Kyiv Mysteries

From the Ukrainian Stieg Larsson, a perplexing mystery from a world-renowned literary master that introduces a rookie detective, Samson Kolechko, in Kiev tackling his first case, set against real life details of the tumultuous early twentieth century. Kyiv, 1919. World War I has ended in Western Europe, but to the East, six factions vie for control of Ukraine. Amidst the instability, young Samson Kolechko places his engineering career on hold. But in the city of Kyiv where competing patrols, black-market enterprise, and mayhem prevail everything remains up for grabs and new opportunity lurks just around the corner... When two Red Army soldiers commandeer his home, Samson plays the reluctant host. As Samson juggles his personal life a budding romance with the ingenious Nadezhda, a statistician helping run the city's census with the soldiers' imposition, he winds up overhearing their secret plans. Deciding to report them, Samson instead finds himself unwittingly recruited as an investigator for the city's new police force. His first case is a perplexing mystery involving two murders, a long bone made of pure silver, and a decidedly unusual suit tailored from fine English cloth. With the odds stacked against him, Samson turns to Nadezhda, who proves to be more than a match. Inflected with Kurkov's signature humor and magical realism, “The Silver Bone” takes inspiration from the real-life archives of crime enforcement agencies in Kyiv, crafting a propulsive narrative that bursts to life with rich historical detail.

In the follow-up to International Booker Prize-longlisted The Silver Bone, Samson Kolechko cuts his teeth investigating illegal profiteering in lawless 1920s Kyiv, based on a real-life case. Samson Kolechko and his colleague have been dispatched to investigate the illegal sale of meat. How selling cuts of one's own livestock qualifies as a crime eludes the young investigator, but an order is an order, and, at the insistence of the secret police officer assigned to “reinforce” the Lybid police station, Samson vows to do his very best. But just as Samson is beginning to dig into the very meat of this case, his live-in fiancée Nadezhda is abducted by striking railway workers who object to the census she's carrying out. Complicating matters, the police station has been infiltrated by a mysterious thief, a deadly tram accident—which may have been premeditated—disrupts the city, and, to top it all, the culprit from Samson's “silver bone” case may have resurfaced. Against this backdrop, it's no wonder the “meat case” takes a backseat. Yet, despite the rising danger, the detective cannot let himself be distracted from his dogged pursuit of the seemingly mundane matter of the meat sellers, for ultimately his fate, and Nadezhda's too, rests on it, and are inextricably intertwined. Translated from the Russian by Boris Drayluk