"Kaminsky excels each time he enters the harshness of post-Cold War Russia."-
Publishers Weekly

Crime in post-communist Russia has only gotten worse: rubles are scarce; blood, plentiful. In the eyes of
Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov and his metropolitan police team, newfound democracy has emboldened those already on the
path to hell. And a trio of nasty cases confirms their worst fears.

Deputy Inspector Sasha Tkach must find the murderous thieves who have terrorized an impoverished neighborhood.
Policewoman Elena Timofeyeva raids a house filled with Czarist treasures, all of which disappear the next day. Relentless
Inspector Emil Karpo will not rest until he finds the Mafia beasts who killed the only woman he has ever loved.
Playing against time and the odds, Rostnikov and company have their hands full upholding the law, and holding on to
something they can believe in, in a country wracked by political change and its consequences.


Stuart Kaminsky received the 1990 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery novel, as well as France's Grand Prix de Roman d'Aventures in 1991. His love of the movies and long career as a professor of film history led him to create the popular and critically acclaimed Toby Peters series. He lives in Florida with his wife and children.