The Man Who Walked Like a Bear : An Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Novel

Rating:
Summary: Perestroika
Review: In his Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov series, Stuart Kamisky has deftly transplanted the McBain 87th Precinct police procedural to Soviet Russia. Chief Inspector Rostnikov is frequently reported to be carrying or reading an old copy of one of McBain's works and often refers to some of the characters. And as with the 87th Precinct, there are individual detectives, each with his own back stories, investigating different cases. This time out their Office of Special Investigations is looking into a possible murder plot against a member of the Politburo, the disappearance of a bus driver and his bus and, of course, a mysterious mental patient who "walks like a bear."

Kaminsky leaves me wanting to know what happens to these guys and their families as the Soviet Union disintegrates. This was my first encounter and I have ordered more of the series. I am eagerly awaiting reading them!

Rating:
Summary: You'd Think I would've remembered
Review: The sixth in Kaminsky's Porfiry Rostnikov series, THE MAN WHO WALKED LIKE A BEAR is a good one to get a sense of what the series is like: Rostnikov draws diagrams of potential plumbing problems and lifts weights when he's not absorbed in a case; Emil Karpo is bothered by migraine headaches and some six hundred unsolved cases he refuses to give up on; Sasha Tkach is having trouble with his mother interfering with his family life.
All of this is a backdrop to Kaminsky's 87th Precinct style mystery. Kaminsky hints at the influence by having Rostnikov carry around an Ed McBain novel as he pursues various leads.
The title refers to an apparent mental patient who interrupts Rostnikov's visit to his wife Sarah's hospital room, where she's recuperating from a brain tumor operation. The man is naked and ranting about devils invading the shoe factory where he works. Rostnikov decides to investigate. A second case deals with a woman complaining that her son is about to assassinate a Politburo member. A third has to do with the disappearance of Bus 43 and its driver Boris Trush.
All of these threads occur prior to the dissolution of the USSR, during the time of Gorbachev and glasnost. Any case involving the Politburo is dangerous territory for Rostnikov and crew. This is exacerbated when the reader realizes "The Washtub" is being tracked by the KGB.
I was so looking forward to another Rostnikov novel that I inadvertently read this one a second time. You'd think I would've remembered that title.