The Dog Who Bit a Policeman - Hardcover

Kaminsky, Stuart M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786217677 ISBN 13: 9780786217670

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 1999

Synopsis

An international gang war chooses Moscow as its battlefield.

Moscow police inspector Porfiry Rostnikov has adapted well to life without communism. But under the Soviets, blood feuds were pursued in the dark halls of bureaucracy, and now they take place in the streets. An international drug ring has chosen Moscow as its next port of call, and the only thing standing in its way is the budding Russian mob, headed by a young man whose brutality is matched only by his madness. In a gang war of this magnitude, no civilian is safe.

As Rostnikov tries to stop an army of two-legged killers, his cohorts at the Moscow police department take on the four-legged variety. Dogfighting in Moscow is big business, and interests in this illegal sport stretch to the highest reaches of their corrupt department. In the new Moscow, death and profit go hand in hand.

About this title

Review:

Stuart M. Kaminsky won an Edgar for A Cold Red Sunrise, the fourth book in his deliciously mordant series about Moscow cop Porfiry Rostnikov, and number 12, The Dog Who Bit a Policeman, might be even better. Rostnikov, a one-legged inspector who lifts weights and sleeps in a black T-shirt emblazoned with "The Truth Is Out There" in white letters, is one of the most engaging and relevant characters in recent crime fiction, a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing (that is, disintegrating) Russia. Now working in the Office of Special Investigation under a corrupt but efficient boss known as the Yak, Rostnikov has been promoted and promised full support "if one or more of the varied criminal organizations and the confused state bureaucracy attempted to impede the performance of his duties. Up to now, the Yak had been as good as his word and had successfully bought the loyalty of Rostnikov and his staff." That staff, as rich as in a work by Gogol, includes a mad pathologist who talks to cadavers; an obsessive detective called Emil Karpo, "the Vampire," who spends "all his waking hours relentlessly pursuing criminals from both the past and present"; and Rostnikov's son Iosef, a failed actor/playwright and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. While Porfiry and Karpo try to head off a war between two Mafia leaders, Iosef and his partner are looking into the latest disappearance of a popular, Yeltsinesque politician with a drinking problem. Another pair of detectives pose as Ukrainian high rollers to infiltrate a burgeoning business in illegal dogfights--hence the possibly ungrammatical (shouldn't it be "The Dog That..." rather than "The Dog Who..."?) but definitely appropriate title for this beautifully researched and energetically written story. --Dick Adler

About the Author:

Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934-2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades. Born in Chicago, Kaminsky penned more than sixty novels over his lifetime. In 1981's Death of a Dissident, Kaminsky debuted Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov, whose stories were praised for their accurate depiction of Soviet life. He died in St. Louis in 2009.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0786217677
• ISBN 13: 9780786217670
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 455