This "superb mystery-thriller" featuring a Moscow cop reminiscent of Arkady Renko delivers "riveting suspense" (Publishers Weekly).

Porfiry Rostnikov and his wife Sarah have been in love for decades, since the end of World War II. Now the police inspector is by his wife's bedside as she recuperates from a brain operation, when a massive naked man staggers into her hospital room, scared out of his mind, and tries to jump out the window. Rostnikov restrains the bearlike man, trying to calm him. As orderlies arrive to return the escapee to the mental ward, he cries out: "The devil came to devour the factory."

Rostnikov has far more important things on his mind than deciphering the ravings of a lunatic, first among them Sarah's recovery. And of course crime has not stopped while he cares for his wife. Rebels are planting bombs, teenagers are plotting assassinations, and the KGB lurks in every shadow. But despite all these clamors, the man's strange words continue to haunt Rostnikov—and compel him to investigate.

With his Edgar Award–winning Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov mysteries, "Kaminsky has staked a claim to a piece of Russian turf . . . He captures the Russian scene and character in rich detail" (The Washington Post Book World).