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A review by pannapark
Death of a Dissident by Stuart M. Kaminsky
4.0
Death of a Dissident by Stuart M. Kaminsky, was such a pleasure to read. It is testament to Kaminsky’s skill as a wordsmith that he was able to create the austere world in which Moscow detective, Chief Inspector, Porfiry Rostnikov, moves. To quote Michael Carlson’s obituary in the Guardian following Kaminsky’s death in 2009, “When Kaminsky finally visited Russia in the 1990s, he took great pleasure in being introduced at a journalists' lunch as "the man who knows more about this city than any of us sitting here".”
In Death of a Dissident, the initial crime takes place early on and it is fascinating to follow Rostnikov as he literally limps along (he sustained a leg wound in WW2) following up clues with assistance from two remarkably different inspectors, the angelic looking Sasha Tkach and dauntingly vampiric Emil Karpo.
Kaminsky’s words evoke a Moscow burdened by the weather, communism, the KGB, scarcity and institutionalized distrust. It feels as if everyone is a spy with secrets to maintain and protect.
Rostnikov’s mind constantly travels along multiple trains of thought e.g. from the case at hand to trying to figure out how to fix his broken toilet to whether or not he can get himself into good enough shape to enter a competition for senior weight lifters.
I felt Rostnikov’s deep humanity and empathized with the moral ambiguity with which he is faced &/or reacts to situations. It all seems to make sense in the Russia of the 1980s depicted so seamlessly by Kaminsky.
In Death of a Dissident, the initial crime takes place early on and it is fascinating to follow Rostnikov as he literally limps along (he sustained a leg wound in WW2) following up clues with assistance from two remarkably different inspectors, the angelic looking Sasha Tkach and dauntingly vampiric Emil Karpo.
Kaminsky’s words evoke a Moscow burdened by the weather, communism, the KGB, scarcity and institutionalized distrust. It feels as if everyone is a spy with secrets to maintain and protect.
Rostnikov’s mind constantly travels along multiple trains of thought e.g. from the case at hand to trying to figure out how to fix his broken toilet to whether or not he can get himself into good enough shape to enter a competition for senior weight lifters.
I felt Rostnikov’s deep humanity and empathized with the moral ambiguity with which he is faced &/or reacts to situations. It all seems to make sense in the Russia of the 1980s depicted so seamlessly by Kaminsky.