Red Square

In 1982, Moscow city prosecutor Igor Shamrayev is urgently summoned from a vacation resort by Brezhnev to investigate the suspicious suicide of the Premier’s brother-in-law Semyon Tsvigun. With some hidden clues, sharp wit, and a little help from his friends, Shamrayev clashes with the massive bulwark of Soviet bureaucracy, treading ever closer to the ominous truth. The trail of clues leads to new friends, old foes, blind coincidence, harrowing danger, KGB perils, sacrifice, and the dark secrets of the Kremlin’s political clockwork.
This murder mystery starts out with all the trappings of a Holmes or Poirot caper, but quickly departs from the norm of mystery novels. The authors barrage the reader with a vast array of names, faces, show more and facts that diverts even the most astute mind from the truth. Translated from Russian to English, it gives an interesting perspective of life in the bygone USSR; the disadvantage of this is that all the paperwork of the Soviet era come with it. Telegrams, letters, official reports, dictations, tape recordings, and other documents make up a large segment of the novel. Most of the more exciting parts of the storyline are only vicariously recounted through radio, newsprint, or cellophane. Between the Muscovite nomenclature, unfamiliar setting, and omnipresent paper trail, Red Square is a labyrinth to read, but the storyline more than makes up for it. Fans of plot twists will be rewarded by the contorted story, which jumps helter-skelter like a rabbit through the woods. The authors put a human touch to their characters, and to the impassive Soviet nation. Ellery Queen had it easy; he never had to cross swords with the KGB! Interesting side note: the novel throws the name Gorbachev around like it means nothing, which for 1983 didn’t.
VERDICT: 7

(written February 2002) show less

I read this one several years ago at the height of my craze for Soviet-based thrillers and it pretty much stood the test of time. It's a complex book that leaps between several plot strands, personalities and situations. As another reviewer says, try to get a copy with the lis of characters at the beginning.

Early-80s Moscow is brilliantly described and there is a real atmosphere of fear and paranoia. While not as good as Gorky Park it's still worth a read.

This book was my first glance behind the iron curtain. It was really impressing. The way of writing, the scenes described. I found it amazing and yet also creepy, that things really work that way.
I was of course old enough to realize that things are done differently in different countries, that my country is not a blueprint for all others, but... this was really something!
Well done!

A fact-based thriller about an attempted Kremlin coup and Brezhnev's final power struggle focuses on the investigation into the death of Tsvigun, Brezhnev's brother-in-law and a high-ranking KGB officer

A nice little crime story about the suicide/murder of Brezhnev's brother-in-law, Tsvigun in 1980s Moscow.

Make sure you find a copy with a list of characters in the front. I found it rather handy.