The Twelfth Department

Starred review from May 27, 2013
The shooting murder of Boris Azarov, a high-level Russian scientist conducting secret psychological research, propels Ryan’s excellent third pre-WWII thriller featuring Alexei Korolev, a Moscow CID detective (after 2012’s The Darkening Field). Korolev, a methodical, almost plodding investigator, gets assigned to the case, but he soon realizes that several arms of the secret police either want him to back off entirely or to arrest someone just to clear the books. Korolev gets a quick demonstration of the power he’s up against: his 12-year-old son, Yuri, is kidnapped amid subtle assurances that the boy will be returned safely if Korolev goes with the flow. While the police work will keep readers engaged, the series’ chief strength comes from Ryan’s skillful evocation of everyday life under Stalin. Ordinary Soviet citizens, Korolev included, have become resigned to all forms of corruption and hypocrisy, yet must still wear the mask of communist devotion. Agent: Andrew Gordon, David Higham Associates (U.K.).

Starred review from June 1, 2013
Moscow police detective Captain Alexei Korolev is a loyal Russian who fought in the German War (WWI). He's also a committed Marxist who fought the Whites to overthrow the czar. But it's now 1937, Stalin's Great Purge is accelerating, and Korolev struggles to reconcile his loyalties with the gnawing fear every Russian is feeling. Even worse, his ex-wife is under suspicion, and his young son, Yuri, who is visiting him for a week, is telling him about the teacher who is asking Yuri leading questions about his mother's loyalty. When the director of a secret research institute is murdered, Korolev finds himself working for a department of the NKVDand being menaced by another department. A second murder, doubtless connected to the first, occurs. Korolev is savagely beaten by an NKVD hard case. His apartment is searched. Yuri goes missing, and Korolev fears that he and everyone he cares about will simply disappear. Ryan's latest (following The Darkening Field, 2011) has a fine cast of characters, puzzling murders, interesting police work, and a strong sense of the terror that pervaded Stalin's Russia. But it is his eye for period detail (e.g., scheming apparatchiks who denounce a neighbor simply to move into a larger apartment) that makes this one special.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)