Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express
 Stuart M. Kaminsky
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Warner Books
  ISBN: 0892967471

In modern Russia the law is written by Kafka & Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov of the Moscow Police who must unravel the abduction of a skinhead rock star known as The Naked Cossack, find a serial-killer who wields a deadly kitchen knife in the Moscow Metro & board the legendary Trans-Siberian Express to thwart an exchange of a Russian heirloom for American dollars.

This is a quick history lesson of the Trans-Siberian Railroad & the Russia through which it was laid more than a century ago, when conditions were about as primitive as when the tracks were laid across America & the workers were much less fortunate.

Meanwhile, before doughty Porfiry Rostnikov can set food upon that fabled train, he must work with his son in the hunt for a billionaire's unpleasant offspring who has been abducted. This son spouts racist vitriol in his songs & is not enjoying his paranoid captivity!

Before Rostnikov hurries to the station for his rendezvous with history, he must set in motion the search for a demented woman, seen on the security cameras in the subway, who only attacks middle-aged, well-dressed gentlemen & successfully stabs them to death before melting away in the crowd. This mild-mannered daughter is not enjoying her life one bit!

Finally, Rostnikov, gets on the Trans-Siberian Express & meets up with two elderly retired & apparently harmless American OSS spies, a respectful Russian agent & an irrepressible comic on a mission.

Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express is a very good read -- filled with history, atmosphere, the absurd juxtapositions of a black marketeer who would rather tell excruciatingly heavy jokes; a father kidnapping an embarrasing son; a rock star composing lyrics out of his own terror; a father/daughter relationship that spawns surrogate murders & a mysteriously beautiful spy who sets her eyes on honorable Porfiry who himself, mutters a monolog to his pesky prosthetic!

Stuart M. Kaminsky's oeuvre is vast & includes: Bullet for a Star; Murder on the Yellow Brick Road; You Bet Your Life; The Howard Hughes Affair; Never Cross a Vampire; Catch a Falling Clown; The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance; The Melting Clock; Dancing in the Dark; Black Knight in Red Square; The Man Who Walked Like A Bear; Fall of a Cosmonaut; Vengeance; When the Dark Man Calls. His nonfiction includes: Clint Eastwood; John Huston: Maker of Magic; Coop: The Life and Legend of Gary Cooper.
(12/16/01)

Rebecca