FALL OF A COSMONAUT

In a Kaminsky mystery featuring Russian Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov, you typically find several more or less interrelated police stories running more or less concurrently. So it is here, as Rostnikov tries to find a cosmonaut missing after returning from an accident--maybe--on the Mir space station, while some of his colleagues investigate a murder and others seek a stolen film about Tolstoy. Everything comes together at the end in a most satisfactory way. Equally satisfactory is the work of reader Nick Sullivan, who expertly captures Russian pronunciation (he had help, for which Chivers Sound Library gives credit in the narration) and dramatically involves himself in the story he is telling. He enjoys it, and so will his listeners, especially if they're already Kaminsky fans. This is good stuff, writing and reading. T. H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]