Cover image of "Hard Currency," a novel about a Russian serial killer

Sasha Tkach and Emil Karpo (“the Vampire”) are in Moscow, on the trail of a Russian serial killer with multiple personality disorder. And Karpo is also looking into the death of the Kazakhstani foreign minister, allegedly of natural causes. Meanwhile, their boss, Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov, has flown to Havana with their colleague, Elena Timofeyeva. They’ve been sent to investigate whether a Russian living there has killed a local woman, as the Cuban police insist. And all the while, the whole team’s superior, Colonel Snitkonoy (“the Gray Wolfhound”) frets about the pressure from above that threatens to undermine his little empire. He lives in fear that his investigative team will turn up something that will offend the powers that be. The fall of Communism three years earlier has changed the face of Russian government. But most of the same people still hold powerful positions. Welcome to the former Soviet Union in 1994!

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Communism in charge, before and after

Thus opens Hard Currency, the ninth in Stuart Kaminsky’s sixteen-book series chronicling the career of Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov. The series spans the years from the time of Leonid Brezhnev to the era of Vladimir Putin. Along the way, the novels illuminate the suffering of the Russian people as, one after another, their leaders steer the country toward unattainable goals. Hard Currency is a little different in that it also offers us a picture of Communism in action in Cuba, three years after its demise in Russia. But these books are police procedurals, invariably including murder mysteries. And Hard Currency is no exception. All three cases the team is pursuing involve murders.

Of course, the case of the serial killer is the most extreme. The man—we learn early that he is, indeed, a man—has just murdered a young woman in Sokolniki Park. It’s “at least the thirty-fifth and probably the fortieth murder by the man.” But he may have gone too far this time. The victim is a member of the feared Capones youth gang. And now the police won’t be alone in chasing down the killer. The Capones are out to get him, too.

Hard Currency (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov #9 of 16) by Stuart M. Kaminsky (1995) 364 pages ★★★★☆

Photo of street scene in Havana in the 1990s, when Inspector Rotnikov visits in this novel about a Russian serial killer
Street scene in Havana in the mid-1990s, about the time Inspector Rostnikov traveled there to investigate a Russian charged with murder. Image: Wikimedia Commons

A revealing scene

There is a scene late in the novel when Colonel Snitkonoy appears before a tribunal in the Kremlin. They’ve summoned him to present the evidence Emil Karpo has assembled on one of the cases. It’s evidence that may well prove to be supremely embarrassing to one of the tribunal’s members, since he is likely to have ordered the killing Karpo had turned up. But through adroit oratorical skills, the colonel has explained to the tribunal how they might disregard the evidence.

“‘Your vigilance is appreciated,’ said the general” on the panel. “‘Please continue to bring to our attention any problem that might have serious consequences inside or outside our borders.’

“In his mind, the Wolfhound translated this as, ‘If you put us in an awkward position like this again, you shall suffer for it.'”

So it goes in Russia in 1994. Not much different from the Soviet Union of a decade earlier.

About the author

Photo of Stuart Kaminsky, author of this novel about a Russian serial killer
Stuart Kaminsky. Image: The Telegraph

Stuart Kaminsky’s obituary in the New York Times (October 13, 2009) reads in part as follows: “Stuart M. Kaminsky, a film scholar turned detective novelist who was widely known for his prodigious output, complex characters and rich evocations of time and place, including Hollywood in its Golden Age, died on Friday in St. Louis. He was 75.

“The author of more than 60 crime novels, Mr. Kaminsky typically wrote two or more books a year. A past president of the Mystery Writers of America, he was named a Grand Master, the organization’s highest honor, in 2006.

“Mr. Kaminsky made his mystery debut in 1977 with “Bullet for a Star” (St. Martin’s). The novel introduced Toby Peters, a down-at-the-heels private eye in the 1930s and ’40s. The setting is Hollywood.

“Stuart Melvin Kaminsky was born in Chicago on Sept. 29, 1934. Entering the University of Illinois on a soccer scholarship, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1957, followed by a master’s in English literature in 1959. In 1972, he received a doctorate in film studies from Northwestern University.

“Joining the Northwestern faculty, Mr. Kaminsky taught film there until 1989. Afterward, he was the first director of the Graduate Film Conservatory at Florida State University, a position he held till 1994, when he left academia to write full time.”

Kaminsky wrote two other crime series in his three-decade writing career, including one featuring “a depressive process server working in Sarasota” as well as Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov.

This is one of a superb series of Police procedurals spanning modern Russian history.

I’ve reviewed all eight previous books in this series, beginning with Death of a Dissident (A grim murder mystery set in the USSR). The most recent was the eighth book, Death of a Russian Priest (A puzzling Russian murder mystery set in Yeltsin’s time).

You’ll find novels on similar themes at The best Russian mysteries and thrillers and background information on Good books about Vladimir Putin, modern Russia and the Russian oligarchy.

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