Tsarina.
Believe me, it's not the mystery that holds your attention in Kaminsky's Rostinov novels. You just want to hang out with these people, and you hate it when the story ends.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Policework in a city without laws, May 18, 2002

By 

"curtcow" (Short Hills, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: A Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Novel (Hardcover)

I'm new to Kaminsky, so all the Russian named characters living in a different world made the early going slow. By Book II, however, I was up to speed and turned onto the pace of three overlapping plots:

1. Porfiry Rostnikov, the seasoned Moscow cop with a plastic leg, along with Sasha Tkach is on a mission on the title train in a compartment with a couple of Americans, an intriguing female agent and Pavel Cherkasov, Russia's answer to Henny Youngman. Igor (the Yak) Yaklovev is Rostnikov's Machiavellian boss. He thrives running a police department in a society that acknowledges law enforcement but has no clearly accepted laws and has his own reasons for sending them on the assignment.

2. Rostnikov's son Iosef and partner Elena are chasing Inna, a psycho whose answer to a father's lack of attention is to plunge a kitchen knife into Moscow commuters who remind her of him.

3. Emil Karpo another hardened police vet and his more mystical junior partner Zelach are looking for the missing lead singer in a skinhead rock band. The Naked Cossack, whose real name is Misha Lovski, is the son of a Rupert Murdoch like Moscow media mogul rebelling against his father's life.

The investigations weave through each chapter moving toward independent but simultaneous conclusions. The drama of the chase or who did what to whom, however, is the sideshow. The real story is about how Kaminsky's characters react to what happens around them, both on and off the job. In the end it's not about justice but rather Rostnikov and the Yak manipulating each other to preserve what passes for order in their chaotic worlds. Even if you can't remember their names or identify with their lifestyles, you'll know what makes Kaminsky's characters tick and empathize with the way each plays the hand life has dealt.