Punishment of a Hunter - Moé for Solarpunk Books

English language

Published 2022 by Pushkin Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-78227-679-1

(1 review)

MURDER: 1930s Leningrad. Stalin is tightening his grip on the Soviet Union, and a mood of fear cloaks the city. Detective Vasily Zaitsev is tasked with investigating a series of bizarre and seemingly motiveless homicides.

MAYHEM: As the curious deaths continue, precious Old Master paintings start to disappear from the Hermitage collection. Could the crimes be connected?

MISTRUST: When Zaitsev sets about his investigations, he meets with obstruction at every turn. Soon even he comes under suspicion from the Soviet secret police.

The resolute detective must battle an increasingly dangerous political situation in his dogged quest to find the murderer―and stay alive.

3 editions

nerd teacher [books] reviewed Punishment of a Hunter by Yulia Yakovleva (Leningrad Confidential)

An Interesting Find

3 stars

I'm always on the lookout for random detective novels, especially those that have some interesting aspect that I haven't seen before. This one is interesting because it is set during the 1920s-1930s of the Soviet Union, and part of it includes some of the internal struggles that a person undergoes as they recognise that the party apparatchiks and leaders were not actually engaging with the plans that they claimed would've supported every Soviet citizen (unfortunately a police officer, though his position appears to change over the course of the book).

It's an uncommon setting and structure, and I really like that part of the problem that comes up over and over again is how Vasya's own bosses and "subordinates" (they are in name only) continually impede his ability to investigate the case he's working on in multiple ways (removing evidence, accidentally destroying it, sending him somewhere else, and trying to …

I'm always on the lookout for random detective novels, especially those that have some interesting aspect that I haven't seen before. This one is interesting because it is set during the 1920s-1930s of the Soviet Union, and part of it includes some of the internal struggles that a person undergoes as they recognise that the party apparatchiks and leaders were not actually engaging with the plans that they claimed would've supported every Soviet citizen (unfortunately a police officer, though his position appears to change over the course of the book).

It's an uncommon setting and structure, and I really like that part of the problem that comes up over and over again is how Vasya's own bosses and "subordinates" (they are in name only) continually impede his ability to investigate the case he's working on in multiple ways (removing evidence, accidentally destroying it, sending him somewhere else, and trying to scare him out of researching something.

I will say that the solution isn't... satisfactory to me? Mostly because it's barely choreographed and feels like it comes out of nowhere; there was some choreographing, but considering where my attention was focused for most of the novel? I wouldn't have even thought of that as being the answer; it makes sense, but I guess the author wanted readers to feel like Vasya did when he learned who the killer was.

As a story, I really liked it and did find it very intriguing. As a detective story, I felt like I was missing being able to solve the clues as the book went (and that's the part of detective stories I love; I want to participate in the puzzle).