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A Leningrad Confidential #2
Укрощение красного коня
На дворе 1931 год. Будущие красные маршалы и недобитые коннозаводчики царской России занимаются улучшением орловской породы рысаков. Селекцией в крупном масштабе занято и государство - насилием и голодом, показательными процессами и ловлей диверсантов улучшается советская порода людей. Следователь Зайцев берется за дело о гибели лошадей. Но уже не так важно, как он найдет преступника, самое главное - кого за время расследования он сумеет вытолкнуть из-под копыт страшного красного коня…
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
48 people are currently reading
285 people want to read
About the author
Yulia Yakovleva
23 books20 followersYulia Yakovleva is a writer based in Oslo, Norway, who writes in Norwegian and Russian. Her books have received several international awards.
She has written a series of children’s novels – known as “The Leningrad Tales” – that examine aspects of the Stalin era, including political repressions and World War 2. The first book, The Raven’s Children, which was published in 2016 and translated into English by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp in 2018, is set in 1938 and tells of a brother and sister whose parents are taken away during the night. Later “Leningrad Tales” books cover the blockade of Leningrad, World War 2 evacuation, and returning home.
Yakovleva’s series of three adult historical detective novels about Leningrad police investigator Vasily Zaitsev, a character with an interesting moral code, is set in the 1930s. Yakovleva’s Zaitsev books are suspenseful and filled with atmospheric and period-specific details including the smells, quarrels, and density of communal apartments, as well as elements such as art, missing jewels, thoroughbred horses, and the plight of the dekulakized.
Her ABCs of Love, a book for all ages, looks at love through classic Russian literature; a 2020 novel, Poets and Gentlemen, is a sort of manga (in the ranobe subgenre) involving a battle between literary “dream teams” from Russia (Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Chekhov) and Britain (Austin, Shelley, Radcliffe). Her first children book Halens historie written in Norwegian, received the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2014 in Opera Prima category.
Previously, she worked as a ballet critic at the Afisha magazine and wrote a number of books on the Russian ballet’s past and present.
Russian profile here Юлия Яковлева
She has written a series of children’s novels – known as “The Leningrad Tales” – that examine aspects of the Stalin era, including political repressions and World War 2. The first book, The Raven’s Children, which was published in 2016 and translated into English by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp in 2018, is set in 1938 and tells of a brother and sister whose parents are taken away during the night. Later “Leningrad Tales” books cover the blockade of Leningrad, World War 2 evacuation, and returning home.
Yakovleva’s series of three adult historical detective novels about Leningrad police investigator Vasily Zaitsev, a character with an interesting moral code, is set in the 1930s. Yakovleva’s Zaitsev books are suspenseful and filled with atmospheric and period-specific details including the smells, quarrels, and density of communal apartments, as well as elements such as art, missing jewels, thoroughbred horses, and the plight of the dekulakized.
Her ABCs of Love, a book for all ages, looks at love through classic Russian literature; a 2020 novel, Poets and Gentlemen, is a sort of manga (in the ranobe subgenre) involving a battle between literary “dream teams” from Russia (Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Chekhov) and Britain (Austin, Shelley, Radcliffe). Her first children book Halens historie written in Norwegian, received the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2014 in Opera Prima category.
Previously, she worked as a ballet critic at the Afisha magazine and wrote a number of books on the Russian ballet’s past and present.
Russian profile here Юлия Яковлева
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
November 1, 2023
Surviving in post Tsarist Russia 1930’s
A glimpse into the conditions, the harshness of Soviet Russia post the revolution as Leningrad Detective Vasily Zaitsev of the Criminal Investigation Department investigates the death of a trotting horse and its Red Army Cavalry rider. A death brought about by something unusual, strange even.
Filled with darting, often satirical commentary on the times, the novel is dark, brooding and at times savage, with moments of compassion. A time when the Red Terror is unleashed, the political purge by the Bolsheviks.
Zaitsev’s search takes him to Novocherkassk in Southern Russia where the Cavalry training school has suddenly been relocated. Is this a subterfuge, an effort to save the horses or something else?
An unasked for assistant, Comrade Zoya, is sent with him. She’s prickly and annoying. There’s more here than meets the eye. Is she checking up on him?
A train stop and confrontation with starving people, like wraiths appear out of the darkness, is a wake-up call. A man made famine, known as the Holodomor has gripped Russia.
Novocherkassk is supposedly in the growing part of Russia. What Detective Zaitsev finds is starvation and danger. People being forced to give up their prized possessions to those in charge. Whoever that might be!
Always in the back of Zaitsev’s mind is that he might be taken back for questioning by the Soviet Secret police.
Meanwhile back at his apartment his landlady seems to keep adding staff for him, although he pays little attention. She’s hired a cook for him, and a nanny? What?
Once more I felt like I was wading through despair and hopelessness and yet I’m sympathetic to Zaitsev and his plight. I feared his many dilemmas and enjoyed any breakthroughs.
Zaitsev is living dangerously in a time where the state turned child against parent and all was in flux.
A fine Russian noir historical detective novel!
A Pushkin Vertigo ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)
A glimpse into the conditions, the harshness of Soviet Russia post the revolution as Leningrad Detective Vasily Zaitsev of the Criminal Investigation Department investigates the death of a trotting horse and its Red Army Cavalry rider. A death brought about by something unusual, strange even.
Filled with darting, often satirical commentary on the times, the novel is dark, brooding and at times savage, with moments of compassion. A time when the Red Terror is unleashed, the political purge by the Bolsheviks.
Zaitsev’s search takes him to Novocherkassk in Southern Russia where the Cavalry training school has suddenly been relocated. Is this a subterfuge, an effort to save the horses or something else?
An unasked for assistant, Comrade Zoya, is sent with him. She’s prickly and annoying. There’s more here than meets the eye. Is she checking up on him?
A train stop and confrontation with starving people, like wraiths appear out of the darkness, is a wake-up call. A man made famine, known as the Holodomor has gripped Russia.
Novocherkassk is supposedly in the growing part of Russia. What Detective Zaitsev finds is starvation and danger. People being forced to give up their prized possessions to those in charge. Whoever that might be!
Always in the back of Zaitsev’s mind is that he might be taken back for questioning by the Soviet Secret police.
Meanwhile back at his apartment his landlady seems to keep adding staff for him, although he pays little attention. She’s hired a cook for him, and a nanny? What?
Once more I felt like I was wading through despair and hopelessness and yet I’m sympathetic to Zaitsev and his plight. I feared his many dilemmas and enjoyed any breakthroughs.
Zaitsev is living dangerously in a time where the state turned child against parent and all was in flux.
A fine Russian noir historical detective novel!
A Pushkin Vertigo ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)
March 20, 2024
Zaitzev once again fighting opponents who pull strings from the shadows. All this whilst walking on a tightrope with out a safety net.
Yakovleva deftly weaves in the realities of life in the Soviet Union led by Stalin, the oppression, the famine, the dekulakization, the purging, into a story where humans remain humans even under the Soviet rules, with love, adultery, murder, theft, greed playing their part as always.
An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley
Yakovleva deftly weaves in the realities of life in the Soviet Union led by Stalin, the oppression, the famine, the dekulakization, the purging, into a story where humans remain humans even under the Soviet rules, with love, adultery, murder, theft, greed playing their part as always.
An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley
November 26, 2023
Not really a mystery,as a detailed character study,and more than that, a sense of time and place.
Subtle, brutal,morally complex.Excellent.
Subtle, brutal,morally complex.Excellent.
June 26, 2024
Эх, товарищ Зайцев
October 5, 2019
Если ищете чисто детектив, то тут вам может прийтись рaзочароваться. Это скорее будет историческая проза, чем детектив. По-моему, автор великолепно показала хотя-бы часть того, как в советском союзе не все знали даже то, что творилось под самым носом, жили с пропагандой верили в нее. Я бы с удовольствие перевела эту книжку латышский сама, так как, по качествам словосочетании и сложения предложенный, читать было сплошное удовольствие.
Ja meklējat detektīvu, šajā grāmatā, iespējams, būs pārāk daudz kam piesieties. Taču, ja meklējat vēsturisku romānu - šis jums varētu patikt. Turklāt autore, manuprāt, lieliski parāda kaut daļiņu padomijas laikā valdošās neziņas, akluma par to, kas notiek turpat deguna galā, ticības propagandas paustajam.
Plašāk blogā: https://lalksne.blogspot.com/2019/09/...
Ja meklējat detektīvu, šajā grāmatā, iespējams, būs pārāk daudz kam piesieties. Taču, ja meklējat vēsturisku romānu - šis jums varētu patikt. Turklāt autore, manuprāt, lieliski parāda kaut daļiņu padomijas laikā valdošās neziņas, akluma par to, kas notiek turpat deguna galā, ticības propagandas paustajam.
Plašāk blogā: https://lalksne.blogspot.com/2019/09/...
February 9, 2018
Прочитала разом оба детектива Юлии Яковлевой. В целом мне понравилось, но таланта у автора больше, чем мастерства. Как детективы - совершенно неубедительно, но истории отличные.
Правда, во втором романе меня слегка раздражали тихий, но упорный протест против эмансипированных советских женщин и тоска по времени, когда мужчины были мужчинами, а женщины женщинами.
Правда, во втором романе меня слегка раздражали тихий, но упорный протест против эмансипированных советских женщин и тоска по времени, когда мужчины были мужчинами, а женщины женщинами.
February 8, 2018
Эта книга, как впрочем и остальные кинги Юлии Яковлевой, привлекает не столько сюжетом, сколько возможностью погрузиться в то время. Интересной показалась мне манера автора писать не линейно, а как бы стежками - каждые несколько страниц повествование обрывается, чтобы вынырнуть через какое-то время, тем не менее то, что осталось за кадром оказывается понятным.
Хотя серия книг о следователе Зайцеве относится к лёгкому жанру, читать их интересно - буду ждать продолжения.
Хотя серия книг о следователе Зайцеве относится к лёгкому жанру, читать их интересно - буду ждать продолжения.
January 23, 2024
Too verbose narration with a lot of unnecessary descriptions, taking away the meaning of what was written, away from the situation, making it difficult to follow.
This is not a mystery book, in a classical sense, this is a retro melodrama describing life in post-revolutionary Russia with a criminal intrigue.
It could possible be better in a translation version - like the first book of the series- though it has so many specific cultural and historical facts and names, typical for Russia of the 1930s, that I can imagine, it could be challenging for some readers who is not familiar with this specific language definition to come through. Of course, if it will be translated into English some day at all.
This is not a mystery book, in a classical sense, this is a retro melodrama describing life in post-revolutionary Russia with a criminal intrigue.
It could possible be better in a translation version - like the first book of the series- though it has so many specific cultural and historical facts and names, typical for Russia of the 1930s, that I can imagine, it could be challenging for some readers who is not familiar with this specific language definition to come through. Of course, if it will be translated into English some day at all.
May 8, 2020
Jāatzīst, man pietrūka aizrautības, kaut kā bija par maz – vai nu Staļina laiku kopiespaida, vai sakārtota detektīvstāsta (lai gan es zināju pēc pirmās grāmatas, ka autorei labāk sanāk fons nekā pats detektīvs).
October 11, 2023
Leningrad Detective Zaitsev finds himself investigating the death of a Red Army calvary officer and his prized horse, the perfect example of his breed. Initially it seems like an open and shut case. But the more the detective digs into the situation, the more complicated it becomes. He discovers some terrible truths about the world he lives in, and the decisions his country makes. How much of an impact can one man’s principles have in the face of inhumanity? Readers who enjoyed the tales of Sasha Vasin and Arkady Renko will find another complex antihero to cheer on.
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I am still supporting the author by ordering my own copy. #NetGalley
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I am still supporting the author by ordering my own copy. #NetGalley
February 24, 2025
Начав проверку несчастного случая на ипподроме, сотрудник милиции Зайцев выясняет, что это было предумышленное убийство, причем не жокея, а лошади.
Поначалу кажется, что во второй книге Яковлева провела работу над ошибками. Несколько остужена перегретая в первом романе тема со сбережением головы сыщика от чекистов, место очередного вычурного маньяка, заняло дурацкое, но в то же время необычное преступление, которое интригует и достаточно ловко подвязывается к внутриармейским разборкам. Но вместо того, чтобы загерметизировать свой детектив в военном училище, дав наконец-то своему герою проявить себя, блеснув умом или навыками, писательница под совершенно нелепым предлогом выкидывает его из едва изученного Ленинграда в новый сеттинг - к казакам в деревню. Похвальное желание автора через расследование рассказать о трагических событиях тридцатых годов (в данном случае - голод, раскулачивание...) понятно, но в отличии, например, от Филиппа Керра, мастерски вводившего своего сыщика в исторический контекст, у неё не получается сделать это естественно, заставляя происходящее выглядеть путешествием по парку с аттракционов.
К тому же, Яковлева почему-то всеми силами старается отойти от собственной отличной завязки, добавляя в сюжет всё, что только можно: деревенских баб в квартире протагониста, линию с изнасилованной девушкой, "подсаженную" к следователю утомительную напарницу. А чтобы это могло хоть как то работать, ей пришлось сильно "отупить" героя, который для нужд истории начинает тормозить, переставая понимать очевидные читателю вещи.
Из-за этих проблем вся детективная часть вышла скомканной и ощущается маловажной относительно второстепенных заданий, которые постоянно приходится выполнять Зайцеву, отвлекая от по-настоящему интересного: кто и зачем убил коня?
Поначалу кажется, что во второй книге Яковлева провела работу над ошибками. Несколько остужена перегретая в первом романе тема со сбережением головы сыщика от чекистов, место очередного вычурного маньяка, заняло дурацкое, но в то же время необычное преступление, которое интригует и достаточно ловко подвязывается к внутриармейским разборкам. Но вместо того, чтобы загерметизировать свой детектив в военном училище, дав наконец-то своему герою проявить себя, блеснув умом или навыками, писательница под совершенно нелепым предлогом выкидывает его из едва изученного Ленинграда в новый сеттинг - к казакам в деревню. Похвальное желание автора через расследование рассказать о трагических событиях тридцатых годов (в данном случае - голод, раскулачивание...) понятно, но в отличии, например, от Филиппа Керра, мастерски вводившего своего сыщика в исторический контекст, у неё не получается сделать это естественно, заставляя происходящее выглядеть путешествием по парку с аттракционов.
К тому же, Яковлева почему-то всеми силами старается отойти от собственной отличной завязки, добавляя в сюжет всё, что только можно: деревенских баб в квартире протагониста, линию с изнасилованной девушкой, "подсаженную" к следователю утомительную напарницу. А чтобы это могло хоть как то работать, ей пришлось сильно "отупить" героя, который для нужд истории начинает тормозить, переставая понимать очевидные читателю вещи.
Из-за этих проблем вся детективная часть вышла скомканной и ощущается маловажной относительно второстепенных заданий, которые постоянно приходится выполнять Зайцеву, отвлекая от по-настоящему интересного: кто и зачем убил коня?
November 18, 2025
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!!
June 7, 2023
Death at the races, the audience's favorite, the prize-winning Orlov trotter Gingerbread, died with him, the jockey Zhemchuzhny. The genius in this pair was a horse and they mourn mainly for him, almost without remembering about the rider, which somewhat shocks investigator Zaitsev, who is accustomed to the fact that human life is a priori more valuable than an animal. The investigation concludes that the Gingerbread was poisoned and only those with access to the stalls could have done it. Cadets of the higher cavalry courses who are engaged in work at the racetrack are under suspicion.
Although what kind of cadets they are there, all adults who fought on the fronts of the Civil War and it is not a fact that from beginning to end they are for the Reds. And here it is impossible not to recall the Budyonny-Tukhachevsky confrontation, the latter considered the time of horses to have passed, advocated for the technical re-equipment of the army, claimed that in future wars they would become machine wars. Budyonny, who still has considerable capabilities, takes his henchmen out of harm's way, sending a School to the Kuban to purchase a new breeding fund.
There, after them, the investigation leads Vasily Zaitsev. This is the plot of Yulia Yakovleva's second novel named after this character. And in order to understand it, it is not enough to be just a reader of detectives, wondering which of the three: the butler, the lady or the golf partner - who is the killer. Here you need to have an idea of the balance of forces, about the realities of a century ago, including collectivization, dispossession and forced relocation, the extinction of the village from hunger and the flight of peasants to the cities. Finally, the very confrontation of military leaders, which is no less important to know about, Poland made a bet on the cavalry and everyone remembers how instantly everything ended for her.
"The Taming of the Red Horse" is again a cultural rebus of combining the diametrically opposite in the title: Klodt's classic horses on the Anichkov Bridge with a painting by Petrov-Vodkin, and the red cavalry. So, Zaitsev goes to the south, a polished Komsomol bitch was imposed on him as a companion, a patriot girl and an obvious snitch Zoya, besides with a weak stomach, rinses her every now and then. The first encounter with reality happens immediately after leaving the non-fat, but well-fed Leningrad. Extremely emaciated women with skeletal children are begging on the platform for "bread for my baby", and the valiant police are chasing "Kulak nedobitkov".
На фронтах той войны невидимой одаренности с бесполезностью
Да что-то кони мне попались привередливые,
Мне дожить не успеть, так хотя бы допеть.
Смерть на скачках, пал любимец публики, призовой орловский рысак Пряник, с ним погиб жокей Жемчужный. Гением в этой паре был конь и оплакивают главным образом его, о наезднике почти не вспоминая, что несколько шокирует следователя Зайцева, привыкшего, что жизнь человека априори более ценна, чем животного. Следствие приходит к выводу, что Пряник был отравлен и сделать это мог только имеющий доступ к стойлам. Под подозрением оказываются курсанты высших кавалерийских курсов, занятые в работе на ипподроме.
Хотя какие уж они там курсанты, все взрослые воевавшие на фронтах Гражданской и сильно не факт, что от начала до конца за красных. И тут нельзя не вспомнить противостояния Буденный-Тухачевский, последний считал время лошадей прошедшим ратовал за техническое переоснащение армии, утверждал - в будущие войны станут войнами машин. Все еще обладающий немалыми возможностями, Буденный, выводит своих ставленников из-под удара, командируя Школу на Кубань для закупки нового племенного фонда.
Туда же, вслед за ними, следствие приводит Василия Зайцева. Такая завязка у второго романа Юлии Яковлевой имени этого персонажа. И для того, чтобы понимать его, мало быть только читателем детективов, гадающим, кто из троих: дворецкий, леди или партнер по гольфу - кто убийца. Здесь нужно иметь представление о раскладе сил, о реалиях столетней давности, включающих коллективизацию, раскулачивание и принудительное переселение, вымирание деревни от голода и бегство крестьян в города. Наконец то самое противостояние военачальников, знать о котором не менее важно, Польша сделала ставку на кавалерию и все помнят, как мгновенно все для нее закончилось.
"Укрощение красного коня" снова культурологический ребус совмещения диаметрально противоположного в заглавии: классические кони Клодта на Аничковом мосту с картиной Петрова-Водкина, и красной конницей. Итак, Зайцев едет на юга, в спутницы ему навязали лощенную комсомольскую стерву, патриот-девицу и явную стукачку Зою, к тому же со слабым желудком, то и дело полощет ее. Первое столкновение с действительностью случается сразу после выезда из не жирующего, но сытого Ленинграда. Предельно истощенные женщины со скелетиками-детьми молят на перроне о "хлебе для моей деточки", а доблестная милиция гоняет "кулацких недобитков".
Зайцев раздает весь свой паек, то же делает и девица, которая оказывается нормальным товарищем, только вот есть им теперь будет нечего. Дальше попытки вести следствие в Новочеркасске, наверняка выбранном не случайно, в месте, где "они
казаки, мы российцы, приехали - вот и не ждите другого к себе отношения". Семьям красноармейцев, к слову, выделялись для жизни дома тех, кого увозили в теплушках, дав на сборы час. Просто представьте на минуту, как это. Что уж сетовать на нелюбовь местных.
Конфликтов в романе много: город против деревни, казачество против советской власти, УгРо против ГПУ (НКВД), Буденный против Тухачевского, красивые, но нежные орловцы против выносливых крепких американцев (лошади, если что), герой против бюрократов, любовница против законной жены, невозможность совместить желание жить достойно с необходимостью жить по средствам (а это о красавцах кавалеристах), требование власти участвовать в карательной экспедиции против кулацких жен и детей с честью офицера и моральным законом внутри человека (снова о них же).
И мне кажется, что с конфликтами вышел перебор, детектив на три сотни страниц, в котором нужно ведь еще и интригу развить, проседает под тяжестью этого множества, тут нужен кирпич под тысячу страниц, вроде "Высокой крови" Сергея Самсонова. Может быть поэтому второй роман о следователе Зайцеве не мой фаворит. Но третий, о котором расскажу очень скоро - просто огонь.
Although what kind of cadets they are there, all adults who fought on the fronts of the Civil War and it is not a fact that from beginning to end they are for the Reds. And here it is impossible not to recall the Budyonny-Tukhachevsky confrontation, the latter considered the time of horses to have passed, advocated for the technical re-equipment of the army, claimed that in future wars they would become machine wars. Budyonny, who still has considerable capabilities, takes his henchmen out of harm's way, sending a School to the Kuban to purchase a new breeding fund.
There, after them, the investigation leads Vasily Zaitsev. This is the plot of Yulia Yakovleva's second novel named after this character. And in order to understand it, it is not enough to be just a reader of detectives, wondering which of the three: the butler, the lady or the golf partner - who is the killer. Here you need to have an idea of the balance of forces, about the realities of a century ago, including collectivization, dispossession and forced relocation, the extinction of the village from hunger and the flight of peasants to the cities. Finally, the very confrontation of military leaders, which is no less important to know about, Poland made a bet on the cavalry and everyone remembers how instantly everything ended for her.
"The Taming of the Red Horse" is again a cultural rebus of combining the diametrically opposite in the title: Klodt's classic horses on the Anichkov Bridge with a painting by Petrov-Vodkin, and the red cavalry. So, Zaitsev goes to the south, a polished Komsomol bitch was imposed on him as a companion, a patriot girl and an obvious snitch Zoya, besides with a weak stomach, rinses her every now and then. The first encounter with reality happens immediately after leaving the non-fat, but well-fed Leningrad. Extremely emaciated women with skeletal children are begging on the platform for "bread for my baby", and the valiant police are chasing "Kulak nedobitkov".
На фронтах той войны невидимой одаренности с бесполезностью
Да что-то кони мне попались привередливые,
Мне дожить не успеть, так хотя бы допеть.
Смерть на скачках, пал любимец публики, призовой орловский рысак Пряник, с ним погиб жокей Жемчужный. Гением в этой паре был конь и оплакивают главным образом его, о наезднике почти не вспоминая, что несколько шокирует следователя Зайцева, привыкшего, что жизнь человека априори более ценна, чем животного. Следствие приходит к выводу, что Пряник был отравлен и сделать это мог только имеющий доступ к стойлам. Под подозрением оказываются курсанты высших кавалерийских курсов, занятые в работе на ипподроме.
Хотя какие уж они там курсанты, все взрослые воевавшие на фронтах Гражданской и сильно не факт, что от начала до конца за красных. И тут нельзя не вспомнить противостояния Буденный-Тухачевский, последний считал время лошадей прошедшим ратовал за техническое переоснащение армии, утверждал - в будущие войны станут войнами машин. Все еще обладающий немалыми возможностями, Буденный, выводит своих ставленников из-под удара, командируя Школу на Кубань для закупки нового племенного фонда.
Туда же, вслед за ними, следствие приводит Василия Зайцева. Такая завязка у второго романа Юлии Яковлевой имени этого персонажа. И для того, чтобы понимать его, мало быть только читателем детективов, гадающим, кто из троих: дворецкий, леди или партнер по гольфу - кто убийца. Здесь нужно иметь представление о раскладе сил, о реалиях столетней давности, включающих коллективизацию, раскулачивание и принудительное переселение, вымирание деревни от голода и бегство крестьян в города. Наконец то самое противостояние военачальников, знать о котором не менее важно, Польша сделала ставку на кавалерию и все помнят, как мгновенно все для нее закончилось.
"Укрощение красного коня" снова культурологический ребус совмещения диаметрально противоположного в заглавии: классические кони Клодта на Аничковом мосту с картиной Петрова-Водкина, и красной конницей. Итак, Зайцев едет на юга, в спутницы ему навязали лощенную комсомольскую стерву, патриот-девицу и явную стукачку Зою, к тому же со слабым желудком, то и дело полощет ее. Первое столкновение с действительностью случается сразу после выезда из не жирующего, но сытого Ленинграда. Предельно истощенные женщины со скелетиками-детьми молят на перроне о "хлебе для моей деточки", а доблестная милиция гоняет "кулацких недобитков".
Зайцев раздает весь свой паек, то же делает и девица, которая оказывается нормальным товарищем, только вот есть им теперь будет нечего. Дальше попытки вести следствие в Новочеркасске, наверняка выбранном не случайно, в месте, где "они
казаки, мы российцы, приехали - вот и не ждите другого к себе отношения". Семьям красноармейцев, к слову, выделялись для жизни дома тех, кого увозили в теплушках, дав на сборы час. Просто представьте на минуту, как это. Что уж сетовать на нелюбовь местных.
Конфликтов в романе много: город против деревни, казачество против советской власти, УгРо против ГПУ (НКВД), Буденный против Тухачевского, красивые, но нежные орловцы против выносливых крепких американцев (лошади, если что), герой против бюрократов, любовница против законной жены, невозможность совместить желание жить достойно с необходимостью жить по средствам (а это о красавцах кавалеристах), требование власти участвовать в карательной экспедиции против кулацких жен и детей с честью офицера и моральным законом внутри человека (снова о них же).
И мне кажется, что с конфликтами вышел перебор, детектив на три сотни страниц, в котором нужно ведь еще и интригу развить, проседает под тяжестью этого множества, тут нужен кирпич под тысячу страниц, вроде "Высокой крови" Сергея Самсонова. Может быть поэтому второй роман о следователе Зайцеве не мой фаворит. Но третий, о котором расскажу очень скоро - просто огонь.
February 7, 2018
Я большой любитель детективов и большой любитель истории, а в добавок ещё и политолог. Книга Юлии Яковлевой обещала мне всё и сразу. Расследование убийства на фоне Советских грязно-серых будней 1930х годов - ах! Сама идея меня очень привлекла. Однако, исполнение подкачало и Укрощение красного коня превратилось в большое литературное разочарование.
Читала в рецензиях, что романы Яковлевой "по качеству своего исполнения не уступает книгам самого Бориса Акунина". На мой взгляд, Яковлеву и Акунина роднит только жанр. С тем же успехом, можно сравнивать романы Акунина и Александры Марининой. В рамках жанра, Яковлева проигрывает даже Марининой. Сюжетная линия, композиция, развитие персонажей - у Яковлевой всё хромает и пошатывается. Убедительной получилась только удушливая, плотная, ядовитая и мрачная атмосфера Ленинграда в преддверии Большого террора. Но это не добавляет роману ни очарования, ни ценности, ни смысла, потому что в нём нет концептуальной целостности и замысел автора размыт. В итоге, получилась достаточно тяжёлая, но очень неглубокая и слабая книжка.
Читала в рецензиях, что романы Яковлевой "по качеству своего исполнения не уступает книгам самого Бориса Акунина". На мой взгляд, Яковлеву и Акунина роднит только жанр. С тем же успехом, можно сравнивать романы Акунина и Александры Марининой. В рамках жанра, Яковлева проигрывает даже Марининой. Сюжетная линия, композиция, развитие персонажей - у Яковлевой всё хромает и пошатывается. Убедительной получилась только удушливая, плотная, ядовитая и мрачная атмосфера Ленинграда в преддверии Большого террора. Но это не добавляет роману ни очарования, ни ценности, ни смысла, потому что в нём нет концептуальной целостности и замысел автора размыт. В итоге, получилась достаточно тяжёлая, но очень неглубокая и слабая книжка.
August 10, 2024
I received a review copy of this book from Pushkin Press via Edelweiss for which my thanks.
In Death of the Red Rider, we’re back in 1930s Leningrad as Vasily Zaitsev of the CID continues to carry on his duties after the not-so-pleasant encounter with the state in the previous book. The story opens with him being summoned to the site of what seems an accident, a horse, Ginger, has dropped dead mid-race and his rider (driver as it was a cart) crushed. Rethinking the incident and observations of someone at the site though, Zaitsev realises this may not have been an accident at all. The rider/driver it seems was Leonid Perlov, a high-calibre horseman and instructor at the cavalry training academy and the horse a winning racer. After some initial digging confirms his suspicions and also some disturbing truths, he begins his investigations at the cavalry academy.
Meanwhile at his communal apartment, something slightly strange but also tinged with a bit of humour is unfolding. Pasha, the janitor produces for him, a cook and then a nanny (or she could serve as a cleaning lady, Pasha suggests) neither of whom he needs but who clearly require help and he obliges, allowing for the moment, things to simply play out.
Meanwhile, his investigations require him to travel south, to Novocherkassk, the capital of the Cossacks and the breadbasket of the country. But rather than travel with the partner/assistant of his choice, Nefyodov, his only real ally after his brush with the state, he is asked to travel with Zoya Sokolova, a young woman who might well have been tasked with keeping an eye on him. Not only that, Zoya is prickly and constantly on the defensive convinced apparently that she is being judged and considered unworthy, being a woman. While things do improve with her and we learn something of her circumstances, Zaitsev can’t take chances with the Patrikayevs with whom they must stay while in the south as they also face the hostility of the locals towards the Russians or Rossitsys as they are referred to. As these and other harsh truths in the region are revealed, Zaitsev must also continue his investigations and get to the bottom of why and by whom Perlov or Ginger or both were killed, before he is in trouble with the authorities once again.
While not as intense, Death of the Red Rider was every bit as compelling a read as the first of the Leningrad Confidential books, Punishment of a Hunter. As with the first book, its greatest strength is its evocative portrayal of Stalinist Russia and its stark realities. Be it the poverty or communal housing or the rampant corruption and power dynamics or everyone having to constantly be on edge for even a chance remark could have one taken in for interrogation and worse. And Big Brother is always watching. Zaitsev might be in the CID but both with his past experience and circumstances being as they are, he must constantly be on alert too, but within these limits and many a time pushing them to their boundaries and beyond, he tries to not only do justice to the work he has been assigned but also do well by those he is dealing with.
In his journey and investigations in the South, we also get a sense of things in that part of the country which isn’t quite the cornucopia Zaitsev has been led to believe. Not only are the Cossacks antagonistic, he must be always on watch with anyone around them. But while these are severe enough, they are nothing compared to the horrifying realities he and Zoya come face to face with, the impact of collectivisation and the Holodomor, the man-made famine and deliberate starvation (genocide) of millions of Ukrainian (Kulaks) farmers who resisted collectivisation. This leads him to realise some heartbreaking truths.
I enjoyed the mystery thread though with the roundabout way things seemed to be going, I almost began to wonder if we’ll ever have a solution, but rest assured we do. And through it is also explored another theme, which is of the impending changes in the military at a time when automobiles are beginning to gain hold making the use of horses and cavalry more broadly, at least amongst the newer generation, seem obsolete. This thread didn’t have the same urgency and intensity as in the previous book where Zaitsev was faced with multiple murders but with the pressures from the system and the ever-present fear and suspicion, he must move fast all the same.
Being outside of Leningrad/St Petersburg for the most part of the book, we deal with a new set of characters entirely rather than those Zaitsev usually works with. Zoya who accompanies him proved to be an interesting character, initially not too likeable for her prickliness though one can understand possible reasons but later more sympathetic when we get to know her better. One can be tempted to be irked with her for what seems like being dense at moments but with how things were as to trusting others at the time, one can’t entirely blame her either. With Zaitsev himself, I was hoping after the brief hints in the first book to be getting to know some more of his background and past but sadly that didn’t happen in this instalment. Perhaps next time.
Despite this book being perhaps a tiny notch less in terms of rating than the previous one, I am finding the series itself an excellent and compelling one and will be eagerly looking out for the next one (I hope there are more) to be translated. A wonderful job by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp.
4.5 stars
In Death of the Red Rider, we’re back in 1930s Leningrad as Vasily Zaitsev of the CID continues to carry on his duties after the not-so-pleasant encounter with the state in the previous book. The story opens with him being summoned to the site of what seems an accident, a horse, Ginger, has dropped dead mid-race and his rider (driver as it was a cart) crushed. Rethinking the incident and observations of someone at the site though, Zaitsev realises this may not have been an accident at all. The rider/driver it seems was Leonid Perlov, a high-calibre horseman and instructor at the cavalry training academy and the horse a winning racer. After some initial digging confirms his suspicions and also some disturbing truths, he begins his investigations at the cavalry academy.
Meanwhile at his communal apartment, something slightly strange but also tinged with a bit of humour is unfolding. Pasha, the janitor produces for him, a cook and then a nanny (or she could serve as a cleaning lady, Pasha suggests) neither of whom he needs but who clearly require help and he obliges, allowing for the moment, things to simply play out.
Meanwhile, his investigations require him to travel south, to Novocherkassk, the capital of the Cossacks and the breadbasket of the country. But rather than travel with the partner/assistant of his choice, Nefyodov, his only real ally after his brush with the state, he is asked to travel with Zoya Sokolova, a young woman who might well have been tasked with keeping an eye on him. Not only that, Zoya is prickly and constantly on the defensive convinced apparently that she is being judged and considered unworthy, being a woman. While things do improve with her and we learn something of her circumstances, Zaitsev can’t take chances with the Patrikayevs with whom they must stay while in the south as they also face the hostility of the locals towards the Russians or Rossitsys as they are referred to. As these and other harsh truths in the region are revealed, Zaitsev must also continue his investigations and get to the bottom of why and by whom Perlov or Ginger or both were killed, before he is in trouble with the authorities once again.
While not as intense, Death of the Red Rider was every bit as compelling a read as the first of the Leningrad Confidential books, Punishment of a Hunter. As with the first book, its greatest strength is its evocative portrayal of Stalinist Russia and its stark realities. Be it the poverty or communal housing or the rampant corruption and power dynamics or everyone having to constantly be on edge for even a chance remark could have one taken in for interrogation and worse. And Big Brother is always watching. Zaitsev might be in the CID but both with his past experience and circumstances being as they are, he must constantly be on alert too, but within these limits and many a time pushing them to their boundaries and beyond, he tries to not only do justice to the work he has been assigned but also do well by those he is dealing with.
In his journey and investigations in the South, we also get a sense of things in that part of the country which isn’t quite the cornucopia Zaitsev has been led to believe. Not only are the Cossacks antagonistic, he must be always on watch with anyone around them. But while these are severe enough, they are nothing compared to the horrifying realities he and Zoya come face to face with, the impact of collectivisation and the Holodomor, the man-made famine and deliberate starvation (genocide) of millions of Ukrainian (Kulaks) farmers who resisted collectivisation. This leads him to realise some heartbreaking truths.
I enjoyed the mystery thread though with the roundabout way things seemed to be going, I almost began to wonder if we’ll ever have a solution, but rest assured we do. And through it is also explored another theme, which is of the impending changes in the military at a time when automobiles are beginning to gain hold making the use of horses and cavalry more broadly, at least amongst the newer generation, seem obsolete. This thread didn’t have the same urgency and intensity as in the previous book where Zaitsev was faced with multiple murders but with the pressures from the system and the ever-present fear and suspicion, he must move fast all the same.
Being outside of Leningrad/St Petersburg for the most part of the book, we deal with a new set of characters entirely rather than those Zaitsev usually works with. Zoya who accompanies him proved to be an interesting character, initially not too likeable for her prickliness though one can understand possible reasons but later more sympathetic when we get to know her better. One can be tempted to be irked with her for what seems like being dense at moments but with how things were as to trusting others at the time, one can’t entirely blame her either. With Zaitsev himself, I was hoping after the brief hints in the first book to be getting to know some more of his background and past but sadly that didn’t happen in this instalment. Perhaps next time.
Despite this book being perhaps a tiny notch less in terms of rating than the previous one, I am finding the series itself an excellent and compelling one and will be eagerly looking out for the next one (I hope there are more) to be translated. A wonderful job by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp.
4.5 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2024
I was confused a full 50% of the time.
August 31, 2024
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: As the Red Terror gathers pace, a horseman and horse mysteriously collapse in the middle of a race in Leningrad. Weary Detective Zaitsev, still raw from his last brush with the Party, is dispatched to the Soviet state cavalry school in Novocherkassk, southern Russia, to investigate. As he witnesses the horror of the Holodomor, and the impact of Soviet collectivisation, he struggles to penetrate the murky, secretive world of the cavalry school.
Why has this particular murder attracted so much attention from Soviet officials? Zaitsev needs to answer this question and solve the case before the increasingly paranoid authorities turn their attention towards him...
Don’t miss the second installment in the atmospheric and relentlessly dark detective series set in Stalinist Russia, where corruption, informers, and purges take paranoia to the next level.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Less gray-skied than Punishment of a Hunter, just as paranoid, just as nail-bitingly intense. The action moving south of Leningrad to "Cossack country," a nomenclatural sidestep from the modern name of a place Little Vladdy Pu-Pu doesn't much like having mentioned at present, changes the externals and, if anything, ramps up the internal conflicts between self and State present in every single breath taken in Stalinist times.
Zaitsev has a new...comrade? minder? internal spy?...in Zoya, a woman with a chip on her shoulder about being judged unfairly (because woman), a woman with a difficult attitude of disrespect for the people among whom she and Zaitsev must do their investigative job, and a general poor substitute for last book's Nefyodov. When you're among people who are extra-suspicious of you because you're Russian when they were already unhappy to see someone sent by the central authorities to poke around in places they'd just as soon leave unpoked, thanks, to solve a crime that took place a world away, to someone whose life was a-rattle with the skeletons in his closet...this will not end well for plenty of folks.
It's heavenly!
No one can be trusted! About/with/for ANYthing! Every time Zaitsev finds something out he has to unwrap more shades of meanings than Tut had embalmers' bandages! Impressively, Author Yakovleva manages to make the thriller-y bits cohere well. There's a secondary theme in who was murdered, where, and why, though it's not particularly energetically explored. It very much comes with the murdered man's identity, and I found it and its deeper ramifications interesting, but if I don't holler about it the importance won't be obvious to most. And I won't. This series has, as one of its main pleasures, the pressure cooker of Zaitsev sweating out the clues, in the teeth of multiple prongs of opposition, while uncovering realities of his life lived in Soviet Russia that break him on a human level.
So my attention was riveted again...last book I gave an extra quarter-star to, elevating it almost to fivehood. Not this one, despite my praising it; so why?
As pleasure reading, deeply interesting history of the Red Terror is...challenging. The information Zaitsev discovers as his investigation goes on would've gotten him shot in 1937 Russia. He could not have survived learning what he did...too much evidence to the contrary exists in the identities of the many murdered. So my disbelief muscle was sore from overuse. Also, why didn't he just shove Zoya under a tram or into a combine harvester and have done with it? She was more than a poor partner for an investigator, she was a provocatively bad investigator herself.
So there's the missing fractional star. Noe of that made me less eager to get to the next chapter, and I could not wait to pick up the read every day.
So a big #WITMonth win for Pushkin Vertigo, and me; y'all, too, if you go get one now.
The Publisher Says: As the Red Terror gathers pace, a horseman and horse mysteriously collapse in the middle of a race in Leningrad. Weary Detective Zaitsev, still raw from his last brush with the Party, is dispatched to the Soviet state cavalry school in Novocherkassk, southern Russia, to investigate. As he witnesses the horror of the Holodomor, and the impact of Soviet collectivisation, he struggles to penetrate the murky, secretive world of the cavalry school.
Why has this particular murder attracted so much attention from Soviet officials? Zaitsev needs to answer this question and solve the case before the increasingly paranoid authorities turn their attention towards him...
Don’t miss the second installment in the atmospheric and relentlessly dark detective series set in Stalinist Russia, where corruption, informers, and purges take paranoia to the next level.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Less gray-skied than Punishment of a Hunter, just as paranoid, just as nail-bitingly intense. The action moving south of Leningrad to "Cossack country," a nomenclatural sidestep from the modern name of a place Little Vladdy Pu-Pu doesn't much like having mentioned at present, changes the externals and, if anything, ramps up the internal conflicts between self and State present in every single breath taken in Stalinist times.
Zaitsev has a new...comrade? minder? internal spy?...in Zoya, a woman with a chip on her shoulder about being judged unfairly (because woman), a woman with a difficult attitude of disrespect for the people among whom she and Zaitsev must do their investigative job, and a general poor substitute for last book's Nefyodov. When you're among people who are extra-suspicious of you because you're Russian when they were already unhappy to see someone sent by the central authorities to poke around in places they'd just as soon leave unpoked, thanks, to solve a crime that took place a world away, to someone whose life was a-rattle with the skeletons in his closet...this will not end well for plenty of folks.
It's heavenly!
No one can be trusted! About/with/for ANYthing! Every time Zaitsev finds something out he has to unwrap more shades of meanings than Tut had embalmers' bandages! Impressively, Author Yakovleva manages to make the thriller-y bits cohere well. There's a secondary theme in who was murdered, where, and why, though it's not particularly energetically explored. It very much comes with the murdered man's identity, and I found it and its deeper ramifications interesting, but if I don't holler about it the importance won't be obvious to most. And I won't. This series has, as one of its main pleasures, the pressure cooker of Zaitsev sweating out the clues, in the teeth of multiple prongs of opposition, while uncovering realities of his life lived in Soviet Russia that break him on a human level.
So my attention was riveted again...last book I gave an extra quarter-star to, elevating it almost to fivehood. Not this one, despite my praising it; so why?
As pleasure reading, deeply interesting history of the Red Terror is...challenging. The information Zaitsev discovers as his investigation goes on would've gotten him shot in 1937 Russia. He could not have survived learning what he did...too much evidence to the contrary exists in the identities of the many murdered. So my disbelief muscle was sore from overuse. Also, why didn't he just shove Zoya under a tram or into a combine harvester and have done with it? She was more than a poor partner for an investigator, she was a provocatively bad investigator herself.
So there's the missing fractional star. Noe of that made me less eager to get to the next chapter, and I could not wait to pick up the read every day.
So a big #WITMonth win for Pushkin Vertigo, and me; y'all, too, if you go get one now.
March 27, 2024
This was an interesting book, but one that just didn't hit all the marks that a good piece of murder mystery should.
First, the positives. The strongest part of the book is its depiction of day-to-day life 1931 in Russia. This is before the worst of Stalin's purges, but during a time when people needed to be careful about expressing their opinions, and are dealing with the ongoing reallocation of property and forced collectivization. Zaitsev, the main character and a detective for the Leningrad police department, lives in a building that once was a grand home, but now houses numerous households in single private rooms with shared kitchens, baths, washing areas, etc. Zaitsev avoids tricky topics or intentionally misdirects conversations to protect himself from scheming superiors, nosy neighbors, and spying hosts in a bed&breakfast. Descriptions of the famine and black market activities caused by forced collectivization in Ukraine--which was not yet widely known--is a prominent thread running through the book.
Another interesting thread is the dispute within the military over the future role of cavalry in battle. The old guard thinks that horses will continue to be important while others feel that motorized vehicles will take their place. We all know what--to us--is the seemingly inevitable trumph of motorized artillery and transport, but it was not completely embraced by part of the Russian military. (A quick check with Wikipedia states that both Germany & Russia used horses extensively during WW2.)
Now for the not-so-good parts: the plot and the writing. The plot is clever, but confusing because at key junctures I felt like the author was writing a film script with lots of cinematic jump cuts. That technique just doesn't work well because key information wasn't given to the reader. I sometimes yearned for it to bea movie so that the characters could be filled out by good acting and I could all the descriptive richness that a movie can provide but this book didn't. The writing was plodding, especially in the first half of the book that was set in Leningrad. I don't think that is due to poor translation, since the 2nd half of the book, which is set in a small, rural city near Rostov-on-Don, has lovely descriptions of the locale.
Unfortunately, I didn't really care about any of the characters, which were mostly stock characters without any appealing traits. Zaitsev is a somewhat diffident cop with a conscience; the young woman he travels with is a humorless follower of the communist propaganda (think Greta Garbo in Ninotchka); there's a bunch of bureaucrats; etc.
Not a bad way to spend a few hours, but I wouldn't run out to get it. Good book for a plane ride, as you won't feel bad leaving your copy on the seat after you've finished it.
First, the positives. The strongest part of the book is its depiction of day-to-day life 1931 in Russia. This is before the worst of Stalin's purges, but during a time when people needed to be careful about expressing their opinions, and are dealing with the ongoing reallocation of property and forced collectivization. Zaitsev, the main character and a detective for the Leningrad police department, lives in a building that once was a grand home, but now houses numerous households in single private rooms with shared kitchens, baths, washing areas, etc. Zaitsev avoids tricky topics or intentionally misdirects conversations to protect himself from scheming superiors, nosy neighbors, and spying hosts in a bed&breakfast. Descriptions of the famine and black market activities caused by forced collectivization in Ukraine--which was not yet widely known--is a prominent thread running through the book.
Another interesting thread is the dispute within the military over the future role of cavalry in battle. The old guard thinks that horses will continue to be important while others feel that motorized vehicles will take their place. We all know what--to us--is the seemingly inevitable trumph of motorized artillery and transport, but it was not completely embraced by part of the Russian military. (A quick check with Wikipedia states that both Germany & Russia used horses extensively during WW2.)
Now for the not-so-good parts: the plot and the writing. The plot is clever, but confusing because at key junctures I felt like the author was writing a film script with lots of cinematic jump cuts. That technique just doesn't work well because key information wasn't given to the reader. I sometimes yearned for it to bea movie so that the characters could be filled out by good acting and I could all the descriptive richness that a movie can provide but this book didn't. The writing was plodding, especially in the first half of the book that was set in Leningrad. I don't think that is due to poor translation, since the 2nd half of the book, which is set in a small, rural city near Rostov-on-Don, has lovely descriptions of the locale.
Unfortunately, I didn't really care about any of the characters, which were mostly stock characters without any appealing traits. Zaitsev is a somewhat diffident cop with a conscience; the young woman he travels with is a humorless follower of the communist propaganda (think Greta Garbo in Ninotchka); there's a bunch of bureaucrats; etc.
Not a bad way to spend a few hours, but I wouldn't run out to get it. Good book for a plane ride, as you won't feel bad leaving your copy on the seat after you've finished it.
January 6, 2024
The second book in this series once again shows how Soviet Russia politicised the investigations of murder, after a mysterious higher-up thrusts on our hero Zaitsev a case he really doesn't want. He doesn't want it because it isn't a murder case – but a simple incident of racing horse, hitting trip hazard at high speed, rider hitting ground, rider snapping neck. But when the pressure is put on, nothing will take it off half as well as 'solving' the 'case' the way certain people want it to be dealt with.
This case, however causes issues – for the reader. In dismissing it as of little interest, our hero is secretly doing what is actually our job, and indicating this is not essential for us to choose. It seems a most unusual crime case – the murder of a man, yes, but only by murdering a horse first, and so the equine side of things takes precedence. But beyond that, just as I was able to say the first book in this cycle (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) did pull away from the case, so does this. Unfortunately, that book was a bit educational about Russia of the times, but this is just too rich in that side of things. A lot of the time this is not a crime book at all.
No, in taking the main characters on a trek right down to southern Russia, we get so much else instead. The holodomor (Stalin's purposeful starvation of the farming world in and around Ukraine), the way the military wives haggle their way to having the best semblance of a posh, Western life – all this is evoked, and evoked well, but not anything like engagingly enough when we came to this wanting to watch a murder case get solved.
This didn't have the preachy, teacherly stance I caught glimpses of last time, but it certainly wants to shrug off any genre trapping and show Stalinist times in certain lights. This, as so many people and books have done since, wants to portray the sheer stupidity, hubris and naivety of killing off classes and classes of people, that would only prove of use later, as in WW2. But in being so wishy-washy as regards the actual mystery, it's going to kill some readers off, and I don't think I'll return for Book Three. Two and a half stars.
This case, however causes issues – for the reader. In dismissing it as of little interest, our hero is secretly doing what is actually our job, and indicating this is not essential for us to choose. It seems a most unusual crime case – the murder of a man, yes, but only by murdering a horse first, and so the equine side of things takes precedence. But beyond that, just as I was able to say the first book in this cycle (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) did pull away from the case, so does this. Unfortunately, that book was a bit educational about Russia of the times, but this is just too rich in that side of things. A lot of the time this is not a crime book at all.
No, in taking the main characters on a trek right down to southern Russia, we get so much else instead. The holodomor (Stalin's purposeful starvation of the farming world in and around Ukraine), the way the military wives haggle their way to having the best semblance of a posh, Western life – all this is evoked, and evoked well, but not anything like engagingly enough when we came to this wanting to watch a murder case get solved.
This didn't have the preachy, teacherly stance I caught glimpses of last time, but it certainly wants to shrug off any genre trapping and show Stalinist times in certain lights. This, as so many people and books have done since, wants to portray the sheer stupidity, hubris and naivety of killing off classes and classes of people, that would only prove of use later, as in WW2. But in being so wishy-washy as regards the actual mystery, it's going to kill some readers off, and I don't think I'll return for Book Three. Two and a half stars.
November 2, 2023
Death of the Red Rider is the second of Yulia Yakovleva's books to be published in English. I read the first, Punishment of a Hunter, last year and loved every moment of the process. Spending time with the central character, police detective Vaily Zeitsev, pulled me into the complicated world of 1930s USSR, where one has to worry about every possible meaning that may be ascribed to a casual comment, where every new acquaintance may be just an acquaintance or may be someone brought into your circle to test your loyalty to this relatively new union and its proletarian values.
Death of the Red Rider didn't rise to those heights for a reason I'll get into, but it still provided an engaging read, populated by a mix of characters including the no-longer-convenient mistress of a high-ranking official; members of the USSR's soon-to-be-obsolete cavalry, some revolutionaries, some former fighters on behalf of the Czar; minor officials meant to guarantee participation in the collectivization of agriculture; and those resisting collectivization at a very high price.
To be honest, Death of the Red Rider struck me as not-quite-equal to Punishment of a Hunter because the mystery is centered within a cavalry school. A favorite horse has suddenly collapsed and died—and, by the way, a cavalry student was killed during the horse's collapse, but his death is being treated like a minor detail in comparison with the loss of the horse. I was never one of those girls who was horse mad, and I didn't go through a Black Beauty/Misty of Chincoteague phase. As a result, I found the novel's setting less than completely engaging. Zeitsev is still quietly brilliant, noting clues that everyone else is missing, and insisting on the true truth, rather than the truth the party would find convenient. But scenes of future cavalry officers riding in circles under the eye of a critical instructor left me cold. (I feel the same way about novels that take place on ships, but... we don't need to go there.)
On the other hand, if you were one of those horsey girls (or boys or nonbinary youths) you'll find an extra layer of enjoyment in Death of the Red Rider. And if you enjoy international and/or historical mysteries, you'll find Zeitsev an excellent companion regardless of your feelings about horses.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title; the opinions are my own.
Death of the Red Rider didn't rise to those heights for a reason I'll get into, but it still provided an engaging read, populated by a mix of characters including the no-longer-convenient mistress of a high-ranking official; members of the USSR's soon-to-be-obsolete cavalry, some revolutionaries, some former fighters on behalf of the Czar; minor officials meant to guarantee participation in the collectivization of agriculture; and those resisting collectivization at a very high price.
To be honest, Death of the Red Rider struck me as not-quite-equal to Punishment of a Hunter because the mystery is centered within a cavalry school. A favorite horse has suddenly collapsed and died—and, by the way, a cavalry student was killed during the horse's collapse, but his death is being treated like a minor detail in comparison with the loss of the horse. I was never one of those girls who was horse mad, and I didn't go through a Black Beauty/Misty of Chincoteague phase. As a result, I found the novel's setting less than completely engaging. Zeitsev is still quietly brilliant, noting clues that everyone else is missing, and insisting on the true truth, rather than the truth the party would find convenient. But scenes of future cavalry officers riding in circles under the eye of a critical instructor left me cold. (I feel the same way about novels that take place on ships, but... we don't need to go there.)
On the other hand, if you were one of those horsey girls (or boys or nonbinary youths) you'll find an extra layer of enjoyment in Death of the Red Rider. And if you enjoy international and/or historical mysteries, you'll find Zeitsev an excellent companion regardless of your feelings about horses.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title; the opinions are my own.
October 31, 2023
This is the second of Yulia Yakovleva's Leningrad (St Petersburg) series, set amidst the red terror of 1930s Stalinist Russia, featuring the merged with the political OGPU, Criminal Investigation Department's Detective Vasya Zaitsev efforts to negotiate the dangerous system and the Party to ascertain truth has already seen him experience Schpalernaya prison, he is in constant fear of the knock on the door. There are problems at home, Pasha has assigned him a cook and nanny, neither of which he has any need of, what is going on? However, he is concerned about the skeletally emaciated Matryona and Katerina, who are they? Later, Zaitsev is to understand the horrifying truth, learning of the Holodomor, and the repercussions of collectivisation.
Zaitsev finds himself at the scene of what initially appears to be a accident, in which a carriage rider, Leonid Perlov, and Ginger, a legendary stallion are killed at the Hippodrome, but matters are considerably more murky. As Zaitsev investigates, despite the opposition of his boss, Kopteltsev, it becomes clear that this is a case of murder, but who was the victim, Perlov or the horse? As the cavalry school moves to the apparently fertile and abundant south, to Novocherkassk, another horse dies, as Zaitsev follows by rail, accompanied by the feisty independent Comrade Zoya Sokolova. Zoya confides more than Zaitsev is comfortable with about her personal life, confidently believing her married lover will leave his wife, something he severely doubts. As Zaitsev discovers in the sweltering heat, nobody is happy with his snooping.
This is a bleak, dark and atmospheric historical read, illuminating the horrors of Russian history, where purges, corruption, informers, surveillance, and paranoia abound, where human life is seen as worthless, and killing is all too easy. Zaitsev finds himself feeling hopelessly powerless, in a period affected by turbulent change with cavalries becoming obsolete in the face of the growing use of vehicles and tanks in war, driving OGPU's massive covert Spring operations. This is a superb series to read if you are interested in Soviet history in the 1930s, and Zaitsev is a determined detective, a captivating character, with the odds stacked against him, living in the most challenging of times. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Zaitsev finds himself at the scene of what initially appears to be a accident, in which a carriage rider, Leonid Perlov, and Ginger, a legendary stallion are killed at the Hippodrome, but matters are considerably more murky. As Zaitsev investigates, despite the opposition of his boss, Kopteltsev, it becomes clear that this is a case of murder, but who was the victim, Perlov or the horse? As the cavalry school moves to the apparently fertile and abundant south, to Novocherkassk, another horse dies, as Zaitsev follows by rail, accompanied by the feisty independent Comrade Zoya Sokolova. Zoya confides more than Zaitsev is comfortable with about her personal life, confidently believing her married lover will leave his wife, something he severely doubts. As Zaitsev discovers in the sweltering heat, nobody is happy with his snooping.
This is a bleak, dark and atmospheric historical read, illuminating the horrors of Russian history, where purges, corruption, informers, surveillance, and paranoia abound, where human life is seen as worthless, and killing is all too easy. Zaitsev finds himself feeling hopelessly powerless, in a period affected by turbulent change with cavalries becoming obsolete in the face of the growing use of vehicles and tanks in war, driving OGPU's massive covert Spring operations. This is a superb series to read if you are interested in Soviet history in the 1930s, and Zaitsev is a determined detective, a captivating character, with the odds stacked against him, living in the most challenging of times. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
November 21, 2023
3.5 stars rounded up for a book with a complicated plot with many different characters. The many characters and plot twists make it hard to follow That makes it a 3 star book. But the convincing description of the sinister atmosphere of purges and constant arrests,often on flimsy trumped up charges, gives the book a realistic portrayal of life under Stalin in the 1930s and makes it a 4 star book.
Vasya Zaitsev is a police detective in the CID(Criminal Investigative Division) of the Leningrad Police. He is called to the scene of an apparent accident. A man has been killed while exercising a race horse on a harness race course. The horse died and the race cart overturned, killing the rider(driver).
He is angry that he has been called to this accident. But he soon learns that there is more than meets the eye. He does solve the case, even though he has to go Ukraine during the Holodomor genocide. What he sees there horrifies him , and he gives away all of his food and ration cards to starving people he sees at a train station stop. Vasya has been in prison himself on trumped charges, and was released because his superiors needed him to solve a crime. He still worries that one false step could land him in prison again.
One quote, describing the head of a cavalry academy: "In accordance with the latest fashion among Soviet leaders,his shaven scalp had a burnished sheen. Also in keeping with this fashion, dense vegetation grew under his nose, Comrade Batorsky's moustache was magnificent."
The translation was excellent.
Thanks to Pushkin Vertigo for sending me this eARC through Edelweiss.
Vasya Zaitsev is a police detective in the CID(Criminal Investigative Division) of the Leningrad Police. He is called to the scene of an apparent accident. A man has been killed while exercising a race horse on a harness race course. The horse died and the race cart overturned, killing the rider(driver).
He is angry that he has been called to this accident. But he soon learns that there is more than meets the eye. He does solve the case, even though he has to go Ukraine during the Holodomor genocide. What he sees there horrifies him , and he gives away all of his food and ration cards to starving people he sees at a train station stop. Vasya has been in prison himself on trumped charges, and was released because his superiors needed him to solve a crime. He still worries that one false step could land him in prison again.
One quote, describing the head of a cavalry academy: "In accordance with the latest fashion among Soviet leaders,his shaven scalp had a burnished sheen. Also in keeping with this fashion, dense vegetation grew under his nose, Comrade Batorsky's moustache was magnificent."
The translation was excellent.
Thanks to Pushkin Vertigo for sending me this eARC through Edelweiss.
November 28, 2021
Mam niemały problem z recenzją tej książki, bo według opisu mamy tu do czynienia z zagadką kryminalną. Leningrad roku 1931, śledczy Zajcew zostaje wezwany do wypadku mającego miejsce na hipodromie. Pierniczek - uwielbiany przez wszystkich koń, champion i wielka sława wyścigów, potyka się w trakcie biegu i skręca kark, przy okazji zabijając swojego woźnicę. Wydaje się, że wszyscy bardziej przejmują się śmiercią konia niż jeźdźca i nie mogą zrozumieć jak mogło dojść do takiej sytuacji. Zajcew będący kompletnym laikiem w tej dziedzinie, jest tym mocno zdziwiony, a okazuje się że w sprawie wypadku zwierzęcia będzie prowadzone śledztwo, za które ma być odpowiedzialny. No i szczerze mówiąc, cała intryga kryminalna z typowym kryminałem ma niewiele wspólnego i nie wciągnęła mnie za specjalnie. Za to uważam, że absolutnie genialnie został opisany koloryt tamtych czasów. Okres w którym bez skrupułów pozbywano się niewygodnych obywateli, robiąc z nich kułaków i sabotażystów, a więc wrogów wielkiego Związku Radzieckiego. Wszechobecny strach, głód, przemoc, szerzące się donosicielstwo, nie wiadomo z kim można rozmawiać szczerze, a kogo się wystrzegać. Autorka ma niewątpliwie ogromny talent do opisywania miejsc, ludzi czy wydarzeń. Dlatego jeśli szukacie książki związanej z kryminalną zagadką, to możecie czuć niedosyt. Jeśli jednak chcielibyście poznać te ciężkie czasy, ale przedstawione w bardzo przystępnej i ciekawej formie, polecam serdecznie.
November 10, 2023
Set in 1930s Leningrad at the start of Stalin’s purges, when the atmosphere is one of suspicion and fear, what appears at first to be an unfortunate accident at the race track – a horse mysteriously collapses and dies, killing his carriage rider – turns out to be something far more complicated and sinister. Detective Zaitsev is put on the case and is determined to get to the bottom of it, come what may and in spite of there being clear indications that he perhaps is putting himself in jeopardy. A clever and inventive police procedural, but with a plot I found quite hard to follow and which I felt didn’t always hang together. There are a lot of characters, and it wasn’t always to keep track of them, nor to work out who was “good” or “bad”. What I enjoyed more than the actual storyline was the evocation of the Soviet Union in that era, the glimpse the book gives the reader of the terrible and bleak conditions, the actual famine which we see when Zaitsev travel to Novocherkassk in southern Russia, the shortages, the crowded living arrangements, the political machinations and corruption, the surveillance and constant worry of putting a foot wrong or saying the wrong thing. A certain familiarity with the time and place is probably necessary to enjoy the novel, otherwise I sense it could be an opaque and difficult read. I enjoyed it overall, but sometimes found myself confused – my fault perhaps - and it stops me being more positive in this review.
February 15, 2024
This book was... wow. A complicated exploration of life - and managing to stay alive - in the Soviet Union, specifically Leningrad, in the 1930s, set within the framework of a somewhat superfluous police investigation. The investigation is superfluous to the book just as it is to the characters in the book - the real point is exploring the famine in Ukraine and the petty indignities and dangers of survival under the Soviet regime. It's dark and sad and depressing and at the end nothing feels resolved or certain; sure, characters have made it through the events of this book, but it seems unlikely, maybe impossible, that they will survive the rest of the 1930s without making moral compromises they seem unable to manage.
That said, had I not a fairly solid grounding in Russian and Soviet history I would have been very, very confused; Yakovleva is writing for an audience that understands at the very least the difference between the Reds and the Whites, the de-kulakization movement (and what a kulak is), the nature of shopping in the Soviet Union, etc. I suspect if you were willing to be carried along by the narrative you'd still be okay, there are set-pieces and moments that will hit you like a punch to the gut regardless of whether you understand all the details, but if not you might find yourself flailing.
In short, I loved it, but the unrelenting bleakness was hard.
That said, had I not a fairly solid grounding in Russian and Soviet history I would have been very, very confused; Yakovleva is writing for an audience that understands at the very least the difference between the Reds and the Whites, the de-kulakization movement (and what a kulak is), the nature of shopping in the Soviet Union, etc. I suspect if you were willing to be carried along by the narrative you'd still be okay, there are set-pieces and moments that will hit you like a punch to the gut regardless of whether you understand all the details, but if not you might find yourself flailing.
In short, I loved it, but the unrelenting bleakness was hard.
June 13, 2024
I picked this up to read a period piece murder mystery, but this is really more historical fiction. There IS a murder investigation here, but honestly when the killer was revealed, neither the detective who solved the case nor I really cared. In terms of making you feel like you're looking back into Stalinist Russia in the 1930s, though, this is a five star read.
I'm specifically talking about the famine caused by Stalin's Five Year Plan in 1928 that resulted in the starvation deaths of (checks Wikipedia) "5 to 7 million people" in the Ukraine. I don't recall covering that one in high school history! There's a pretty grim vibe running through this book, obviously, and I liked the world-weary (and yes, hungry) central character, the Leningrad Detective Zaitsev who travels south to pursue a case that some mysterious government faction wants solved.
I burned through this one pretty quickly, and while it's actually the second in a series of Detective Zaitsev books, not sure I'm up to find out what happens to this guy next. 3.5 stars.
I'm specifically talking about the famine caused by Stalin's Five Year Plan in 1928 that resulted in the starvation deaths of (checks Wikipedia) "5 to 7 million people" in the Ukraine. I don't recall covering that one in high school history! There's a pretty grim vibe running through this book, obviously, and I liked the world-weary (and yes, hungry) central character, the Leningrad Detective Zaitsev who travels south to pursue a case that some mysterious government faction wants solved.
I burned through this one pretty quickly, and while it's actually the second in a series of Detective Zaitsev books, not sure I'm up to find out what happens to this guy next. 3.5 stars.
October 28, 2021
W Leningradzie, w wyniku nieszczęśliwego wypadku, ginie koń czempion i jego jeździec, Perłowy. Na pierwszy rzut oka cała sprawa wygląda zupełnie niepodejrzanie. Kiedy jednak jeden z milicjantów z wydziału śledczego, towarzysz Zajcew, przygląda się aktom z autopsji konia, kilka rzeczy wzbudza jego podejrzliwość. Wkrótce prowadzone śledztwo zmusza go do wyjazdu w odległe tereny, gdzie wszystko wygląda zapuelnie inaczej...
Wobec ,,Czerwonego jeźdźca" moje oczekiwania były wielkie, ogromne, monstrualne. Liczyłam na kolejną intrygującą zagadkę kryminalną, specyficznie duszny klimat radzieckiej Rosji i wartką akcję. Niestety, nie do końca to otrzymałam...
Zaczynając od plusów, muszę przyznać, że opisy nastrojów i wzajemnych podejrzeń w radzieckiej Rosji ponownie prezentują najwyższy poziom. Ugryzione z innej strony niż ostatnio, państwo komunistyczne kolejny raz ukazuje nam swoje absurdy i niedorzeczności. Niestety, część kryminalna mnie nie porwała. Owszem, trudno byłoby pobić wątek detektywistyczny z poprzedniej części, no ale jednak. Liczyłam na coś ciekawszego.
Niemniej, ,,Czerwony jeździec" nadal jest książką interesującą i dobrze napisaną, a ja z wielką chęcią sięgnę po ostatni, trzeci tom tej serii, gdy tylko ukaże się na polskim rynku wydawniczym!
Wobec ,,Czerwonego jeźdźca" moje oczekiwania były wielkie, ogromne, monstrualne. Liczyłam na kolejną intrygującą zagadkę kryminalną, specyficznie duszny klimat radzieckiej Rosji i wartką akcję. Niestety, nie do końca to otrzymałam...
Zaczynając od plusów, muszę przyznać, że opisy nastrojów i wzajemnych podejrzeń w radzieckiej Rosji ponownie prezentują najwyższy poziom. Ugryzione z innej strony niż ostatnio, państwo komunistyczne kolejny raz ukazuje nam swoje absurdy i niedorzeczności. Niestety, część kryminalna mnie nie porwała. Owszem, trudno byłoby pobić wątek detektywistyczny z poprzedniej części, no ale jednak. Liczyłam na coś ciekawszego.
Niemniej, ,,Czerwony jeździec" nadal jest książką interesującą i dobrze napisaną, a ja z wielką chęcią sięgnę po ostatni, trzeci tom tej serii, gdy tylko ukaże się na polskim rynku wydawniczym!
May 6, 2024
Imagine the time in the Soviet Union during The Lenin period. Has life changed? Nor really. The czar has been replaced by the commisar. Everyone is called comrade but no one is. A country afraid of any dissent. Trust has been displaced with isolation. In this world the detective from Leningrad must still seek justice. In his travel from Leningrad to the southern region he is confronted with the repression of those who will not cooperate who have been starved and systematically destroyed by a regime that demands conformity and yet our intrepid detective must pursue those responsible for the murder of a man. In the best tradition of Russian literature we follow him in his self doubt and his insecurity in a world where he must find order.
October 18, 2017
Во-первых, это хронологическое продолжение предыдущей книги.
Поэтому некоторые моменты могут быть непонятны. Но читать отдельно можно, если на эти вкрапления не обращать внимания.
Все недостатки и достоинства тоже переехали сюда. Например, у главного героя постоянное чувство, что что-то не так - в жесте, звонке, собеседнике, и на этом чувстве строится некоторое количество разгаданных загадок. Это, по-моему, не очень честно по отношению к читателю.
Ну и развязка так себе.
Однако, например, фон интересный. Голод, Ленинград, кони (в прошлый раз картины). Иногда кажется, что может и не надо тут детектива?
Поэтому некоторые моменты могут быть непонятны. Но читать отдельно можно, если на эти вкрапления не обращать внимания.
Все недостатки и достоинства тоже переехали сюда. Например, у главного героя постоянное чувство, что что-то не так - в жесте, звонке, собеседнике, и на этом чувстве строится некоторое количество разгаданных загадок. Это, по-моему, не очень честно по отношению к читателю.
Ну и развязка так себе.
Однако, например, фон интересный. Голод, Ленинград, кони (в прошлый раз картины). Иногда кажется, что может и не надо тут детектива?
December 31, 2023
An interesting series this is becoming. Not the greatest thriller/mystery but it does paint a plausible picture of the Soviet Russia in the 1930s.
The story covers a possible murder and the death of a champion trotting horse. But more so it covers Stalin's liquidation of the Kulaks and the resulting famine as well as the purging of ex-Tsarist officers in the Army.
Detective Vaily Zeitsev continues to be the honest cop, trying to do his job but hamstrung by lack of resources, political interference, the fear of being arrested as an enemy of the state and in this book he is saddled with the pregnant girlfriend of his married boss.
The story covers a possible murder and the death of a champion trotting horse. But more so it covers Stalin's liquidation of the Kulaks and the resulting famine as well as the purging of ex-Tsarist officers in the Army.
Detective Vaily Zeitsev continues to be the honest cop, trying to do his job but hamstrung by lack of resources, political interference, the fear of being arrested as an enemy of the state and in this book he is saddled with the pregnant girlfriend of his married boss.
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