Yuliya Yakovleva

[This is a genuine review: I did not receive a free copy/ARC of the book to write this]

Yulia Yakovleva's Punishment of a Hunter is a detective procedural set in 1930s Leningrad, and revolving around multiple mysterious deaths, in which the victims are posed in elaborate tableaus. Inspector Vasily Zaitsev, a solitary man, with few friends and fewer possessions, is increasingly under scrutiny from the GPEU, a Russian intelligence service that is rooting out 'class traitors'. Nefyodov, a former acrobat turned GPEU office, is planted into his team, to keep an eye on him. Increasingly, Zaitsev loses the trust of his team, while having to rely more and more on Nefyodov to solve a string of murders that no one else seems to care about.

There is a deep sense of being 'alone in a crowd' in this book: in communal housing, and with a social sense of distrust and suspicion, no one is truly alone, and yet Zaitsev has no one he can speak with freely and openly. Hunger, starvation, and desperation run hand in hand with venal crimes and corruption, and as he navigates a system in which winning isn't possible, he has to satisfy himself with minor victories and major losses. This is a deeply atmospheric book, full of small detail and finesse. I enjoyed reading and would probably read the sequel too.… (más)

Death of the Red Rider is the second of Yulia Yakovleva's books to be published in English. I read the first, Punishment of a Hunter, last year and loved every moment of the process. Spending time with the central character, police detective Vaily Zeitsev, pulled me into the complicated world of 1930s USSR, where one has to worry about every possible meaning that may be ascribed to a casual comment, where every new acquaintance may be just an acquaintance or may be someone brought into your circle to test your loyalty to this relatively new union and its proletarian values.

Death of the Red Rider didn't rise to those heights for a reason I'll get into, but it still provided an engaging read, populated by a mix of characters including the no-longer-convenient mistress of a high-ranking official; members of the USSR's soon-to-be-obsolete cavalry, some revolutionaries, some former fighters on behalf of the Czar; minor officials meant to guarantee participation in the collectivization of agriculture; and those resisting collectivization at a very high price.

To be honest, Death of the Red Rider struck me as not-quite-equal to Punishment of a Hunter because the mystery is centered within a cavalry school. A favorite horse has suddenly collapsed and died—and, by the way, a cavalry student was killed during the horse's collapse, but his death is being treated like a minor detail in comparison with the loss of the horse. I was never one of those girls who was horse mad, and I didn't go through a Black Beauty/Misty of Chincoteague phase. As a result, I found the novel's setting less than completely engaging. Zeitsev is still quietly brilliant, noting clues that everyone else is missing, and insisting on the true truth, rather than the truth the party would find convenient. But scenes of future cavalry officers riding in circles under the eye of a critical instructor left me cold. (I feel the same way about novels that take place on ships, but... we don't need to go there.)

On the other hand, if you were one of those horsey girls (or boys or nonbinary youths) you'll find an extra layer of enjoyment in Death of the Red Rider. And if you enjoy international and/or historical mysteries, you'll find Zeitsev an excellent companion regardless of your feelings about horses.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title; the opinions are my own.… (más)

Surviving in post Tsarist Russia 1930’s

A glimpse into the conditions, the harshness of Soviet Russia post the revolution as Leningrad Detective Vasily Zaitsev of the Criminal Investigation Department investigates the death of a trotting horse and its Red Army Cavalry rider. A death brought about by something unusual, strange even.
Filled with darting, often satirical commentary on the times, the novel is dark, brooding and at times savage, with moments of compassion. A time when the Red Terror is unleashed, the political purge by the Bolsheviks.
Zaitsev’s search takes him to Novocherkassk in Southern Russia where the Cavalry training school has suddenly been relocated. Is this a subterfuge, an effort to save the horses or something else?
An unasked for assistant, Comrade Zoya, is sent with him. She’s prickly and annoying. There’s more here than meets the eye. Is she checking up on him?
A train stop and confrontation with starving people, like wraiths appear out of the darkness, is a wake-up call. A man made famine, known as the Holodomor has gripped Russia.
Novocherkassk is supposedly in the growing part of Russia. What Detective Zaitsev finds is starvation and danger. People being forced to give up their prized possessions to those in charge. Whoever that might be!
Always in the back of Zaitsev’s mind is that he might be taken back for questioning by the Soviet Secret police.
Meanwhile back at his apartment his landlady seems to keep adding staff for him, although he pays little attention. She’s hired a cook for him, and a nanny? What?
Once more I felt like I was wading through despair and hopelessness and yet I’m sympathetic to Zaitsev and his plight. I feared his many dilemmas and enjoyed any breakthroughs.
Zaitsev is living dangerously in a time where the state turned child against parent and all was in flux.
A fine Russian noir historical detective novel!

A Pushkin Vertigo ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.… (más)

There's something about reading a mystery novel in translation—assuming the translation is a good one. One gets swept up into a new culture and worldview as one gets swept up into the suspense and multiple leads of the plot. Punishment of a Hunter is just such a book. Written by a contemporary Russian author, but set in 1930s Leningrad, Punishment of a Hunter follows a mystery that is simultaneously bizarre and mundane.

1930s Leningrad is an uncomfortable place to spend time. No one is safe, the purges are ongoing, everyone is looking for someone to suffer in their stead or looking for a more bearable suffering from which there is still some hope of redemption.

The central character, Vaily Zeitsev is a member of the forces charged with investigating violent crime. At the same time, he's trying to help a coworker to avoid the purges and to avoid the purges himself. Higher-ups want a quick wrap-up to a murder. Zeitsev sees connections between that crime and a series of others that have drawn little official scrutiny. Zeitsev's colleagues have stopped trusting him, and his only ally (?) is someone he believes was planted in his unit to "discover" that Zeitsev is involved in incorrect political thought and/or has a bourgeois background.

Like many investigators, Zeitsev is unwilling to settle for the less-complex picture and the more-convenient solution. He wants to follow each and every thread of a complex criminal weaving, regardless of the price he'll pay for doing so.

If you enjoy historical and/or international mysteries, you're in for a real treat with Punishment of a Hunter. This is a book worth buying now—not a title to slowly wait to access until your name has risen to the top of your public library's request.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via EdelweissPlus; the opinions are my own.… (más)