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A review by nwhyte
A Killing Winter by Tom Callaghan
3.0
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3346896.html
It's a detective novel set in Kyrgyzstan, mostly in the capital, Bishkek, but with excursions to Osh, the second city, and to the Chinese border. The narrator, Inspector Akyl Borobaev, has recently lost his wife to cancer, and is brought in to solve the gruesome murder of the daughter of the Minister for State Security. There is a lot of very good circumstantial detail of the human and physical geography of Kyrgyzstan, a country of which I know very little, and the various characters (all deeply unpleasant, apart from a glamorous Uzbek security agent) are very vividly depicted. I was less convinced by the revelation of the villain's identity; I did not quite get the means or motivation. Still, an interesting change. Apparently the first of a series, though not sure how energetically I will seek out the rest.
It's a detective novel set in Kyrgyzstan, mostly in the capital, Bishkek, but with excursions to Osh, the second city, and to the Chinese border. The narrator, Inspector Akyl Borobaev, has recently lost his wife to cancer, and is brought in to solve the gruesome murder of the daughter of the Minister for State Security. There is a lot of very good circumstantial detail of the human and physical geography of Kyrgyzstan, a country of which I know very little, and the various characters (all deeply unpleasant, apart from a glamorous Uzbek security agent) are very vividly depicted. I was less convinced by the revelation of the villain's identity; I did not quite get the means or motivation. Still, an interesting change. Apparently the first of a series, though not sure how energetically I will seek out the rest.