The Fortune Teller Book

In northern Russia's Arctic city, Murmansk, Inspector Constantin Vadim is enjoying being back in his hometown after a disastrous time in Moscow. But his pleasure is short-lived: his young wife Natalya, a doctor, answers an emergency medical call from which she doesn't return. And while Vadim is speculating on whether an accident or a lover has detained her, he finds that another woman has gone missing--an American consular official. If readers will not be surprised to learn that the two incidents are linked (we've all read similar narratives before), James is able to tap into the same level of story-telling expertise that made his earlier thriller Monstrum such a dynamically readable piece. Vadim soon finds himself in a queasy partnership with a black FBI woman, encountering the dark underside of Russia's mythical past. It hardly matters that James is synthesising elements inaugurated in Martin Cruz Smith's marvellous Gorky Park, not to mention the familiar ill-matched police duo: what really counts is how well he can utilise the sense of exotic locale and non-Western protagonist. And here, we're in confident hands. Without quite equalling his mentor, James is still a writer of assured and emphatic skills and his plotting is masterful. --Barry ForshawRead More