The Case of the General's Thumb

December 12, 2011
Set in Kiev in 1997, this offbeat crime novel from Ukrainian author Kurkov (Death and the Penguin) blends slapstick humor and political assassination. When the body of retired general Vadim Bronitsky, missing a thumb, rises over the city dangling from a Coca Cola advertising balloon early one morning, the local police, in the person of Lt. Viktor Slutsky, and Ukrainian security, represented by Nik Tsensky, both investigate. Slutsky wonders why his superiors decided to put him on this sensitive case. Tsensky, who’s just moved to Kiev from Tajikistan, is struggling to make ends meet. That Tsensky’s department is slated for a reorganization that would divide its duties and create an analogue to the FBI complicates his task. Farcical developments overshadow the mystery solving, and things don’t all quite come together in the end.

February 1, 2012
It's 1997, and the body of a Russian general, defense advisor to the president, is found hanging from a Coca-Cola promotional balloon in Kiev. The body is missing a thumb. A Kiev police lieutenant and a KGB officer are separately assigned to investigate; neither is aware of the other's existence. Neither cop nor spy seems especially astute or diligent, and both are directed by phone calls from handlers who aim them at some suspect or target without telling them why. Readers will see that they are simple pawns long before the characters recognize it, and that is part of the quirky charm of this little novel: a surreality that mystifies yet entertains. The protagonists spend most of their time between assignments thinking about their wives and children and their next meal. The body count rises precipitously, but nearly all the deaths, whether shootings or defenestrations, happen off page. Kurkov's novels are read in 25 languages, and U.S. crime fans looking for something different could grow to love him.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)