6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Siberia is 'snow joke' in Kaminsky thriller, May 5, 2000
This review is from: A Cold Red Sunrise (An Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
If you haven't read Stuart M. Kaminsky's Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series and you like intrigue, foreign settings, absolute suspense, and logical conclusions, you have missed a literary treat.
Kaminsky, writer of such successes as the Toby Peters series, the Lieberman series, and the "Rockford Files," writes most knowledgeably of Moscow and its politics, its social intrigues, its criminal elements, and he does so most convincingly with his Inspector Rostnikov, an iconoclast among the Soviet system and is always one step away from being "shipped to Siberia" (or worse) for his independence. However, his crime solving abilities are so brilliant that he manages to stay "on board."
Rostnikov is a war hero "almost single-handedly stopping a Nazi tank" and highly decorated and praised by his Moscow superiors. He is left with a mangled leg, however, and over the course of the year, despite the lingering pain, has overcome its handicap, primarily by his daily routine of weight lifting, the love and support of his wife and son, and his own strong will and determination. His wife is Jewish, and owing to the (still) anti-Semitic attitudes of the political system there, the inspector continually has to face reality.
He has assembled his own loyal supporters within his office: Emil Karpo (the policeman nicknamed "the Vampire") and handsome Sasha Tkach, as well as other acquaintances. Readers seem to look forward to seeing each of these in each of the episodes, almost as if they are family members. Kaminsky has the ability to penetrate the smog, the freezing temperatures, the long lines at the shops, the graft and corruption seething ubiquitous-like throughout the Soviet system, and in a way that perhaps no outsider could do. It is amazing, especially if you've ever been to the Soviet Union, how he does this!
In "A Cold Red Sunrise" the inspector has been assigned to Tumsk, a far-flung town in Siberia, "where the temperature is forty below on a good day"! His assignment has come due to one of his clashes with the KGB.
Two people are dead, one of them the daughter of a famous dissident, and the other a Moscow police officer sent out to investigate her death. Now it is Rostnikov's turn to solve the crime--and the KGB hopes he won't succeed. But Porfiry is not without his own inimitable resources and once again his brilliance as a police detective emerges. Naturally, there are implications that go all the way back to Moscow and somebody's political intrigue there. But Rostnikov must tread lightly, as if one ice, as he knows one mistake and, war hero or no, he is doomed. Fortunately for him, his Siberian assignment is for only one novel! There is no doubt in the reader's mind that Rostnikov will find the solution, but the suspense is still there all the same. This series is absolutely mesmerizing and, to me, Kaminsky can't write them fast enough!
Billyjhobbs@tyler.net
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What a native Russian speaker has to say, April 23, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: A Cold Red Sunrise (An Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
Highly regarded A Cold Red Sunrise has serious logic and language mistakes. The author inserts Russian words in his sentences ignoring their tense, time, gender. Characters address each other improperly in many instances. Some names are no longer around and seem to be pulled out of The Dictionary of 17th Century Forgotten Russian Names. This permissible mistake for a foreigner is overshadowed by a sloppy phrase that runs like this, "Rostnikov felt frustrated, for his only witness is an Evenk who doesn't even speak English." While writing this phrase, S. Kaminsky forgot that all characters including Porfiriy Petrovich don't know a single English word. The author meant to say "an Evenk who doesn't even speak Russian," but forgot that his story takes place in Russia. Furthermore, inspector Rostnikov never explained how he arrived at his conclusions. His reasoning, explaining why ... had an affair with ..., makes up a closed loop (for the sake of those who haven't read the book, names are omitted).
The book was interesting as a picture of Soviet society in the 1980s, but its mystery plot sure needs some work.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Kaminsky in Top Form, November 7, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: A Cold Red Sunrise (An Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
Kaminsky has a knack for a Russia which teeters at the edge of chaos during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In A Cold Red Sunrise, an Edgar - Winning Novel, Porfiry Rostnikov heads to Siberia to solve a perplexing crime, and learns things about the dark side of human nature, about Siberia, and about himself, that enthralls and fascinates the reader. This is Stuart M. Kaminsky at his best, don't miss this one!
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