Butterfly Skin

In this psychological thriller published for the first time in English, Kuznetsov wants to take readers deep inside his subject matter, which includes not only the mind of the serial killer driving the events but all of 21st-century Moscow. Ksenia, an ambitious editor of an online newspaper, decides to investigate a series of gruesome murders and finds herself obsessed with the psychopath terrorizing the Russian capital. Grisly details of the killer's handiwork will push the limits of even seasoned thriller readers' tastes, but the equally penetrating explorations of Russian feminism, fringe sexuality, and online expression justify the cult fame the novel has earned in Russia. The media-savvy author name checks many pop-culture serial killers, including Hannibal Lecter of Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs and Mickey and Mallory of the film Natural Born Killers. Interestingly, Kuznetsov avoids discussion of Jack the Ripper, even though the most necessary companion title for this book has to be Alan Moore's From Hell, down to the nauseating imagery. That said, there are poetic elements here—both actual poems by the murderer and repeated paragraph opening lines evocative of stanzas—that rival Peter Heller's The Painter for fusing poetry and prose (not to mention the parallels of artists finding expression in murder).