The Stolen Heart (The Kyiv Mysteries #2)

Novice Ukrainian police investigator Samson Kolechko scrambles to track down his missing fiancée in Kurkov’s extraordinary sequel to The Silver Bone. In post-WWI Kyiv, sensitive Samson’s new job gives him a solid chance of surviving his “restless, dangerous, and hungry” era, but his empathy for his fellow man often threatens to get him fired. Though Samson and his colleague, ex-priest Kholodny, are charged with investigating illegal meat sales, Samson is bewildered that peasants turning intestines into pies are breaking the law. He reluctantly carries out his duties anyway, until he learns that his fiancée, Nadezhda, has vanished while interviewing railway workers as part of her job at the Bureau of Statistics. Horrified, Samson launches a desperate inquiry, and soon discovers that two other women have gone missing under similar circumstances. To find them, he joins forces with the harsh, violent Nikanor Abyazov, a Chekist officer who relishes his government-given authority. Kurkov captures the atmosphere of 1920s Kyiv with terse, poetic prose, and punctuates his crackerjack plot with gorgeous, Proustian reflections on Samson’s childhood and deceased family members. Distinguished by its humor, heart, and subtle political urgency, this series deserves a long life. (May)