October 1, 2023

In post--World War I Kyiv, engineer Samson Kolechko seeks to report a suspicious conversation he overheard between two Red Army soldiers and ends up being recruited into the city's new police force. His first case involves two murders, a beautifully tailored suit, and a gracefully arced silver bone, and he solves it with the help of whip-smart-statistician Nadezhda. Kurkov, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner for the literary title Grey Bees, is here dubbed the Ukrainian Stieg Larsson; with a 100,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2024
Murder in Kyiv in the Bolshevik Revolution's aftermath. In the first of a projected series, the prominent Ukrainian novelist Kurkov introduces Samson Kolechko, an unemployed electrical engineer who lands a detective job in 1919, launching him into the investigation of a theft that evolves into the pursuit of a murderer that almost claims his life. After his father is slaughtered in the street by Cossack marauders and his own right ear is severed in the attack, Samson finds himself isolated in his Kyiv flat until some of his space is appropriated by two Red Army soldiers. When he reports their theft of his father's beloved desk to the local police station, he's improbably offered a job as a detective to help stem the tide of property crimes in a city that's roiled by violence in the unsettled aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. With relative swiftness but no small amount of personal peril, Samson follows a trail that eventually leads to the discovery of a theft of silver objects, including the eponymous body part, after he survives an ambush and is nearly murdered alongside a soldier who'd been assisting him and a witness in the case. He's aided in his pursuit of their killer by his friendship with Nadezhda, a young woman who works in Kyiv's census office and has become the object of Samson's romantic interest. Kurkov deepens his story with a vivid portrait of Kyiv that emphasizes the city's "atmosphere of fear and danger" and considerable material deprivation in the wake of Russia's epochal political change. Samson and his colleagues must function in what amounts to a barter economy that involves frequent nighttime blackouts caused by the theft of the firewood fueling Kyiv's power plant, along with food and water shortages. It's a bleak, but fitting, backdrop to one man's grimly determined quest for justice. An atmospheric police procedural whose protagonist battles personal tragedy and a tangled system to solve his first case.

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Starred review from January 29, 2024
A Kyiv torn to pieces by WWI provides the backdrop for this fascinating series launch from Ukrainian novelist and screenwriter Kurkov (Grey Bees). The action begins with teenage Samson Kolechko seeing his father cut down in the street by Soviet Cossacks, followed by a saber slice to Samson’s head that severs his right ear. Alone and stunned, he takes shelter in his family’s apartment, only to find two Red Army soldiers quartered there. He files a report about the soldiers’ misdeeds, including the unwelcome removal of Samson’s father’s furniture. The eloquence of the report’s language impresses the local police investigator, who offers Samson a job “combat crime and restor order,” which he accepts. Bolstering Samson even further is a budding romance with strong-minded yet tender statistician Nadezhda. After a tailor friend and a soldier are both murdered, Samson leads an investigation into the crimes, discovering evidence including an incredibly large suit and a silver bone as long as a femur at the scenes. Kurkov eschews conventional mystery plotting—the eponymous bone isn’t discovered until two-thirds of the way through the novel—but the finely drawn characters and harrowing descriptions of daily life in 1919 Kyiv leave a far more lasting impression than clever genre tricks ever could. With its earthy prose and stunning attention to detail, this stands apart.

February 1, 2024

Ukrainian author Kurkov's (Grey Bees) new novel, set in 1919 Kyiv, mixes elements of grim humor and surrealism. It's a far-from-straightforward policier, as though Gogol, Bulgakov, Ilf, and Petrov had been thrown into the mix. In the novel's first sentence, Samson hears a Cossack saber hit his father's head, splitting it in half. Then a saber slices off one of Samson's ears. Here reality fragments. The ear still hears and transmits what it hears to Samson, as the two Red Army soldiers who have commandeered his flat plan his death. (With Samson dead, they can desert the army.) When Samson tries to report them, he's conscripted into the Kyiv police force to investigate a murder involving a stolen bolt of fine cloth that the tailor from whom it was stolen refuses to take back. Then Samson's partner is killed and he vows vengeance. Along the way, he meets a stolid Soviet damsel; love ensues, sweetly and modestly. Eventually he finds the killer, identified by the pattern of the cloth laid out by the tailor--bulky top, spindly legs. One will never feel uncomfortable en route through this admittedly complicated story whose Kyiv is a complicated place to survive. VERDICT A winning offbeat crime novel that begs for a sequel.--David Keymer

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2024
The first book in a new police series by Ukrainian author Kurkov introduces us to Samson Kolechko, an unemployed electrical engineer in the bleak and gritty city of Kyiv after WWI in 1919. Samson is thrust into a whole new life while trying to cope with personal tragedy, unexpectedly becoming an amateur detective, solving his first case, and dealing with political turmoil, convoluted law enforcement, and a budding romance with Nadezha, who works for the census office. The city is dangerous, rations are limited, and a silver femur becomes the heart of Samson's case. Samson relies on not only his sleuthing but also the aid of his severed right ear, which somehow allows him to hear what is going on wherever he places it. Kurkov melds history with elements of magical realism and offsets the grim atmosphere with random bouts of humor, especially from naive and inexperienced Samson. The case concludes with this novel, but tidbits of information are sprinkled throughout that can easily provide a premise for further books in the Kyiv Mysteries series.

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