"Fascinating insight into today's Russia"
Moscow Director of the Office of Special Investigation
Igor Yaklovev assigns Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov to
ride the Trans-Siberian Express. Yaklovev expects Porfiry
to seize a package allegedly containing a century -old
document belonging to Czar Nicholas II. The Chief
Inspector realizes that his superior has not told him most
of what is going on, but he knows to do what he is told if
he plans to keep his job. In Moscow, Porfiry's team is kept busy while he rides
the train on its six thousand-mile voyage. Detectives Emil
Karpo and Zelach go after kidnappers who abducted Acid the
lead singer of the Naked Cossacks rock and roll band.
However, more important to the police brass is that Acid is
the son of an influential business mogul. Also in Moscow, Porfiry's son Detective Iosef Rostnikov
and a peer Elena Timofeyeva hunt a serial killing woman
whose attacks show no pattern. Instead, the maniacal
female apparently attacks men with a knife at subway
stations. The fourteenth Porfiry and associates Russian police
procedural novel, MURDER ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS, is
an entertaining and insightful tale. The story line shifts
between the three major subplots, which in turn slows down
the pace of each investigation. Still, all three tales are
cleverly designed and the detectives seem authentic as they
bring Russian life home to the reader. MURDER ON THE TRANS-
SIBERIAN EXPRESS is an engaging entry that will please sub-
genre fans, but especially those followers of the series. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted September 28, 2001
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