MYSTERY

The Body Outside the Kremlin

by James L May
Delphinium. Jan. 2020. 408p. ISBN 9781883285845. pap. $27.95. suspense
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DEBUT A monastery’s icons fuel a plot set at the accursed Solovetsky Archipelago, an outpost in Russia’s frozen north. In 1926, Tolya, a math student sentenced to several years of hard labor for a juvenile political insult, struggles to survive. He is temporarily assigned to aid Petrovich, once an Odessa cop and now also a political convict. Their task is to discover who murdered an art restorer at a nearby museum promoting antireligion themes but still conserving the icons. Loving detektiv stories, Tolya is an active partner, but to his horror he becomes the murderer’s target. The pair make a breakthrough when a bewitching woman convict decides to help them.
VERDICT Solovetsky Island is where many of the techniques used in the Soviet labor camp system were developed to murderous effect. May’s writing seamlessly integrates his detailed research into this experimental prison camp with the intrigues of criminals intent on looting religious treasures. Tolya relates his terrible story years later, during Khruschev’s era of the thaw. May, the author of short fiction and reviews, has made this debut novel a masterful historical detektiv tale.
Reviewed by Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA , Oct 01, 2019
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