Customer Reviews

Shadow of the Wolf: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This sequel to Ghelfi's outstanding debut (last year's "Volk's Game") is another high-stakes adventure set in the dark underworld of crime and corruption that plagues modern Russia. Col. Alexei Volkovoy, an ex-Special Forces soldier and one-man wrecking crew, is tasked to recover a missing Fabergé egg. His search puts him up against the Russian mob, Chechen guerrillas and powerful apparatchiks in the Kremlin, but none of them are a match for Ghelfi's cunning anti-hero. Volkovoy is not an especially likeable man -- he's violent, suspicious and irretrievably damaged -- but he's a fascinating one to read about. "Volk's Shadow" doesn't move with the lightning pacing of the first book -- in most parts it's more mystery than thriller -- but even so Ghelfi delivers the goods.

In Volk's Game, Brent Ghelfi created an intriguing character: an emotionally damaged Russian patriot who is filled with contradictions; a ruthless killer who feels compassion for widows and wounded veterans; a thief who dispenses charity; a man who questions his capacity for love while sacrificing himself for the sake of love. The character of Volk develops further in Volk's Shadow (also sold under the title Shadow of the Wolf -- it's the same book, folks, don't buy it twice!).

The story takes place six months after the conclusion of Volk's Game, and I suspect a reader would be a bit confused diving into this book without reading the first one. The complex and occasionally confusing plot pits Volk against terrorists and politicians, brings him into contact with American and Russian spies, and takes him back to Chechnya, where he lost his leg and perhaps his soul. All of this (backed by plenty of violence) would be routine stuff in thriller world except that Volk continues a path of personal growth that began in Volk's Game: he begins to question the conflict with Chechnya and the role he played in it; he starts to wonder if the man he has become is the man he wants to be. Like the first novel, the story is a fun read, but the well drawn main character is what really makes it worthwhile.

I didn't, and plunging into the depths of the character of the unsympathetic Rambo like character was a mite too strong for me. However, as I got into the plot which at first sounds tame but quickly turns really down and dirty, I was mesmerized.The skilled characterization and the taut, often overly violent, action captivated me and while I felt as I had been dragged into a bleak and depraved world, there was no putting the book down. I did find myself continually wondering if this is a true portrait of modern Russia. Whether it is or not, I can see how one can become addicted to the continuing story of Volk and the other characters. Recommended to rugged and hearty readers who want a story and action that go well beyond the term, "gutsy".

I'm not a huge fan of the action-thriller genre (at least in writing, films are another matter), but since I'd read the first installment of the "Volk" series (Volk's Game), I figured I'd check this one out to see how the Russian supersoldier is getting along. The answer is: pretty much the same. In the first book, the ex-special forces antihero ran around Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, and New York in a desperate hunt for a long-lost Da Vinci painting sought after by a number of factions, including his shadowy Army General boss and the ruthless Azeri mafioso at the top of Moscow's organized crime. In this adventure, it's a long-lost Fabrege Egg that Volk's supposed to track down on behalf of "The General."

However, that's not all, as the author piles on plenty of other plotlines, including a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by a pedophile, a video of a Russian Army war crime in Chechnya, the bombing of an oil company office, the grisly torture and murder of Russian ex-soldiers, the missing daughter of a U.S. Senator, and executive-level intrigue regarding oil pipelines. If this sounds like a few too many ingredients, it is. The book moves at breakneck pace, jumping between all these different plotlines while never providing much depth for any of them. As in the first book there are tons of twists, turns, and betrayals of all kinds, along with plenty of fisticuffs, gunplay, knifing, and whatnot, as the mostly unstoppable Volk leaves bodies in his wake in his search for answers.

After spending most of the first two-thirds of the book in Moscow, the action in the third act takes Volk back the Caucuses, where he will confront demons from his past, as well as an angel. The climax is pretty much as one would expect, and while satisfying in a grim sense, the book is unlikely to leave readers with a very positive feeling about the state of contemporary Russia.(It's worth noting that this is a case where reading the previous Volk book is probably a very good idea, as there are various elements and relationships established in that book that are glossed over in this one.)

Worthwhile nonfiction companions to this book might include: journalist Anna Politkovskaya's two books Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy and The Dirty War, David Satter's Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State, ex-soldier Arkady Babchenko's terribly titled memoir One Soldier's War, the updated edition of Sebastian Smith's Allah's Mountains: The Battle for Chechnya, photographer Stanley Greene's harrowing photos in Open Wound: Chechnya 1994-2003, Chechen doctor Khassan Baiev's memoir The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire, and Yo'av Karney's regional travelogue/history Highlanders: A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory.

I am horrified by this book whereas my husband loves it and insists on a five-star rating. Oddly enough, both of us agree entirely on the quality of Ghelfi's writing, but our final interpretations differ drastically (otherwise, I would file for divorce at once). Below I am going to elaborate on how we think his writing method works. Attention: ALL quoted ("") lines are taken from Ghelfi.

First, the author relies on a list of words to bring lots of Russian décor to his creation:

MATRYOSHKA - a wooden nesting doll. A compulsory attribute of all Russian homes which is as sacred to a Russian as the American flag to a U.S. citizen. When Russians are unhappy about the state policy, they burn MATRYOSHKAS, not flags.

KONTRACTNIK - any non-conscript soldier in the Russian army, typically a corporal or a sergeant. They can be identified by "bandanas, wraparound sunglasses, camouflage jackets with the sleeves ripped off, and tattooed prison muscles".

KONTRACTNIKS are primary targets for CHECHENS.

KINZHAL - a straight dagger

CHECHEN - a rough, ferocious highlander (but not nearly as hot as Duncan McLeod) armed with KINZHAL

ZINDAN - a Chechen mud pit, an instrument of torture for KONTRACTNIKS. However, it also serves as an educational institution to teach "philosophy, religion, global politics" to the most gifted POWs.

CALL OF DUTY, Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare , the only non-Russian term in the list. It's a shooter video game, probably played by Ghelfi's kids, if not himself. The author apparently uses it to look up different weapons (MP5, Uzi, etc) to arm his characters. Then he makes them "fight to the last breath", which is a signature cry of Russian Spetznaz (special force) in the game.

MIGALKA - a blue flashing light that can be placed on a car roof.

CHINOVNIK / APPARATCHIK - a ranked Russian official, typically corrupt. However, his corruption is not nearly as annoying to the Russian populace as his abuse of MIGALKA.

The list goes on for a couple of dozen more terms, ending with the most important ones:

VODKA - a prime cause of everything that happens in Russia

PALENKA - a low-quality, often poisonous VODKA produced in illegal distilleries which is favored by the protagonist. Apparently, it helps him to blend in with the atmosphere of "Moscow's toxic violence".

CRUDE OIL - a raw material that, on the one hand, is an indispensible source of energy for the West Europe, and on the other, a crucial ingredient for PALENKA. Correspondingly, whoever has oil controls all what happens in Russia and well beyond its borders (see PUTIN).

PUTIN - the main APPARATCHIK in Russia who "has earned a reputation for being everywhere at once, straddling the ocean, filling the sky, just like Stalin". PUTIN and his downsized, temporary incarnation (called MEDVEDEV) seized control over Russian oil companies. In doing so, PUTIN jailed KHODORKOVSKY, an oil tycoon, who, according to his words, was only guilty of one thing that all Russians used to do in mid-1990s: getting rich or die trying.

Step two: make up a ludicrously stupid plot and spice it up with the words from the list above. See all them MATRYOSHKAS, BABUSHKAS selling PALENKA, and APPARATCHIKS with MIGALKAS? Now only an idiot could doubt we are in Russia, right?

Then comes the final, crucial ingredient: make sure the whole book is bound with at least one gruesome, exquisitely nauseating cliché on every page. The characters dwell in buildings "made of steel, brick, and mortar laced with blood". When they want to conceal something, they hide (figuratively, of course) behind "wall of lies sealed with the mortar of half-truths". A character's "granite features" and "icy gaze" signify that he means very (very) serious business. When a female is consumed by "the flame of passion", her eyes catch "smoldering fire". A male gangster, on the other hand, has eyes that are "violent under bushy brows, roiling like the stormy Caspian Sea at the hard edge of land in his hometown of Baku".

Depending on whom they are dealing with, the characters exchange either "sticky embraces" or "crushing grips" When they go outside, the weather is either "steaming hot" or "bone-chilling cold". Mind you, not all people in the book are evil: for instance, the main female character "has fulfilled the promise suggested by the noblest moments of her youth".

My husband is a man of refined literary taste who truly believes that Ghelfi does all of that on purpose: laughable plot, cardboard characters, and the language that can't possibly pass for English. I agree: if you recognize and love the works of kitsch art, you will enjoy Ghelfi tremendously. Unfortunately, my sense of humor does not stretch that far because I am to endure very similar pearls when grading the numerous essays of my students. For me, reading Ghelfi is like trying to "hold back an ocean of raw sewage with my bare hands".

P.S. Ghelfi's style is not representative of the entire genre or the Americans who try to write about Russia. If you do not enjoy kitsch, a good alternative to Ghelfi could be Red Square: A Novel (Mortalis)

While "noir" in film or literature is usually associated with crime fiction, were there a "noir" thriller category, what better place than Russia, with her grim and vainglorious history, to set the story? And with the exception of Martin Cruz Smith, who better to tell the noir thriller tale than Brent Ghelfi and his viciously intimidating anti-hero, Russian war veteran Colonel Alexei Volkovoy, the leanest, meanest, most hardboiled, hard-bitten action hero to jump from the pages since the days before Jack Reacher started condoning deserters.

"Volk's Shadow" is Ghelfi's second novel, and Volk's second adventure. This time around, when an America oil company's Moscow office is allegedly blown up by Chechen terrorists, Volk finds himself in the center of the inferno, emerging from the fracas lightly charred and heavily annoyed. Marginally estranged girlfriend Valya, the gun-toting Valkyrie demon of a woman - and possibly the only person on the planet more deadly than Volk - is back in her native Chechnya mopping up some loose ends from the first novel. Meanwhile, the surreal and mystical General who pulls Volk's strings from his tomb-like office in the bowels of the Kremlin like a scene out of a Kafka novel is sending Volk on a quest for one of the priceless Faberge eggs. The egg, which turned up after years of unknown whereabouts, disappears in transit leaving only the couriers' savagely butchered bodies behind. And if all that is not enough, a twelve-year old girl has gone missing, feared to be in the clutches of a sadistic child murderer, a DVD of Russian war atrocities is rumored to be on the loose, and Volk's old nemesis, the shadowy Chechen rebel Abreg, is making more mischief. Volk moves jumps more cliffhangers than Indiana Jones and totes more hardware than the average infantry platoon - but it's just another day in the trenches for this deeply unconventional Russian undercover agent-of-sorts.

Sound convoluted? You bet it is, but entertainingly so - as long as you don't mind some blood - lots of blood - depravity, and unthinkable violence with your, um, "entertainment." But Ghelfi, an undisputed master of action, is a talented and intelligent author. Ghelfi's Russia is one of nightmarish cityscapes of broken bottles and bloody syringes and wet fast food wrappers. He colors his mayhem and ambiguous issues with a rich atmosphere of "stale cigarettes, mold, and men too long between showers". In other words, this isn't "Mamma Mia". But if you're looking for some escapist pop fiction, want some cynical insight to modern Russia and the Chechnya conflict, and tire of the bland and predictable boredom of most best selling "thrillers", give Ghelfi a try. But fair warning: you may want to start on an empty stomach.

A nice, fast-paced thriller that rides the wave of paranoia brought to us courtesy of Putin Inc. Just the right length and depth to fill a transcontinental plane ride, and some good twists. The premise - crime syndicates wrapped around international alliances, corrupt businessmen and only slightly less corrupt cops - holds water and the hero, Volkovoy, is fairly believable and sympathetic (this is all in stark contrast to the abysmal Tsar: A Thriller). That said, Ghelf does have a few slip-ups. To name two: there are no straps on Moscow metro cars, and it's Nemtsov, not Nemstov. And Ghelfi, like all authors in the genre, slips in a graph here and there in The Voice of Experience, offering knowing summations on The Russian Conundrum. But these are minor quibbles; in toto, Ghelfi should be given high marks for respecting readers' intelligence, for expressing almost le Carre-ian moral ambivalence about the Chechnya conflict, and about things Russian in general. Bottom line: this is an enjoyable four-star spy thriller. I'll definitely go back and pick up the first book in the series. (Reviewed by Russian Life)

As Volk's Shadow opens,Volk is dispatched by the General to handle the bombing of AMERCO an oil company.His instructions are clear:Do not delay.Do not negotiate.Attack.It's clear after the op something is not as it seems.A female hostage disappears who knows alot more than she is telling.For this outing Volk is teamed with Lt. Golko Kachan a by the book investigator.Volk will use brutal methods to open doors that Kachan hesitates to employ.Volk's time served in Chechnya has brutalized him,but he can be compassionate.As a favor he searches for the young grandaughter of a friend for the elderly Masha.The young girl has been taken by a sexual predator.These seemingly unrelated cases will take Volk back to the Chechen mountains to confront an old enemy from Volk's past. As in VOLK'S GAME the writing is razor sharp with magnificent descriptions of the city of Moscow and the Chechen mountains.A first rate thriller all the way.Volk is the Russian answer to Mitch Rapp,Jack Reacher,and Jack Bauer.

Brent Ghelfi and his protagonist/antihero, Col. Alexei Volkovoy, must be considered the new faces in terms of writer & character, respectively, in the post-Soviet world. With the lines between good and evil unquestionably blurred in our current world, no single character single-handedly captures this era of moral uncertainty than the perpetually conflict Col. Volkovoy. While Volk's Game is a must-read to fully appreciate Volk's Shadow, Volk's Shadow demonstrates Ghelfi's maturity as a writer, with even tighter writing and excellent development of his characters. Ironically, while Ghelfi's books are clearly well researched and reflect an unparalleled glimpse of modern Russian politics by an English fiction writer, Ghelfi's work can also be seen as allegorical to the current evolution of American politics as well. A fun, yet thought provoking read, while I highly recommend.

Volk's Shadow by Brent Ghelfi continues where the first novel in the series, Volk's Game, left off. Colonel Alexei Volkovoy (a.k.a. Volk) is still recovering emotionally from the betrayal of General Nemstov, the man he sees as a father figure, and the departure of the woman he loves, Vayla. Volk, however, has other worries as he attempts to prevent the destruction a building owned by an American oil company and the death of the company's stop employees by Chechen terrorists. This quickly leads our Russian anti-hero on a search for the man (Abreg) who once held him prisoner in a Chechen camp for six months and tortured him, and who's now killing Russian soldiers who participated in the massacre of civilians at Starye Atag. Also, in the middle of this is the search for the priceless Faberge eggs, a missing twelve-year-old girl who's been taken by a sick predator, the creation of a new oil broker (Maxim) and his quest to control Russia's precious oil reserves, the search for a missing American Senator's daughter, and the death of the Chechen terrorist leaders. Volk is definitely going to have his hands full with juggling several important objectives, but never fear, Valya returns to help him and to watch his back.

The author, Brent Ghelfi, does an excellent job of juggling (like Volk) several sub-plots and then successfully tying everything together by the end of the novel. He manages to keep the tension ratcheted up to a fever pitch with the action coming at the appropriate intervals so that the reader never has time to be bored. The bad guys are every bit as colorful and wicked as the ones in the last novel--Filip Lachek, the man who seeks revenge against Volk for killing his son and plans to slowly torture him to death, Abreg, the Chechen terrorist, who's the only man alive that Volk has ever been scared of, and Constantine, the mysterious person of power behind the Russian leaders, who has the power to destroy Volk with a simple snap of his fingers.

Fast paced and utterly suspenseful, Volk's Shadow carries us to the next level with a closer look at Alexei Volkovoy and his dark, violent past, the Russian Mafia, the politicians who will stop at nothing to gain power over a struggling country and its vital resources, and the terrorists who seek revenge against those who tortured and killed their wives and children so many years ago. Volk's Shadow isn't for everyone. It's filled with violence and torture and betrayal, yet the story also shows the kindness and hope that can prevail in even the worst of us. With just two books to his name, Brent Ghelfi is quickly establishing himself as the author to go to, if you're a reader who desires something different from the normal brand of fiction and that's more in your face with its gritty realism. Highly recommended!