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 Rostnikov Mystery Series by Stuart M. Kaminsky
Character's Personality: Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov is middle-aged, shrewd, unflappable, humorous, and has a deep and compassionate sense of curiosity about other people. He takes a fatherly approach to mentoring his officers. He reminds you of a tougher version of Inspector Gimache from Louise Penny's Three Pines mystery series.
Character's Occupation: Homicide detective
Character's Culture / Ethnicity: Russian
Character - Other Notable Traits: Christian, married to a Jewish wife.
Location and Time Period: Contemporary Moscow, Russia.
Mystery Subgenre: Police procedural.
Objectionable Material: Profanity and mild to medium violence.
Series Description: (brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) The Rostnikov series incorporates the changes that have shaped Moscow from the repressive Brezhnev years to the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent rise of organized crime.
It features memorable minor characters whose personal struggles form story-arcs across the series. First, there's Rostnikov who lifts weights, re-reads battered copies of American mysteries (obtained on the black market), and fixes his neighbors' plumbing problems for free. His Jewish wife experiences the hostile Soviet political climate. His only child Iosef is in the army, which the KGB uses against him in the early novels. If Rostnikov refuses their agenda, they will post his son to the war in Afghanistan. Eventually, Iosef becomes a detective, working with his father and the sarcastic cop Elena Temofeyeva with whom he falls in love.
Rostnikov's best officers are Emile Karpo, an ascetic loner of Tatar descent, and Sasha Tkach, a young family man with a weakness for pretty women. There is also Arkady Zelach, a humble detective full of surprising talents. Like the Ed McBain 87th Precinct novels to which they do homage, the Rostnikov novels have the characters working on simultaneous yet separate cases. This gives the reader the pleasure of multiple storylines that feature every character in action in every book. See also the Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith.
Series List: Purple date = I've read it. Title links go to Amazon.com product pages.
- Death of a Dissident
 (1981) A serial killer murders a dissident and those connected with him.
- Black Knight in Red Square
 (1983) A female terrorist is killing important foreigners at a film festival.
- Red Chameleon
 (1985) Rostnikov solves the murder of an elderly Jewish man. Tkach cracks a car-theft ring. Karpo hunts a sniper by using himself as bait.
- A Fine Red Rain
 (1987) Rostnikov solves a mystery involving circus performers.
- A Cold Red Sunrise
 (1988) Edgar Award. An excellent book in the series. Rostnikov and Karpo go to Siberia to work on a case the KGB tries to keep them from solving.
- Rostnikov's Vacation
 (1991) Rostnikov and his wife go on holiday near the Black Sea and encounter a murder conspiracy that Karpo also helps to uncover back in Moscow.
- The Man Who Walked Like a Bear
 (1990) A somewhat weak book in the series involving a KGB plot to manipulate Rostnikov. Also Turkistan separatists hijack a bus and its driver and try to blow up Lenin's tomb.
- Death of a Russian Priest
 (1992) Rostnikov and Karpo travel to a small Russian town to solve the murder of a charismatic priest with a scandalous past.
- Hard Currency
 (1995) A good book especially if you enjoyed Havana Bay in the Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith. Rostnikov and Elena go to Cuba to investigate a murder allegedly done by a Russian citizen. They encounter strange events connected with the Santeria religion.
- Blood and Rubles
 (1996) An African-American FBI agent comes to Moscow to team with Rostnikov to investigate the abduction of a ruthless black-marketer. Karpo experiences a shattering personal tragedy and wants revenge.
- Tarnished Icons
 (1997) Karpo tracks down a Russian Unabomber. Sasha and Elena go after a serial rapist. Rostnikov investigates a hate-crime against a synagogue that connects to a buried czarist treasure.
- The Dog Who Bit a Policeman
 (1998) Tkach and Elena infiltrate a dog-fighting ring. Rostnikov and Karpo solve a murder-blackmail case involving a politician.
- Fall of a Cosmonaut
 (2000) An excellent book in the series. Rostnikov unravels the strange disappearance of a cosmonaut from the Mir space-station. Karpo investigates a murder at an institute for paranormal research, which is a wonderful match of a weird case with the ultimate skeptic. His partner Arkady Zelach (the not-very-bright but loyal cop known as "the Slouch") turns out to have extrasensory powers.
- Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express
 (2001) An excellent book in the series. Rostnikov and Sasha ride the Trans-Siberian express to intercept some historical contraband to change hands somewhere along the route. An assassin and a spy are each trying to find this contraband. Karpo and Zelach search for a missing punk rocker, the wayward son of a Jewish tycoon. Karpo is increasingly reckless and suicidal, and Zelach, with insider knowledge of the punk rock scene, is the one who must maintain stability.
- People Who Walk In Darkness
 (2008)
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