The violent and inexplicable murder of an old man in his bathtub and the theft of a worthless candlestick send Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov on a hunt into the past . . .

A ring of car thieves with a taste for expensive vehicles is at large in Moscow's streets . . .

High above the gray city, a sniper is taking aim at police officers, and the obsessed detective Emil Karpo takes the assignment to heart . . .

"Kaminsky works up plenty of sweaty-palmed suspense of the best sort, built out of equal parts of likeable characters and believable dangers."

Washington Post Book World