Monstrum - Softcover

James, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099226324 ISBN 13: 9780099226321

Publisher: Arrow, 1998

Synopsis

Russia in the early twenty-first century: a civil war has subsided into an uneasy peace; police inspector Constantin Vadim is transferred from Murmansk to head an investigation in a crime-ridden Moscow district. His task: to solve a succession of brutal murders committed by a killer who has become a terrifying local legend: The Monstrum. But Vadim has never investigated a murder. The real reason for his transfer is his uncanny resemblance to the new vice-president, Koba - Vadim is his double. Why has he been given the impossible mission to find The Monstrum? Is the case linked to the new government? Vadim finds himself on the bloodstained social fringe of Moscow and the very centre of the new Russia - a position which attracts the attention of his estranged wife, Julia Petrovna, a general in the defeated Anarchist army. Her capture would be a high prize for the men who run Vadim's life. And as Vadim pursues The Monstrum these two worlds move inexorably closer to one another, threatening both to crush the inspector before he can capture the killer and the emerging democracy before it is fully formed.

About this title

Review:

Ace historian Donald James, who wrote the script for the excellent PBS television series Russia's War and whose book The Fall of the Russian Empire is a fine guide to recent past events, projects his expertise into the near future to create a chaotic, completely believable landscape of terror and frustration in this memorable thriller. It's 2015, and Russia-- racked by civil wars since the fall of the Yeltsin Government and its short-lived liberal successors--is under the strong grip of leader Leonid Koba. A melancholy, alcoholic (are there any other kind?), provincial policeman named Vadim is shipped from Murmansk to a bombed-out district of Moscow, ostensibly to investigate the brutal murders of women credited to a demonlike killer called the Monstrum. But what the people in power really want from the increasingly desperate Vadim is something completely different-- his resemblance to Koba and his connection to the woman who led the defeated rebels. --Naomi Gesinger

Review:

"One of the best books I've ever read . . .
my nominee for Thriller of the Year."
--Philadelphia Inquirer
"UNFORGETTABLE . . . MONSTRUM is more than a police procedural and more than a thriller. . . . You won't want to put [it] down."
--Detroit Free Press
"SOPHISTICATED . . . THOUGHT-PROVOKING . . . I read Monstrum at warp speed and with real pleasure."
--RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON
Author of No Safe Place
"MONSTRUM SUCCEEDS BRILLIANTLY AS A CRIME STORY, AS A POLITICAL THRILLER, AND AS PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"THRILLING."
--People
"The thriller of the year. MONSTRUM combines the best of Fatherland and Gorky Park with a dash of Silence of the Lambs."
--The Times (London)

" One of the best books I've ever read . . .
my nominee for Thriller of the Year."
--Philadelphia Inquirer
" UNFORGETTABLE . . . MONSTRUM is more than a police procedural and more than a thriller. . . . You won't want to put [it] down."
--Detroit Free Press
" SOPHISTICATED . . . THOUGHT-PROVOKING . . . I read Monstrum at warp speed and with real pleasure."
--RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON
Author of No Safe Place
" MONSTRUM SUCCEEDS BRILLIANTLY AS A CRIME STORY, AS A POLITICAL THRILLER, AND AS PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
" THRILLING."
--People
" The thriller of the year. MONSTRUM combines the best of Fatherland and Gorky Park with a dash of Silence of the Lambs."
--The Times (London)

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0099226324
• ISBN 13: 9780099226321
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512