Review by Booklist Review
It's 1992 and FBI Agent Jay Porter arrives in Warsaw on the tail of the Soviet collapse, finding a country leaning into newborn, feral capitalism. Three bodies have been dumped on the banks of the Vistula River, each with a slashed cheek and a bullet in the heart. Although the string of murders is troubling for a transitioning city, they don't raise alarm until a pathologist studying the impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident finds high levels of radiation on the third victim's hands. Considering the flourishing black market for Soviet uranium and the civil war brewing in Yugoslavia, Warsaw's police turn to the FBI for help heading off possible nuclear disaster. While Porter and Detective Leszek Kulski, an earnest, skilled Warsaw police investigator, chase leads from the three couriers' murders, the U.S. embassy's CIA attaché goes undercover, pursuing connections to real-life Serbian nationalist General Dravko Mladic. Smith skillfully bridges police procedural and espionage fiction, crafting a show-stealing sense of place and realistically pairing the threats of underworld crime and destabilized regimes.--Christine Tran Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
When three unidentified bodies with mutilated faces turn up on the banks of the Vistula River in 1992 Warsaw, the police initially assume that they are dealing with a serial killer in this solid thriller from Smith (A Vision of Angels). Later, they determine that the victims are Russian and carry traces of radioactivity. The possibility of smuggled Soviet-era nuclear materials raises its head. FBI agent Jay Porter, who has family connections to the Manhattan Project, joins the Warsaw police on the case. The perpetrators, chief among them a Serbian nationalist general with delusions of grandeur, are known to the reader early on, and coincidence plays a key role in moving things along. Interest lies in watching how various strands of the straightforward plot gradually converge as events play against a moody picture of daily life in post-Cold War Poland. Sharply drawn characters, rich dialogue, and a clever conclusion bode well for any sequel. Agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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