David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "bears"
The Siberian Dilemma
Usually Arkady Renko is dealing with some non-political skulduggery in the Russian capital, Moskow, working as an inspector for the political hack of a prosecutor.
But Arkady is in love, and his girlfriend Tatiana Petrovna, a renowned journalist, isn't answering his phone calls or his text messages. She's in Siberia trying to figure out whether noted dissident, Mikail Kusnetsov, is the real deal or just another Putin enabler. Kusnetsov has spent five years in prison, testifying to the veracity of his claims. When Arkady arrives in Irkutsk he joins hands with a fellow passenger who informs Arkady he will be his factotum, or jack of all trades. Bolot is a native Buryat, or Siberian native and he knows Lake Baikal, where most of the action takes place, like the back of his hand. He can even tell when the ice is about to crack and plunge them to their deaths. There's another oil baron or oligarch, if you will, who's supposed to be in league with Kusnetsov named Benz, but Benz thinks Kusnetsov is not the person he claims to be and is stealing from him. He has one of Kusnetsov's wells capped with cement.
Bears are also central to the action and Benz convinces Arkady, Bolot and Tatiana to go with him on a hunt near Lake Baikal where Kusnetsov's well was capped. The bears are treated like white tail deer in Minnesota; when they begin to become a hindrance, the herd is thinned. But you don't want to make one of them mad. They are faster than human beings and really quick. Arkady's father has cautioned him to play dead when confronted with a vicious bear. That advice will come in handy.
The political situation is surprisingly open and on the mark. Usually in a fictional account, Putin wouldn't be called Putin, but in this novel, Putin owns four estates and two ocean going yachts. I was tempted to search the Internet, but it's not surprising since the Russian people demonstrated when they found out that Medvedev, the prime minister, had an estate that make Versailles look ramshackle.
Okay, there are two more characters you need to know about: Zurin, the prosecutor who turns up for the funeral of one of the oligarchs, is the first. He hates Arkady because Arkady is an honest man, but Arkady has something on Zurin; he knows Zurin has a Cuban mistress, apparently a no-no in Putin world. And we need to know that Zurin is threatening Arkady's chess genius ward and his girlfriend unless Arkady is willing to kill the dissident oligarch. This threat is also pretty realistic; in real world Russia, the number one dissident was charged with a trumped up crime and not allowed to run against Putin in the last election. He has also been known to eliminate critical journalists, former spies (see a recent English incident) and opponents of his puppet president in the Ukraine. In that case he used a plutonium cocktail. I don't mean to say Putin does this stuff personally, but he puts out the word, and it gets done.
This is a short book, only 274 pages, and it comes to an abrupt ending, but the Siberian setting, the unique factotum character, Arkady's Tatiana, and the world of the Siberian oligarchs should make worthwhile reading for Arkady Renko fans.
But Arkady is in love, and his girlfriend Tatiana Petrovna, a renowned journalist, isn't answering his phone calls or his text messages. She's in Siberia trying to figure out whether noted dissident, Mikail Kusnetsov, is the real deal or just another Putin enabler. Kusnetsov has spent five years in prison, testifying to the veracity of his claims. When Arkady arrives in Irkutsk he joins hands with a fellow passenger who informs Arkady he will be his factotum, or jack of all trades. Bolot is a native Buryat, or Siberian native and he knows Lake Baikal, where most of the action takes place, like the back of his hand. He can even tell when the ice is about to crack and plunge them to their deaths. There's another oil baron or oligarch, if you will, who's supposed to be in league with Kusnetsov named Benz, but Benz thinks Kusnetsov is not the person he claims to be and is stealing from him. He has one of Kusnetsov's wells capped with cement.
Bears are also central to the action and Benz convinces Arkady, Bolot and Tatiana to go with him on a hunt near Lake Baikal where Kusnetsov's well was capped. The bears are treated like white tail deer in Minnesota; when they begin to become a hindrance, the herd is thinned. But you don't want to make one of them mad. They are faster than human beings and really quick. Arkady's father has cautioned him to play dead when confronted with a vicious bear. That advice will come in handy.
The political situation is surprisingly open and on the mark. Usually in a fictional account, Putin wouldn't be called Putin, but in this novel, Putin owns four estates and two ocean going yachts. I was tempted to search the Internet, but it's not surprising since the Russian people demonstrated when they found out that Medvedev, the prime minister, had an estate that make Versailles look ramshackle.
Okay, there are two more characters you need to know about: Zurin, the prosecutor who turns up for the funeral of one of the oligarchs, is the first. He hates Arkady because Arkady is an honest man, but Arkady has something on Zurin; he knows Zurin has a Cuban mistress, apparently a no-no in Putin world. And we need to know that Zurin is threatening Arkady's chess genius ward and his girlfriend unless Arkady is willing to kill the dissident oligarch. This threat is also pretty realistic; in real world Russia, the number one dissident was charged with a trumped up crime and not allowed to run against Putin in the last election. He has also been known to eliminate critical journalists, former spies (see a recent English incident) and opponents of his puppet president in the Ukraine. In that case he used a plutonium cocktail. I don't mean to say Putin does this stuff personally, but he puts out the word, and it gets done.
This is a short book, only 274 pages, and it comes to an abrupt ending, but the Siberian setting, the unique factotum character, Arkady's Tatiana, and the world of the Siberian oligarchs should make worthwhile reading for Arkady Renko fans.
