Punishment of a Hunter
A Leningrad Confidential
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3.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Outstanding... Yakovleva perfectly balances evoking the terror of living in a police state with her whodunit plotline. Fans will hope to see much more of Zaitsev.” --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The debut of the ultimate noir detective series: set in Stalinist Russia, riddled with corruption, informers, and purges that takes paranoia to the next level
Perfect for readers of John Banville, Philip Kerr, and Lara Prescott's The Secrets We Kept, and for fans of the international Netflix sensation Babylon Berlin
“Leads the hero (as well as the reader) through every circle of soviet hell, to a bright finale.” --Medusa
1930s Leningrad. As a mood of fear cloaks the city, Investigator Vasily Zaitsev is called on to investigate a series of bizarre and seemingly motiveless murders. In each case, the victim is curiously dressed and posed in extravagantly arranged settings.
At the same time, one by one precious old master paintings are going missing from the Hermitage collection.
As Zaitsev sets about his investigations, he meets with suspicion at practically every turn, and potential witnesses are reluctant to provide information. Soon Zaitsev himself comes under suspicion from the Soviet secret police. The embittered detective must battle increasingly complex political machinations in his dogged quest to uncover the truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, Russian author Yakovleva's outstanding U.S. debut, a series launch, captures the tense paranoid atmosphere of the period. Investigator Vasily Zaitsev, of the Leningrad Criminal Investigation Department, looks into the murder of bookkeeper Faina Baranova, who was found strangled in her room. Baranova's killer posed the corpse on an armchair, with a white rose in one hand and a feather duster in the other, and had brought red silk curtains into the apartment to display behind the body. Before Zaitsev can advance in his inquiries, he falls afoul of the OGPU, the secret police unit responsible for punishing "crimes against Soviet ideology," who believe the investigator has a suspect lineage. Fortunately, his terrifying captivity is cut short when he's needed to help with a multiple murder, whose victims include a Black American Communist and three Russian women, all posed as if for a portrait. Yakovleva perfectly balances evoking the terror of living in a police state with her whodunit plotline. Fans of Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko will hope to see much more of Zaitsev.
