Monstrum - Hardcover

James, Donald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679457704 ISBN 13: 9780679457701

Publisher: Villard, 1997

Synopsis

The new Russia, 2015: Nationalist forces have finally defeated the Anarchist rebels, but it is an uneasy peace. Provincial police inspector Constantin Vadim is plucked from backwater Murmansk to head up a murder investigation in the decaying, crime-ridden Red Presnya district of Moscow. His task: to solve a succession of unspeakable crimes committed by a serial killer who has become a terrifying local legend, almost a cult symbol: Monstrum.

In the suspenseful tradition of Gorky Park and Fatherland, Donald James's Monstrum is a political thriller that also features a hunt for a brutal murderer. And, in Inspector Vadim, James has created a cynical but all-too-human hero, who navigates across a Russian terrain at once familiar and frighteningly new.

Vadim unwittingly discovers governmental intrigue and conspiratorial deceptions so terrible they threaten to undermine the revamped Russia. And when his past--in the form of his estranged wife, Julia Petrovna, a general in the defeated Anarchist army--collides with his ongoing current hunt for the killer, these two forces threaten to crush the detective and Russia itself.

Replete with vivid characters and an audacious, unforgettable plot, Monstrum is the sort of thriller that redefines the genre.

About this title

About the Author

Donald James is a veteran novelist, a successful writer for television--most recently, he was the scriptwriter of Russia's War, a ten-part PBS series to be broadcast this fall--and a renowned historian whose works include The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich and the bestselling The Fall of the Russian Empire. He lives in England.

From the Inside Flap

ia, 2015: Nationalist forces have finally defeated the Anarchist rebels, but it is an uneasy peace. Provincial police inspector Constantin Vadim is plucked from backwater Murmansk to head up a murder investigation in the decaying, crime-ridden Red Presnya district of Moscow. His task: to solve a succession of unspeakable crimes committed by a serial killer who has become a terrifying local legend, almost a cult symbol: Monstrum.<br> <br>In the suspenseful tradition of Gorky Park and Fatherland, Donald James's Monstrum is a political thriller that also features a hunt for a brutal murderer. And, in Inspector Vadim, James has created a cynical but all-too-human hero, who navigates across a Russian terrain at once familiar and frighteningly new.<br> <br>Vadim unwittingly discovers governmental intrigue and conspiratorial deceptions so terrible they threaten to undermine the revamped Russia. And when his past--in the form of his estranged wife, Julia Petrovna, a general in the defeated Anarchi

Reviews

An effectively moody murder mystery--and more--set in 21st- century Russia, from the versatile James (The House of Janus, 1990, etc.). It's 2015, and nationalist forces have just bested insurgent anarchists in a three-year struggle for control of a corrupt, enervated Russia. Shortly after the guns fall silent, out-of-favor police inspector Constantine Vadim is dispatched from remote Murmansk to battle-scarred Moscow. Although without experience in homicide, he's detailed to investigate a succession of bloody murders in which a serial killer dubbed ``monstrum'' kills and mutilates young women. At the behest of the Cheka (KGB redux), the broody detective (still melancholic five years after his divorce from Julia Petrovna, a charismatic commander of rebel troops during the uprising) also works as a double for Russia's authoritarian vice president, Leonid Koba. While Costya pursues his inquiries amidst the turmoil of an anything-goes capital city and a ramshackle government, he's contacted by Julia, on the run from the belligerency's vengeful victors. Eventually, the dogged detective, with the help of district coroner Dr. Natalya Karlova, is able to establish a link between the murders and an illicit traffic in transplantable body organs. He also stumbles on an even greater crime, a cynical plot to rehabilitate Julia (whose lust for power transcends mere ideology) as Minister of Reconciliation. Stripped of all illusions, a desperate Costya takes matters into his own hands in hopes of subjecting the guilty to appropriate punishments and (paradoxically, perhaps) putting his beloved homeland back on the road to a government of laws, not men. At the close, he's back in Murmansk, making a new life for himself, salt-of-the-earth Natalya, and their unborn child. A bleak but engrossing tale whose impact owes much to the author's skill at conveying the horrific details of a future-shock domain that's neither East nor West but sui generis. (First printing of 100,000) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In the year 2015, Moscow has just ended a civil war and is entering into a new, chaotic political world. Police inspector Constantin Vadim is drawn into a ruthless battle between serving the "Cheka" (the Nationalist Secret Police) and remaining loyal to his ex-wife, leader of the Women's Division of the Third Anarchist Army and currently hiding from the Cheka. Constantin becomes a pawn between the two when he is transferred to Moscow to lead an investigation into several brutal murders done by the mysterious serial killer known only as the Monstrum. Simultaneously, he is also on call as a secret double for the new Russian vice president, Leonid Koba, whom he uncannily resembles. James (The House of Janus, LJ 9/15/90) does a superb job of merging Constantin's two worlds, putting the police inspector at risk both physically and emotionally. Readers will be breathless with anticipation following the hero through the war-torn streets of Moscow, hunting a killer, and learning the truth about the emerging democracy. The incredible climax will have them shouting, "Oh no!" James is an eloquent suspense writer, and his novel is highly recommended.?Stacey Reasor, ITT Technical Inst. Lib., Tampa, Fla.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It's 2015, and Russia has survived a bloody civil war between the Anarchists and the Chekists. The victorious Chekists have established a fragile new government, and Russians believe a new dawn is imminent. But the peace is tenuous, and Moscow is in turmoil. A terrifying serial killer, nicknamed Monstrum, is brutally murdering women and terrorizing the back alleys of the city. Onto the scene comes Constantin Vadim, a Murmansk policeman who has managed to step out of line once too often. His "misbehavior" is the reason given for his sudden transfer to Moscow to become head of the Homicide Squad investigating Monstrum. But it could be that the new government has a more devious purpose for Vadim's transfer. His ex-wife Julia is a general for the now-defeated Anarchists, and the Chekists are desperate to get to her--through Vadim?--before she can muster forces to disrupt the fragile government. As Vadim struggles to learn the ropes in the dangerous Red Presnya police district and track down Monstrum, he's caught in dangerous political cross fire and a heart-wrenching personal dilemma as everyone he thought he could trust betrays him, and his deepest beliefs are challenged. James' debut novel is stunning in scope, brilliantly plotted, filled with suspense, humor, terror, passion, and achingly real emotion. Gripping and powerful, Monstrum is definitely one of the best thrillers of 1997--and thoroughly deserving of all the comparisons it will draw to Gorky Park. Emily Melton

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Monstrum

By the time of the third murder, it was a word evoked by every shout of alarm, by every blast on a militia whistle, by every woman's scream in a district of Moscow where shouts and screams had never been uncommon. Within a week of the third murder there were the beginnings of a cult: the word appeared as elaborately worked graffiti on concrete walls; young men swaggered the streets with the word emblazoned across the back of their jackets; in the cellar discos, reckless girls wore T-shirts with the Monstrum's swollen hands engulfing their breasts. But on the streets all women are equal. At night they hurry home no longer thinking of footsteps and snatched purses. A new word -- Monstrum -- has entered their vocabulary of terror. Like a rising tide of infected river water, the word washes against the shanty houses of Red Presnya, swilling through the lives of the inhabitants of the dark alleys and ruined tower blocks, leaving a scum of fear. All this was happening in Moscow in the year 2015, the year Russians had begun to think of as the New Dawn.

Edition details

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679457704
• ISBN 13: 9780679457701
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 436