Description
Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutorโs office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station.
The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular; the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating.
That's a rating decidedly better than that of Renko, whose lover, Eva, has left him for Detective Nikolai Isakov, a charismatic veteran of the civil war in Chechnya, a hero of the far right and, Renko suspects, a killer for hire. The cases entwine, and Renkoโs quests become a personal inquiry fueled by jealousy.
The investigation leads to the fields of Tver outside of Moscow, where once a million soldiers fought. There, amidst the detritus, Renko must confront the ghost of his own father, a favorite general of Stalinโs. In these barren fields, patriots and shady entrepreneursโthe Red Diggers and Black Diggersโcollect the bones, weapons and personal effects of slain World War II soldiers, and find that even among the dead there are surprises
ISBN:9781471131141
