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A review by rosseroo
Dead Meat by Philip Kerr
4.0
I loved Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy, and bought this as soon as it came out in the early 1990s, but for some reason never got around to reading it until now. It was written in the early 1990s, just after the Soviet Union had splintered into the Commonwealth of Independent States, and for a book set in such a specific time, it's aged quite well.
A nameless protagonist has been dispatched by Moscow to St. Petersburg to "liase" with the local police to learn about their methods for combating the mafia. Of course, he's really there to see if they have been bought off as the twin perils of privatization and mafias are filling the void created by the dissolution of the strong central state. In St. Petersburg, he's paired up with a gruff, no-nonsense detective named Grushko, who leads the efforts against the various Georgian, Chechen, and Ukrainian gangs with their fingers in the protection, prostitution, and smuggling pies. However, when a prominent investigative journalist is murdered, things get a little more interesting....
Apparently, Kerr did a lot of primary research for this book, getting deep access to the St. Petersburg militia, and observing their tactics against organized crime. As a result, not only is the plotting solid, but the details of day to day uncertainty under the new economic system rings true. There's a balance between the camaraderie and humor of the police team, and the bleak reality of food prices no one can afford. Recommended for anyone interested in getting a sense of what the "new" Russia of the early 90s felt like.
A nameless protagonist has been dispatched by Moscow to St. Petersburg to "liase" with the local police to learn about their methods for combating the mafia. Of course, he's really there to see if they have been bought off as the twin perils of privatization and mafias are filling the void created by the dissolution of the strong central state. In St. Petersburg, he's paired up with a gruff, no-nonsense detective named Grushko, who leads the efforts against the various Georgian, Chechen, and Ukrainian gangs with their fingers in the protection, prostitution, and smuggling pies. However, when a prominent investigative journalist is murdered, things get a little more interesting....
Apparently, Kerr did a lot of primary research for this book, getting deep access to the St. Petersburg militia, and observing their tactics against organized crime. As a result, not only is the plotting solid, but the details of day to day uncertainty under the new economic system rings true. There's a balance between the camaraderie and humor of the police team, and the bleak reality of food prices no one can afford. Recommended for anyone interested in getting a sense of what the "new" Russia of the early 90s felt like.