Reviews for A Whisper to the Living (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Series #16)

The average rating for A Whisper to the Living (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Series #16) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-08-16 00:00:00 Christiaan Starrenburg It was very hard to read this book, but not because it wasn't a wonderful story. Kaminsky was my favorite author for many, many years, with his Toby Peters series, Abe Lieberman series, and the Porfiry Rostnikov series. This was the last Rostnikov book, published shortly after Kaminsky's death in 2009. For those who haven't read these stories, Rostnikov is a Russian detective whose favorite English author is Ed McBain. He's not your everyday detective and he doesn't work in what we'd recognize as an American police department. His methods are unique, and there might be a bit of Columbo in his techniques, and he always solves his cases. This one involves a serial killer in Moscow, and the case is kicked sideways to Rostnikov's "Special Investigations Branch" when the normal police investigation goes nowhere. There is Kremlin intrigue and all the familiar characters in this novel (the other investigators who work with and for Rostnikov) and like all Kaminsky novels, the characters are fully developed and real. This isn't a "whodunnit" because we learn who the serial killer is in the beginning of the book, but we read on to find out how Rostnikov will unmask the killer, as well as the several other investigations being conducted at the same time. I miss Mr. Kaminsky greatly.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-09-17 00:00:00 James Cormani This is the sixteenth and final book in the Rostnikov series (the author died before its publication), but it is not in any meaningful way a conclusion to the story. Although some of the loose ends are tied up, others are introduced, which leaves those who have come to care about these characters hanging. What was the point of telling us that Rostnikov is aware of something troubling Karpo when there is no way for the reader to ever find out what it is? Is Sarah Rostnikov actually dying? What could Lydia Tkach possibly have said to convince Maya to come back to Moscow; will she or won't she stay there and give Sasha one more chance; and frankly, why should she? His thoughts earlier in the story make it clear that there is no way he will ever be a faithful husband, no matter how much he loves her. It sounds at the end as if Karpo has begun to move on from his grief over Mathilde's death, but it's hard to know what he can move on *to* - he has no life, and the hints in earlier books that he might be starting to open up to some people are not developed in this book. I suspect that Kaminsky would have stopped after Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express - there is quite a time gap between books 14 and 15; perhaps he was tired of these characters. The last book feels like something he maybe threw together because so many people wanted it. I think he would have been better though to stop with People Who Walk in Darkness. The end of that story left the characters' storylines essentially resolved, and in ways consistent with their histories and personalities.