A Whisper to the Living continues the adventures (some would say trials and tribulations) of Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union. Rostnikov is one of the most engaging and relevant characters in crime fiction, a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing Russia.
Rostnikov and his team are searching for a serial killer who has claimed at least 40 victims. And then there is the problem of protecting a visiting British journalist who is working on a story about a Moscow prostitution ringโฆand in doing so Rostnikov and his team uncover a chain of murders that lead to a source too high to be held accountable if the police want to keep their jobs
Or their lives.
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From Publishers Weekly
In MWA Grand Master Kaminsky's so-so 16th Porfiry Rostnikov novel (after 2008's People Who Walk in Darkness), the chief inspector of Russia's Office of Special Investigations pursues a serial killer, the Bitsevsky Maniac, named for the Moscow park in whose vicinity many of his elderly victims have been found bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Rostnikov stakes out the park in the hopes of attracting the killer's attention. Meanwhile, the chief inspector's colleagues, who include Rostnikov's son, Iosef, deal with unrelated crimes, such as tracking down a boxing champion who's suspected of murdering his wife and his sparring partner. These subplots, combined with an early reveal of the maniac's identity, lessen the suspense. In addition, Rostnikov is a lot less complex character than another Russian cop trying to maintain his honesty in a corrupt society, Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko. Sadly, the prolific Kaminsky died October 9, 2009. (Jan.)
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From Booklist
Starred Review The late Kaminsky, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and author of four detective series, had an uncanny knack for summoning up the feel of cities and even lost eras, and doing so in a few details. His Abe Lieberman mysteries, for example, fairly reek of the diverse cooking and sidewalk smells of Chicagoโs North Side. The Toby Peters mysteries, set in 1940s Hollywood, careen from scene to scene, mimicking his real-life charactersโ volatile lives. And the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov novels (this one is the sixteenth) have moved from Soviet Russia to contemporary Russia, with one man at the center of a continually collapsing world. Inspector Rostnikov has lost part of his left leg. From time to time, he visits the preserved limb in the police morgue; with just this touch, Kaminsky captures Rostnikovโs mix of cop bleakness and Russian romantic sensibility. Rostnikov proceeds deliberately through a maelstrom of cases. A grocery clerk who prides himself on setting and meeting goals is murdering old men in Bitsevsky Park; Rostnikov is one of his intended victims. A famous boxer is suspected of murdering his wife and his sparring partner; one of his former lovers launches a dangerous investigation of her own. And an investigative journalist from the UK uncovers a Moscow prostitution trafficking ring. This ring has customers that it would be very imprudent for Rostnikovโs Office of Special Investigations to uncover. Put the three stories together, and readers have another Kaminsky knockout. --Connie Fletcher