People Who Walk in Darkness

After a very long absence, Forge is delighted to be bringing back one of Edgar award winning Stuart Kaminsky’s best loved characters, Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov. Rostnikov is a Russian bear of a man, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union Russia. Known as “The Washtub,” 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 (that is, disintegrating) Russia. Surviving pogroms and politburos, he has solved crimes, mostly in spite of the powers that be that rule his world.

In People Who Walk in Darkness, Rostnikov travels to Siberia to investigate a murder at a diamond mine, where he discovers an old show more secret…and an even older personal problem. His compatriots head to Kiev on a trail of smuggled diamonds and kidnapped guest workers…and what they discover leads them to a vast conspiracy that not only has international repercussions but threatens them on a very personal level. show less

Chief Inspector Rostnikov and Inspector Karpo head to Siberia to investigate a diamond smuggling ring, with only nine days to find and detain the leaders. Good read, with enough tension to keep the pages turning past my bedtime.

This book made me start reading this author - I went back to the beginning of the series of Inspector Rostnikov. Having Russian as mother tongue I did find some discrepancies in some Russian phrases, but the book was very good.

Absurd amounts of violence, boilerplate plot. Meh.

As always Kaminsky takes us to the "new" Russia which is still suffering the "old" problems of corruption and the rule of ruthless criminals and bureaucrats.

The People Who Walk in Darkness takes place in Russia. There are many characters. The problem is that the book just abruptly ended. Only three stars were given to this book.