false 312137 3 <B>Penzler Pick, December 2001:</B> This is a compulsively readable tour de force that keeps more balls in the air than a pitching machine. On top of that, in this 14th novel featuring the one-legged Moscow cop Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, Stuart Kaminsky once again catapults us straight from our armchairs into the mindset of modern Russia in all its perverse dysfunctions.<p> Kaminsky must have had fun cooking up the plotlines, which ingeniously plunder the storage bins of mystery history. There's everything from a Jane the Ripper to homages to train-bound thrillers like <I>The Lady Vanishes</I>, <I>North by Northwest</I>, and the more obvious <I>Murder on the Orient Express</I>. At the same time, there's the conscious, skillfully presented element of social realism, an aspect that never intruded into the action of any of those tales. Kaminsky is wonderfully artful at conveying the pervasive cynicism that comes with the territory at all strata of existence in the former Soviet Union, and he does it without ever being repetitious. At an organic level, it seeps into and informs every level of the mystery as it unfolds. <p> One must marvel at the manipulations of the political and legal systems engaged in by Chief Inspector Rostnikov and his dedicated colleagues as they endeavor to deliver the semblance of a not-always-welcome law and order. To top it off, there are some terrific set-piece scenes, such as when the policeman Zelach reveals his unexpected familiarity with heavy-metal arcana as he and his partner interrogate some punks about a missing pal.<p> Kaminsky won the Edgar Allan Poe award in 1989 for the Rostnikov mystery <I>A Cold Red Sunrise</I>. Reading <I>Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express</I>, it's not hard to understand why, only difficult to know how he keeps the series' quality so high. <I>--Otto Penzler</I> 303050 24 10 2001 Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: A Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Novel total:39|5:11|4:22|3:6|2:0|1:0| 39 161 53 3 4 0 false false Tue Apr 07 22:24:22 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 22:37:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 19:05:32 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 18:33:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 15:48:56 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 05 13:45:40 -0800 2007 3 0 false false Wed Oct 28 15:16:58 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 28 15:16:58 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Sep 01 09:05:17 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 09:05:17 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Aug 31 15:21:46 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 15:21:46 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Aug 25 19:28:29 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 19:28:34 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 08 13:37:26 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 08 13:37:41 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jul 24 07:22:35 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 07:22:35 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jul 06 14:52:47 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 14:52:47 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jun 07 03:00:08 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 03:00:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 22 18:31:30 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 18:31:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Apr 21 12:15:52 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 12:15:52 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 15 17:43:47 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 17:43:47 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Mar 26 05:36:24 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 05:36:24 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Mar 22 20:53:28 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 20:53:28 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Mar 09 21:48:12 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 09:45:08 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Nov 24 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Mar 08 16:20:46 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 08 16:21:02 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Feb 21 08:45:06 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 08:45:06 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jan 18 16:38:26 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 16:38:26 -0800 2009