In 1937 Stalinist Russia, CID detective Alexei Korolev is “asked” by the NKVD to find out more about the suspected suicide of a young woman in Ukraine who was working on a movie production subsidized by the state. If it is in fact suicide then he can consider the trip as a holiday without mentioning his orders, if not, then he is to investigate. Making things more precarious, she was having an affair with a party director. He has no choice, however, even though he would prefer to avoid political cases at all costs. He travels to Ukraine from Moscow by air - his first flight! The coroner finds the woman was murdered, which to Korolev’s horror means he must investigate party members. While he is loyal to the party he finds himself trapped by that loyalty and his obligation to justice.

Ryan’s writing portrays not only the terrible anxiety produced by Stalin’s Communism that is in opposition to the Orthodox church, still operating in secrecy, but also the danger of antagonizing the party during a time of Stalin’s frequent purges. An excellent novel, I look forward to reading more by Ryan. ( )

[b:The Darkening Field|12160902|The Darkening Field|William Ryan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1321500244s/12160902.jpg|16911078] by [a:William Ryan|268427|William Ryan|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg] is a wonderful murder mystery set in 1937 Soviet Russia. When Captain Alexi Korolev of Moscow's Criminal Investigation Division is sent to Odessa to investigate the murder of a young actress, he uncovers a plot much more twisted than he could have imagined. This is a first-rate mystery that perfectly captures the overriding fog of terror in Stalin's Russia, where even an innocent mistake or mishap is enough to doom you, your coworkers, and your entire family.

Thanks to Book Browse's First Impressions for a chance to read this advance readers' edition. ( )

As a reader with a fascination for Russian history, I enjoyed Ryan's first Korolev crime novel, The Holy Thief. His depiction of life in mid-1930's Moscow under Stalin was and is dark, and effectively evokes a sense of bloody history, resignation, dread, and drama. In this novel, Korolev is sent to Odessa, to investigate the suspicious death of a young woman, a popular and admired Party stalwart, on a film set. It's dark. And cold. And dark. And cold. Ryan doesn't manage to paint much more of a picture than that of this Ukrainian city amid the sea and the steppes, apart from a brief conversation in which a native describes it, which is a bit disappointing. The opening scene set in Moscow is far more vibrant and convincing. In age-old Russian fashion, there are a LOT of characters to keep track of, which dilutes the story and makes it even more tricky to follow at times. It's more or less a pretty standard detective / spy / thriller, involving the criminal underworld, espionage, gun-running, and ends with not one but two gunfights in enclosed spaces, all complicated by the competing and conflicting bureaucracies looming over all. Not my favorite genre, but Korolev is a likable and sympathetic character with his own ethical and spiritual issues, layered with a dogged determination to do his duty and, frankly, stay alive and out of the gulag. Not as good a Holy Thief; but if you liked that, this one will do nicely. ( )

This is the second novel featuring Alexei Korolev, a detective with the Moscow CID working in the late 1930s at the height of Stalin's purges. It is over seven years since I read the first novel, The Holy Thief (and six years since I bought this one), but this reflects the good and not so good aspects of the first book. The oppressive atmosphere of the times is quite well created, and the difficulty for an honest man to detect crime in an atmosphere where everything is mixed up with politics is well brought across. Korolev is a conflicted character, loyal to his country and accepting most of its mores most of the time, but also a religious believer, an interesting (and highly dangerous!) combination for the time. There are a lot of plot elements - a murdered actress, disaffected Ukrainians involved in gunrunning, and so on, and I did feel though that the various elements of the plot didn't hang together as well as they might have done, and I found the role of the Thieves a bit confusing. I wasn't initially totally clear exactly when this was set, but I think from the context it must be the late winter/early spring of 1937 - Yezhov has replaced Yagoda as NKVD chief, but Tukhachevsky is still around. Anyway, there will be a much shorter gap between my reading this and the third novel than between the first two books. ( )

Even better than the first book!