Red Chameleon, Stuart M. Kaminsky
Red Chameleon, Stuart M. Kaminsky
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Red Chameleon

Author: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Narrator: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Unabridged: 8 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/18/2021


Synopsis

This thrilling crime novel features "the best cop to come out of the Soviet Union since Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko" (San Francisco Examiner).

After a lifetime in service to the Soviet Union, police inspector Porfiry Rostnikov may have found a way out. A high-profile homicide leads him to a cache of documents packed full of incriminating Kremlin gossip, which he uses as a bargaining chip to secure exit visas for himself and his Jewish wife. But just before the deal is concluded, Brezhnev's death sends the nation into turmoil, and makes escape impossible. His career derailed, the veteran cop is reduced to investigating penny-ante murders—one of which may lead somewhere very big indeed.

An elderly Jewish man is shot to death in his bathtub by killers who steal nothing but a worthless brass candlestick. And as the brutal Moscow summer wears on, the police find themselves the targets of car thieves and snipers. With the help of his two faithful lieutenants, Karpo and Tkach, Rostnikov needs to find a way to solve these cases and salvage his good name—if it doesn't cost him his life.

About Stuart M. Kaminsky

Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934-2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades. Born in Chicago, he spent his youth immersed in pulp fiction and classic cinema-two forms of popular entertainment which he would make his life's work. After college and a stint in the army, Kaminsky wrote film criticism and biographies of the great actors and directors of Hollywood's Golden Age. In 1977, when a planned biography of Charlton Heston fell through, Kaminsky wrote Bullet for a Star, his first Toby Peters novel, beginning a fiction career that would last the rest of his life.

Kaminsky penned twenty-four novels starring the detective, whom he described as "the anti-Philip Marlowe." In 1981's Death of a Dissident, Kaminsky debuted Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov, whose stories were praised for their accurate depiction of Soviet life. His other two series starred Abe Lieberman, a hardened Chicago cop, and Lew Fonseca, a process server. In all, Kaminsky wrote more than sixty novels. He died in St. Louis in 2009.


Reviews

Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov is no longer privileged (see Book 2 Black Knight In Red Square). His plan to exit the Soviet Union with his wife is, at best, on hold. He retains his job, but is now given “lesser” cases, such as this one that starts with the murder of an old Jewish man in his apartment i......more

Goodreads review by Mal on April 27, 2021

Chief Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov is out of favor. He had tried to blackmail a senior KGB official in hopes of obtaining exit visas for himself and his Jewish wife. Given widespread antisemitism, they hoped to emigrate to the United States. At the time, his boss, Assistant Procurator Anna......more

Goodreads review by Michael on June 18, 2020

'Red Chameleon', 3rd in the Rostnikov series by Stuart Kaminsky, is an interesting look at the 'overhead' Russian law enforcers had to contend with in the Iron Curtain era through the eyes of a rather unique detective. Porfiry Rostnikov is a guy who's working his way down the career ladder in Moscow......more

Goodreads review by Paul on September 19, 2020

I love Stuart Kaminski’s very real, good hearted, pragmatic, smart, ironic and lovable characters. Detective Rostnikov and his very weird yet sympathetic band of misfit policemen are certain to surprise and entertain. Plus learning about the Russian political history before and later during glasnost......more

Goodreads review by Bill on May 08, 2019

This is the third Inspector Rostnikov novel. Published in 1985 I found it interesting that the novel mentions the transitions in Soviet leadership through the span of the prior novels, Death of A Dissident (1981) and A Black Knight in Red Square (1983) From Brezhnev to Andropov and then the death of......more