Cover image of "The Stolen Heart," a Ukrainian detective novel

Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv is no stranger to violence. Today the city’s three million residents are subject to random attacks by Russian drones and missiles. But Kyiv was a battleground in World War II. From 1941 to 1943, the capital’s population shrank from 930,000 to 70,000 as marauding Nazi troops clashed with successive waves of cannon fodder from the Red Army. But Kyiv’s experience two decades earlier during the Russian Revolution was nearly as bad. In 1919, 540,000 lived there. Two years later, barely half that number remained after control of the city changed hands 14 times between the Red Army and White counter-revolutionaries from several different warring bands. And that period a century ago is the background to Andrey Kurkov’s revealing new Ukrainian detective novel, The Stolen Heart.

New laws, new crimes, challenge the police

The year is 1919. Samson Kolechko is a young investigator with the Kiev police, and for him and his colleagues coping with laws and regulations rapidly shifting one way, then another, life and work are a constant challenge. So, it’s no surprise when he learns a man who persuaded his neighbor to slaughter a pig for him had broken a new law against the sale of meat, even though no money changed hands. It’s a violation of the decree of the hitherto unknown ExProFooCom, the Extraordinary Provincial Food Committee. Samson’s commander orders him to investigate, tracking what happened to the pig’s meat. And to make matters worse, a high-ranking officer from the dreaded Cheka, the secret police, will be looking over his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Samson’s fiancée, Nadezhda, is in serious trouble. She’s conducting a census for the provincial statistical bureau, but the powerful railway workers are resisting. They know the information might be used to arrest them. In protest, they kidnap Nadezhda and her colleagues. Which sidelines Samson from his investigation as he rushes to the railway station in hopes of rescuing his lover. Though his unsympathetic commander demands he pursue the meat case, the Chekist takes charge, forcing Samson to join him in approaching the railway workers along with a detachment of Red Army soldiers. They manage to free Nadezdha and her colleagues. But, unsurprisingly, the attack involves a shootout.

The Stolen Heart (Kiev Mystery #2) by Andrey Kurkov (2025) 320 pages ★★★☆☆

Photo montage of Russian Civil War in Kyiv, the setting for this Ukrainian detective novel
The events in Kurkov’s Kyiv Mysteries unfold during the Russian Civil War in and around Kiev (today Kyiv), as illustrated in this photo montage. Image: Wikiquote

A mixed bag as a novel of suspense

Unscathed in the shootout, Samson and his sidekick, a defrocked priest named Kholodny, detain the pig’s owner for speculation in meat. Under interrogation, he discloses the names of the many individuals to whom he sold cuts of the meat. The loin goes to this one, the ears to another, the heart to a third, and so forth. The investigators must interview every one of them. Their depositions go into a file for the commander. (It must be thick to satisfy him that they’re doing their job.)

The author, Andrey Kurkov, is widely known as Ukraine’s foremost writer. He does a stellar job painting a picture of the chaos reigning in Kiev midway through the Russian Revolution. His characters think and act in credible ways, too. But as a detective novel, The Stolen Heart fails to satisfy. It’s difficult to generate suspense about an investigation into the illegal sale of meat. The story drags as a result. Samson’s love affair with Nadezhda adds an element of romance. But it’s far from enough to relieve the tedium. And the story’s shocking conclusion comes across as anticlimax rather than a surprise.

About the author

Photo of Andrey Kurkov, author of this Ukrainian detective novel
Andrew Kurkov. Image: The Booker Prizes

Andrey Kurkov is the author of 19 novels in Russian and Ukrainian, 13 of which are available in English, as well as three nonfiction books. He ranks among Ukraine’s most successful writers in the post-Soviet era. Kurkov was born in Leningrad in 1961 but moved with his family to Kyiv at the age of two. He studied there at the Kyiv Foreign Languages Institute. His wife is English. They have three children and live in Kyiv.

I’ve also reviewed the first book in this series, The Silver Bone – Kyiv Mystery #1 (The first in a new series of Ukraine mysteries).

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