A Cold Red Sunrise by Stuart M. Kaminsky

First published in 1988; published digitally by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Media on October 16, 2012

Stuart Kaminsky's death in 2009 brought an end to the career of a prolific and talented crime writer. His novels about Porfiry Rostnikov might be his finest work. Known to his colleagues as "the Washtub" because of his stature, Rostinikov is a pragmatic, persistent, apolitical cop whose bum leg does little to hamper his investigations.

Commissar Illya Rutkin is dispatched to a small village in Siberia to investigate the death of a dissident's child. He is about to wrap up the case when a large creature drives an icicle through his eye, killing him. Rostnikov, recently demoted to the MVD Bureau of Special Projects after clashing too often with the KGB, is charged with investigating the death, perhaps as a prelude to his own exile to Siberia. Both the KGB and the Procurator General are keeping an eye on him, documenting any mistakes he might make.

Although the local police officer theorizes that Rutkin was killed by a bear, a happy theory that would have no political ramifications and require no actual police work, bears do not stab people with icicles. A witness to the crime believes Rutkin was murdered by a snow demon sent by an Evenk shaman, an equally unlikely explanation.  Rostnikov's methodical investigation, his dogged questioning of the village residents, gives The Cold Red Sunrise the flavor of a Russian police procedural combined with a murder mystery.

A couple of subplots play out in interesting ways. The primary mystery follows surprising paths and resolves satisfactorily. An episode involving the shaman is a bit too mystical for my taste, but it doesn't detract significantly from the story's overall effectiveness.

Kaminsky adds humor to the novel with Rostnikov's humorless, grim-faced assistant and with another investigator who, back in Moscow, is assigned to work undercover as an ice cream vendor. Whether they play large or small roles, Kaminsky invests all of his characters with full lives. Rostnikov's strength as an investigator is that he seems instantly to understand everyone he meets. His weakness as a human being is that he doesn't understand himself. He is an engaging, sympathetic character with greater depth than is typical of fictional police detectives.

The short novel offers a wealth of information about Siberia, including a brief but fascinating account of its turbulent history. The hardship of Soviet existence -- both in a Moscow dependent upon black market vegetables and a Siberia that is defined by frigidity and isolation -- is a theme that establishes the book's atmosphere. The role of dissidents in Soviet life and restrictions of civil liberties are equally strong themes. A third theme is integrity, which Rostnikov and his dour-faced assistant have in abundance despite the political corruption that surrounds them. For all of that, for the entertaining story it tells, and for its cast of characters, A Cold Red Sunrise is a worthy addition to the mystery reader's shelf.

RECOMMENDED