Monstrum

Rating:
Summary: Mother Russia
Review: In the year 2?015 , The National Democracy forces under Leonid Kobra ended the civil war by defeating the Anarchist/Marxist forces, taking back the city of Moscow. Cheka (secret service) official Roy Rolkin asks for the transfer of his friend, Inspector Constantin Vadim, from his home grounds of Murmansk to Moscow. There, Vadim should find a serial murderer who kills and carves up young women. He is placed in the worst possible district of the city, completely bombed out and destroyed,without water or electricity, and the meager population reduced to fighting for the barest survival. Slowly and energetically, he burrows his way into this underground of absolute human misery. He finds that the promised amnesty for the anarchists brings a one way ticket to Siberian hell once they surrender. Dr. Imogen Sheperd, the American supervisor of the program, is more interested in the luxury life the party bosses lead in another part of town. Vadim is also interested in the fate of his ex-wife Lydia, the anarchist commander of a regiment of women, and of their son Misha. He visits the buildings where bands of teenage robbers and murderers congregate, and goes into the underground passages where Father Alexander celebrates his libidinous church. Nothing ever is what it seems to be. The former enemies surface as top party officials of the new government. The people at the bottom of the ladder are persecuted as before, tortured and murdered. Everything has changed, and yet nothing is different.

Mr. James published this book in 1997 when Jelzin was in power. His previous book, ?the Fortune Teller?, places Vadim in the hopeless harbor scene of Murmansk. His next one, ?Vadim?, plays in 2?020 and will be published shortly. A fourth one, ?the Benefactor?, is scheduled for next year. Mr. James wrote the 10-part series on Russia for PBS. He also published a book on modern Russian history. To compare the present book to ?Gorki Park? does it an immense injustice. The author uses the form of a mystery to tell us about Russia, and he comes through very loud and clear.

Mr James makes a very strong point: The lot of the Russian citizen is a sad one. In command is the Cheka, the KGB, or whatever name it gives itself. And no matter how much they smile and act human they still imprison, torture and kill. At this point we should remember that Vladimir Putin is a product of the KGB.

Rating:
Summary: From Russia with Tedium
Review: It is the year 2015, and a post-civil war Russia attempts to build a new democracy and discard centuries of Totalitarianism. Constantin Vadim, a militiaman from Murmansk, is assigned to Moscow as the chief homicide inspector of a destitute and war-torn district of Moscow to take charge of a brutal string of murders of young women by a fiend dubbed the "monstrum". For sure, an unusual and ambitious setting for a serial murder mystery, which historian Donald James tackles in "Monstrum". It is this ambition, however, that fatally flaws what could have been an intriguing novel; there are simply too many plots set in motion and too many messages that James is trying to deliver. Told by Vadim in first person, the all-too-frequent addresses to the reader as "my brothers" becomes tedious. While in the end most of these threads come together, payoff feels contrived, wholly implausible, and ultimately disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: When historians write novels...
Review: Monstrum has a sensational premise: gory serial killer terrorizes post-civil war Moscow; inexperienced provincial investigator must confront sinister political forces to apprehend the criminal. Unfortunately, Mr. James confuses the issue by adding two addition plot lines that do little service to the story. The first, a backstory about the investigator's wife, a general with the losing side of the civil war, has little relevance to the story and uses up a great deal of ink; the second, involving a scheme to alter the investigator's appearance through plastic surgery and then use him as a public double for the president, is, to say the least, far-fetched. Without knowing a great deal about secret police strategy, I think its a safe bet to say that the spouse of an avowed enemy of the state would be an unlikely choice for such a role. Regardless, the space required to detail these two extraneous elements means that the book has an underwritten feel. The characters are thinly drawn, in particular the one who should have been the most fascinating - the killer. There was an odd moment when after reading most of the novel, I realized that the author was going to have to tie up an awful lot in the last few pages. Unsurprisingly, the ending was rushed and frankly, pretty stupid. It's a shame, because Mr. James grasp of the Russian culture and its vernacular is tremendous, and had he gone a little lighter on concept and heavier on detail this could have been a tremendous novel. As it is, it's a fun read but not much more.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive
Review: Mr. James has written an immensely satisfying novel that is layered with converging plot lines that implode (rather than explode) in a multi-climatic continuum that is both reminiscent of noir classics and as energized as contemporary pulp fiction.

A decidedly subtle read so evocatively written that you are subconsciously drawn in. Be prepared to be thoughtfully distracted between readings as your mind unwillingly reviews the details of the story and the intricacies of the characters.

While the story may seem to lack in areas such as character development, the author seems to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions by way of character action - verses character description. In doing so, the novel becomes a palpable reflection of the reader's own experience and interpretation.

For those who might ascribe the authors story line development with being too convenient or implausibly coincidental, which is the common thread of any thriller, the understated inflections of the lead character - Constantin Vadim - told in first person, more than compensate.

Very good read for discerning tastes that lean towards the more intelligent story.

Rating:
Summary: A waste of time. Save your money.
Review: No suspense. Characters you can't care about. Predictable twists and turns. You can see everything coming, why can't the protaganist? yawn....whadda a bore.

Rating:
Summary: Murder Mayhem in Moscow
Review: One of the problems that faces many writers of thrillers is composing the right background. In this respect, Donald James' pedigree as an historian serves him well. Post-Yeltsin Russia degenerates into a civil war that leads to massive strife and suffering, culminating in a sort of peace in 2015. James draws upon the history of Russia in the twentieth century to present various sub-plots and characters that all seem plausible.

The problem I have with the novel is the series of implausible coincidences that are necessary for the story to reach its conclusion.

Inspector Constantin Vadim is despatched to Moscow's notorious District 13 as a supposed homicide inspector of skill and subtlety transferred from Murmansk. He then embarks on an investigation seeking a ghastly serial killer preying on young women. However, to think that this is a simple detective story overlooks the fact that Vadim was married to the beautiful Russian Anarchist woman general, Julia Petrovna, no! w on the run. The pursuer is none other than Roy Rolkin, rising star of the Cheka, the Nationalist secret police, who happened to be at school with Vadim and wife. Rolkin is behind the transfer to Moscow where Vadim quickly becomes distracted by Dr Imogen Shepherd and Natalya Karlova. The former is the UN representative of the Amnesty Commission and the latter is the district pathologist. Neither are what they seem.

As part of the arrangement with Rolkin to move to Moscow, Vadim undergoes surgery. The consequences are that a few cosmetic tricks can transform him into General Leonid Koba, head of the Cheka and puppet master of the President. Vadim plays the part for television cameras, inspecting factories and lines of schoolchildren.

And so it goes on. If James takes the care to describe a character in detail the likelihood is that the incursion into the text will be anything but fleeting. I suppose the breadth of the story necessitates a limited number of characters, but ! it all becomes a little predictable after a while.

That s! aid, the final denouement was less predictable. The series of events leading to the last pages had taken on a certain momentum but James has cleverly reached a logical conclusion from the plot that is somehow satisfying. Also, the horror of the events is captured without gratuity.

But was it readable? Yes. Once belief is partially suspended and the coincidences are accepted, the story rattles along at a good pace. Overall, an enjoyable but not overly taxing read.

Rating:
Summary: I was very disappointed
Review: The premise was fantastic. A futuristic political thriller, serial murder mystery. Maybe it tried to be too much, but it became highly predictable after you got into it. I was raving about it for about 50 pages, then it became too wordy. Too much of the political and not enough dealings with the serial killings. I expected the serial killings to be more in the forefront of the story as opposed to a steady dose of politics. I won't recommend this book. Even though I got through it, it was tedious.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive novel by James
Review: The story that James weaves around a rebuilding (again) Russia after civil war is suberb. He has created a place that is both sinister and frighening real. I enjoyed the way the the plot twisted and turned. I was surprised at James for his belief that modern life has no ideology, no beliefs. All people belief in, in his world, is power and money. I hope he is wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating! I didn't want this book to end!
Review: The twisting, turning, but believable story line was captivating. The very human, very believable viewpoint of the story teller set this book apart from the rest. A real page turner I couldn't put down. I loved this book.

Rating:
Summary: More than a mystery
Review: This book was such a pleasant surprise that I couldn't let go of it for weeks after I read it - and ended up going back to it at least twice since then. Donald James creates an entirely believable landscape in 2015 Moscow, and tells the possible story of the country through the eyes of his characters. I think one of the main reasons why I fell in love with Monstrum was the protagonist character, Vadim, a would-be passive police inspector who just wants to have a quiet job and a quiet apartment where he can miss his dead son and a wife who left him. Instead, through little fault of his own, he gets involved in events seemingly beyond his control. And as he stumbles through life, increasingly becoming more and more involved, making choices and searching for the truth, one can't help but ache for his fate and for the fate of those around him.

Female characters here are also especially interesting - I haven't seen such strong, complex women in many other novels.

Donald James is a historian and that is a great plus for Monstrum: he knows the shifts and spirals of history. The future he imagines for Russia (hopefully it can be avoided) is in tune at once with this country's turbulent past and its ambivalent present. I don't think even after 2015, this novel will possibly be outdated: instead it could be thought of as an alternate reality. A serial killer mystery is overshadowed here by its political connections, and that gives the writer room to go in many surprising directions.

While dark in content, it's ultimately uplifting, and wonderfully so, since after as much as the characters go through in this story, they deserve some hope at the end. This is a mystery with a heart of a romantic quest and a historic novel - and it does honor to all these genres.

I so wish he would write a sequel. There is room enough for it. I probably will be waiting hopelessly for it, but my point is...this book is too good to pass up.