Product Description

One Dead Commissar

At an icebound naval weather station in far Siberia, the young daughter of an exiled dies under suspicious circumstances. The high-ranking Commissar sent to investigate the mystery suffers a similar fate: he is murdered by an icicle thrust into his skull.

One Live Cop

Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov is dispatched to solve the Commissar's murder, with one caveat: he is not to investigate the girl's death. Even if all the clues tell him that the two cases are linked.

One Cold Killer

In a single, fateful day, Rostnikov will hear two confessions, watch someone die, conspire against the government, and nearly meet his own death. All under the watchful eye of the KGB -- and someone much closer and infinitely more terrifying.

"As always, Kaminsky provides a colorful, tightly written mystery (he doesn't waste a word) filled with twists, countertwists and a surprise ending that is plausible and clever."

Chicago Tribune

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2195354 in Books
• Published on: 1988-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Board book
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The fifth novel in the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series offers another example of Kaminsky's ( A Fine Red Rain ) ability to spin a gripping, well-paced narrative peopled with vivid characters. Here the maverick Rostnikov, demoted after numerous battles with the KGB, is assigned to the case of Commissar Illya Rutkin, who was killed in Siberia while investigating the death of dissident Lev Samsonov's daughter, Karla. Inspector Emil Karpo, who accompanies the 54-year-old weightlifting policeman to the small town of Tumsk, has been asked by the KGB to report on his superior. Comrade Sokolov goes along, too, ostensibly to learn procedures, though Rostnikov knows his methods are under scrutiny. A realist and keen observer of humanity, Rostnikov deals shrewdly with the suspects in Rutkin's slaying: Lev Samsonov and his wife, Ludmilla; custodians Liana and Sergei Mirasnikov; Dimitri Galich, a former priest; and militarist General Krasnikov. As Rostnikov unravels the baffling crime, the clues point to loyalty and love as the motives for murder. The denouement is stunning and again proves Rostnikov is in a class by himself.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"As always, Kaminsky provides a colorful, tightly written mystery (he doesn't waste a word) filled with twists, countertwists and a surprise ending that is plausible and clever."

Chicago Tribune -- Review

Review
"As always, Kaminsky provides a colorful, tightly written mystery (he doesn't waste a word) filled with twists, countertwists and a surprise ending that is plausible and clever."

Chicago Tribune

Customer Reviews

Siberia is 'snow joke' in Kaminsky thriller
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

What a native Russian speaker has to say
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.

The Sleeping Giant: Siberia vs. Rostnikov...
I have read about a half dozen Porfiry Rostnikov mysteries by Stuart Kaminsky, and I think A Cold Red Sunrise was the most enjoyable so far.

A young daughter of a dissident living in Siberia dies under mysterious circumstances, and an investigator from Moscow is sent to Tumsk. When he is brutally murdered, Porfiry Rostnikov (a detective in Moscow's Bureau of Special Projects) is dispatched to this same Siberian town. Rostnikov takes with him his trusty associate, Emil Karpo. Rostnikov is expendable and has already been demoted from the procurator's office. He has both procurator spies and the KGB watching him, hoping that he'll do something inappropriate. At the same time, fellow associate Sasha Tkach is back in Moscow, investigating robberies, black market offenses and attacks on tourists.

What made A Cold Red Sunrise so enjoyable is the mini-lesson Kaminsky provides on Siberia. Covering over 5 million square miles, Siberia is short on daylight, summers and warm weather, but rich in beauty and natural resources. Nicknamed The Sleeping Giant, it has long provided a landing place for Russian dissidents, prisoners and misfits. There are not a lot of residents living in Tumsk, but almost everyone is a suspect. How Rostnikov breaks the case is ingenious.

My only suggestion in reading this series is to read them in order. Since the personal lives of the regulars progress with each book, it will make them more meaningful. I only regret that I am reading these books much faster than Kaminsky is writing them. In fact, he hasn't had a new Rostnikov in a number of years.