A Cold Red Sunrise

Praised by the Washington Post as a writer with the imagination of Scheherazade, Stuart M. Kaminsky again con-firms his immense talent in A Cold Red Sunrise.

Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov of the Moscow police is one of the most charming and memorable of all fictional sleuths. A brilliant if unorthodox detective, a champion weightlifter, a loving family man and a realist in a strange and perverted world, Rostnikov stands among the mystery greats.

His new assignment takes him to Tumsk in deepest Siberia, where the temperature is forty below on a good day. Two people have died in suspicious circumstances: the young daughter of a famous dissident father who is scheduled to depart soon for the West; and the Moscow police Commissar sent to investigate her death.

Did the Commissar discover some vital clue to the girl's death so vital that the killer stabbed him to death with an icicle on the frozen, deserted town square?

Rostnikov is none too thrilled to be sent to Siberia, especially because he senses that there may be more to this case than the file would indicate. Even his trusted associate, Emil Karpo, seems to be suffering from a peculiar malaise.

Investigate the Commissar's murder, not the child's, Rostnikov is ordered. But with only fifteen or so people living in Tumsk, the two deaths must somehow be linked. Before he leaves Tumsk, Rostnikov will encounter courage, fortitude and evil. With his career and his family's happiness and security at risk, Rostnikov must tread carefully through perilous territory before he finds the killer.

A Cold Red Sunrise, with its memorable characters and vivid scenes of the stark Siberian landscape, is the best yet from one of the most talented of contemporary mystery writers.