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tubegeek's review
3.0
Not bad/not great. Kerr's usual strengths are here (very hard boiled hero, very strong sense of time, place and character) but not such a great plot nor a good villain to hiss. The victim at the center of the mystery is the dreaded "investigative reporter in over his head": ho hum.
smcleish's review
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in May 2002.
The aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the hardships faced in Russia since seem to have fallen out of the news in recent years. This is probably both because the situation has been gradually improving and because it lacks the novelty value that makes it news in Western Europe. The time following the coup attempt in 1992 was one of great hardship throughout the former USSR, and saw the development of violent organised crime, known generically as the Russian Mafia. (In fact, of course, and as reflected in this novel, there is a lot of rivalry between different gangs, many of which have a racially based organisation, so that the Chechens and Georgians are constantly fighting, for example.) Even if everyday living is easier now, the organised crime syndicates have not gone away. In the realms of fiction, the Russian Mafia seem to be a popular subject for thrillers already. (Proof of this is that it's been used as a scenario for a James Bond film, as well as related events providing the basis for Frederick Forsyth's [b:Icon|109511|Icon|Frederick Forsyth|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348221081s/109511.jpg|1859346].)
Philip Kerr's thriller is more realistic than either of these. It is about anti-Mafia units in the police force, the main character being a Moscow policeman ostensibly on a fact finding mission to study the methods used by the St Petersburg equivalent. He is actually meant to be checking that the leader of this unit, named Grushko, is as clean of corruption as he seems, as this is very unlikely in Russia in the early nineties (when inflation and shortages meant that the legitimate income of a policeman didn't go far at all). While the narrator, the Moscow cop, is in St Petersburg, a prominent anti-Mafia journalist (who likes to describe himself as Russia's first investigative journalist) is murdered, and so any consideration about bribery is taken over by the investigation into this crime.
Kerr's novel is based on considerable research, including the co-operative help of the real equivalents of Grushko. He also brings in many of the images associated with Russia in the last decade, such as an unsafe nuclear power industry, crumbling infrastructure, corruption and food queues. The setting is really well done, and makes the novel a bit different, both from the unrealistic stories I've already mentioned and from more conventional crime thrillers which have a similar style (such as [a:Michael Connelly|12470|Michael Connelly|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1202588562p2/12470.jpg]'s Harry Bosch novels). Dead Meat is an engrossing thriller, if bleak, well worth reading and encouraging me to find more Philip Kerr.
The aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the hardships faced in Russia since seem to have fallen out of the news in recent years. This is probably both because the situation has been gradually improving and because it lacks the novelty value that makes it news in Western Europe. The time following the coup attempt in 1992 was one of great hardship throughout the former USSR, and saw the development of violent organised crime, known generically as the Russian Mafia. (In fact, of course, and as reflected in this novel, there is a lot of rivalry between different gangs, many of which have a racially based organisation, so that the Chechens and Georgians are constantly fighting, for example.) Even if everyday living is easier now, the organised crime syndicates have not gone away. In the realms of fiction, the Russian Mafia seem to be a popular subject for thrillers already. (Proof of this is that it's been used as a scenario for a James Bond film, as well as related events providing the basis for Frederick Forsyth's [b:Icon|109511|Icon|Frederick Forsyth|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348221081s/109511.jpg|1859346].)
Philip Kerr's thriller is more realistic than either of these. It is about anti-Mafia units in the police force, the main character being a Moscow policeman ostensibly on a fact finding mission to study the methods used by the St Petersburg equivalent. He is actually meant to be checking that the leader of this unit, named Grushko, is as clean of corruption as he seems, as this is very unlikely in Russia in the early nineties (when inflation and shortages meant that the legitimate income of a policeman didn't go far at all). While the narrator, the Moscow cop, is in St Petersburg, a prominent anti-Mafia journalist (who likes to describe himself as Russia's first investigative journalist) is murdered, and so any consideration about bribery is taken over by the investigation into this crime.
Kerr's novel is based on considerable research, including the co-operative help of the real equivalents of Grushko. He also brings in many of the images associated with Russia in the last decade, such as an unsafe nuclear power industry, crumbling infrastructure, corruption and food queues. The setting is really well done, and makes the novel a bit different, both from the unrealistic stories I've already mentioned and from more conventional crime thrillers which have a similar style (such as [a:Michael Connelly|12470|Michael Connelly|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1202588562p2/12470.jpg]'s Harry Bosch novels). Dead Meat is an engrossing thriller, if bleak, well worth reading and encouraging me to find more Philip Kerr.
traveller1's review
3.0
Ok. Just ok. Post breakup Russia. A cop investigates police corruption in St petersburg, and the Mafia. He uncovers and puts paid to a meat racket. Eol. Competent, but no noir, no pazaz.
rosseroo's review
4.0
I loved Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy, and bought this as soon as it came out in the early 1990s, but for some reason never got around to reading it until now. It was written in the early 1990s, just after the Soviet Union had splintered into the Commonwealth of Independent States, and for a book set in such a specific time, it's aged quite well.
A nameless protagonist has been dispatched by Moscow to St. Petersburg to "liase" with the local police to learn about their methods for combating the mafia. Of course, he's really there to see if they have been bought off as the twin perils of privatization and mafias are filling the void created by the dissolution of the strong central state. In St. Petersburg, he's paired up with a gruff, no-nonsense detective named Grushko, who leads the efforts against the various Georgian, Chechen, and Ukrainian gangs with their fingers in the protection, prostitution, and smuggling pies. However, when a prominent investigative journalist is murdered, things get a little more interesting....
Apparently, Kerr did a lot of primary research for this book, getting deep access to the St. Petersburg militia, and observing their tactics against organized crime. As a result, not only is the plotting solid, but the details of day to day uncertainty under the new economic system rings true. There's a balance between the camaraderie and humor of the police team, and the bleak reality of food prices no one can afford. Recommended for anyone interested in getting a sense of what the "new" Russia of the early 90s felt like.
A nameless protagonist has been dispatched by Moscow to St. Petersburg to "liase" with the local police to learn about their methods for combating the mafia. Of course, he's really there to see if they have been bought off as the twin perils of privatization and mafias are filling the void created by the dissolution of the strong central state. In St. Petersburg, he's paired up with a gruff, no-nonsense detective named Grushko, who leads the efforts against the various Georgian, Chechen, and Ukrainian gangs with their fingers in the protection, prostitution, and smuggling pies. However, when a prominent investigative journalist is murdered, things get a little more interesting....
Apparently, Kerr did a lot of primary research for this book, getting deep access to the St. Petersburg militia, and observing their tactics against organized crime. As a result, not only is the plotting solid, but the details of day to day uncertainty under the new economic system rings true. There's a balance between the camaraderie and humor of the police team, and the bleak reality of food prices no one can afford. Recommended for anyone interested in getting a sense of what the "new" Russia of the early 90s felt like.
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