From 1986 to 2001, the massive Russian space station Mir (“peace”) hurtled around the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, circling the planet approximately every hour and a half. Usually, three cosmonauts lived aboard for periods lasting from several months to over a year. Cosmonaut Tsimion Vladovka and his two crewmates are eight months into their lives on board when one of them begins to act strangely. Then violence erupts, and officials in Star City send a three-person rescue mission to replace the crew. But no sooner are the rescued cosmonauts back on solid ground when one dies mysteriously. A second flees. And, when they return, the replacement crew are clearly in danger as well. Which opens up a case that lands on the desk of Chief Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov. His assignment: Tsimion Vladovka has disappeared, and he is to find him, dead or alive.
Three difficult cases in this police procedural
In Fall of a Cosmonaut, the 13th in a series of Russian police procedurals by the late Stuart Kaminsky, Rostnikov’s search for Vladovka is one of three cases we follow. Igor Yakovlev (“the Yak”), chief of the Office of Special Investigation, has required Rostnikov to detail his colleagues to pursue other matters.
- Emil Karpo (“the Vampire”) will get to the bottom of a blackmail scheme with political implications. Someone is holding hostage the original print of a forthcoming film biography of Leo Tolstoy, destined to be a classic and popular with the government. The intimidating Karpo will have the assistance of Akardy Zelach (“the Slouch”), whose nickname is also descriptive.
- And young Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva are to unravel what’s happening at the Center for the Study of Technical Parapsychology. There, someone has murdered a specialist in “telekinesis, dream states, several things.” Suspects abound.
- Meanwhile, Rostnikov (“the Washtub”), who resembles his nickname, will have the assistance of his son, Iosef, a former soldier and failed playwright who has joined the unit.
Unlike most police procedurals, which focus the efforts of a large force of investigators on a single difficult case, Kaminsky uses this device of portraying Rostnikov and his colleagues as they engage in three separate investigations.
Fall of a Cosmonaut (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov #13 of 16) by Stuart M. Kaminsky (2000) 340 pages ★★★★☆
Revealing what life in Russia is like in Yeltsin’s last years in power
Russia early in the 21st century has left behind the certainties and artificial shortages of the Communist era. Yet little has changed for the majority of the population. Most remain poor. Healthcare, no longer free, now depends on bribes. Doctors are poorly trained, underpaid, and often of little help to their patients. Life expectancy lags far behind that of Europe and the United States. The abundant brand-name goods on display in Moscow and other large cities are far out of reach for most Russians. And organized crime (the “Mafias”) runs rampant while the country’s biggest crooks, the oligarchs, dominate the central government.
In this grim setting, the Yak has engineered an agreement with Porfiry Rostnikov. The Chief Inspector will have a free hand to conduct investigations as he wishes, without interference. But, once concluded, the Yak will lay claim to the information he and his colleagues uncover and use it at his discretion. Which he puts to work in his never-ending quest for higher and more powerful posts in the Ministry of State Security. And Rostnikov’s current case, locating the missing cosmonaut, may turn up information that will vault the Yak to the very top, as Minister. Because whatever happened on that Russian space station represents a secret that the government cannot afford to admit. If only the Chief Inspector continues to play ball . . .
Three beguiling central characters
In another significant way, the Porfiry Rostnikov mysteries do resemble other police procedurals. Kaminsky writes in the omniscient third person, taking us into the private lives and the minds of the people of the Office of Special Investigation. They’re all continuurng characters in the series, and over time—this novel is the 13th of 16 that Kaminsky wrote—we have gotten to know them all rather well. This is especially true in the case of the three central figures in the ongoing story.
Chief Inspector Rostnikov
Now past 50, Porfiry Rostnikov is a champion senior weightlifter. He lost the use of a leg as a child soldier in the Great Patriotic War and now wears a prosthesis. He is deeply in love with his wife of many years, Sarah, who is Jewish and whose religion has prevented him from rising any further in the Ministry. But the Chief Inspector’s neighbors know him best for his hobby as a plumber. He’s masterful with a wrench.
“The Vampire”
Emil Karpo was for decades a deeply committed Communist. He has never reconciled himself to the fall of the state early in the decade. Humorless and unrelenting as an investigator, he strikes fear into most people merely at a glance. He maintains vast files of unsolved cases which he continues to work after hours. Somehow, though, he fell in love with a prostitute years earlier. Her death in a crossfire between two Mafias left him devastated and lonelier than ever.
The boyish inspector
Sasha Tkach, now 34, continues to look far younger than his years. Tall, blond, and boyishly handsome, his philandering and repeated absences for him to do his duty undercover have driven his wife, Maya, to leave for her hometown, Kiev, with their two children. He misses them terribly, especially so as his insufferable mother has insisted on moving in with him. Life with her is torture, but he needs the money she has made as a businesswoman.
All the while the team pursues its various investigations, readers who follow the series continue to grow closer to these three unique individuals.
About the author
According to the popular website Book Series in Order, “Stuart M. Kaminsky was an American author best known for writing the Toby Peters series of detective novels, the Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov series, the Abe Lieberman series, and the Lew Fonesca series. During his career, Stuart wrote sixty-three novels and eleven non-fiction books.” You can see all those books listed, with links, on the site.
Kaminsky (1934-2009) was a professor of film studies as well as a mystery writer. He was born in Chicago and educated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which granted him both a BS and an MA, and Northwestern University, where he earned a PhD in speech. Wikipedia notes that “Kaminsky and his wife, Enid Perll, moved to St. Louis, Missouri in March 2009 to await a liver transplant to treat the hepatitis he contracted as an army medic in the late 1950s in France. He suffered a stroke two days after their arrival in St. Louis, which made him ineligible for a transplant. He died on October 9, 2009.”
For related reading
I’m reviewing this whole series in chronological order. You’ll find a guide to the series, as well as my reviews of the preceding 12 books, at Police procedurals spanning modern Russian history. And you’ll see this book in good company at The best police procedurals.
And check out Good books about Vladimir Putin, modern Russia and the Russian oligarchy and The best Russian mysteries and thrillers.
You’ll find other excellent crime stories at:
- 30 outstanding detective series from around the world
- Top 10 mystery and thriller series
- Top 20 suspenseful detective novels
- Top 10 historical mysteries and thrillers
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