The Man Who Walked Like a Bear
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4.3 • 7 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
This "superb mystery-thriller" featuring a Moscow cop reminiscent of Arkady Renko delivers "riveting suspense" (Publishers Weekly).
Porfiry Rostnikov and his wife Sarah have been in love for decades, since the end of World War II. Now the police inspector is by his wife's bedside as she recuperates from a brain operation, when a massive naked man staggers into her hospital room, scared out of his mind, and tries to jump out the window. Rostnikov restrains the bearlike man, trying to calm him. As orderlies arrive to return the escapee to the mental ward, he cries out: "The devil came to devour the factory."
Rostnikov has far more important things on his mind than deciphering the ravings of a lunatic, first among them Sarah's recovery. And of course crime has not stopped while he cares for his wife. Rebels are planting bombs, teenagers are plotting assassinations, and the KGB lurks in every shadow. But despite all these clamors, the man's strange words continue to haunt Rostnikov—and compel him to investigate.
With his Edgar Award–winning Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov mysteries, "Kaminsky has staked a claim to a piece of Russian turf . . . He captures the Russian scene and character in rich detail" (The Washington Post Book World).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Inspector Rostnikov of Kaminsky's Edgar-winning series ( A Cold Red Sunrise ) duels for the sixth time with the KGB in this superb mystery-thriller. The novel bursts into action as Rostnikov is visiting his wife, Sarah, hospitalized in their home city of Moscow. The titular ``walking bear'' is a man who escapes from the mental ward and alarms the women in Sarah's room before the inspector succeeds in calming him (he then hints of thefts at the factory where he had worked). This strange event is but a prelude to crises impelling Rostnikov, with his comrades Karpo and Thach, through intolerable ordeals: a bus is hijacked by rebels conspiring to blow up Lenin's tomb; young lovers plan to murder a government official. Sharing in the overlapping investigations, the inspector joins in celebrating victory with his loyal officers when they prevent bloody deeds. But the triumph is Rostrikov's alone when he outwits the jealous KGB chief--and the reader--in a scene harking back to the walking bear. Kaminsky masterfully balances stories of family life, humorous anecdotes and riveting suspense involving his distinctive characters.
