Meet Artemy (Artie) Cohen, a Russian-American detective that unwillingly gets involved in a murder case when a young girl
runs out in front of his car and leads him to a figure, wrapped completely in silver duct tape propped on a swing in a New York playground. The corpse turns out to be a young Russian woman who happened to work at one of the night clubs owned by Arty's Russian friend Tolya Sverdloff, but was it a case of mistaken identity? Arty is drawn into the sleazy
underworld of rich Russian emigres, obsessed with thier own wealth and power. The trail takes him to '
Londongrad', the area of London where thousands of these Russian oligarchs settled after the fall of communism, to their disputes and dark dealings, and in the background hovers the real-life murder of Alexander Litvinenko by a dose of radio-active Polonium-210. But the answers lie back in Moscow and it is there that Arty finally solves the case.
Reggie Nadelson has written a truly atmospheric novel with believable characters and a view of life that we would never wish to be involved with. There is a very real tension all the way through the book and a sense of the threat that these underworld characters evoke. This is more than just a detective novel. There is love, there are friendships that are truly tested and much in the way of social comment, but a very readable novel and much to enjoy here.