In the follow-up to International Booker Prize-longlisted The Silver Bone, Samson Kolechko cuts his teeth investigating illegal profiteering in lawless 1920s Kyiv, based on a real-life case.

“Andrey Kurkov is often called Ukraine's greatest living writer, and it is a gift for crime fiction fans that he writes in this genre.”—New York Times

Samson Kolechko and his colleague have been dispatched to investigate the illegal sale of meat. How selling cuts of one’s own livestock qualifies as a crime eludes the young investigator, but an order is an order, and, at the insistence of the secret police officer assigned to “reinforce” the Lybid police station, Samson vows to do his very best.

But just as Samson is beginning to dig into the very meat of this case, his live-in fiancée Nadezhda is abducted by striking railway workers who object to the census she's carrying out. Complicating matters, the police station has been infiltrated by a mysterious thief, a deadly tram accident—which may have been premeditated—disrupts the city, and, to top it all, the culprit from Samson’s “silver bone” case may have resurfaced.

Against this backdrop, it’s no wonder the “meat case” takes a backseat. Yet, despite the rising danger, the detective cannot let himself be distracted from his dogged pursuit of the seemingly mundane matter of the meat sellers, for ultimately his fate, and Nadezhda's too, rests on it, and are inextricably intertwined.

Translated from the Russian by Boris Drayluk