![]() ![]() In a case that illuminates the twisted nature of the political power groups in the country and the differing security services that Natalya has to negotiate, danger swells around Natalya, as she stands to lose everything and those closest to her.Ībson writes a gripping and compulsive novel that provides a fascinating picture of the inner workings of today's Russia. ![]() Despite all the dangers that it entails, to herself, her colleagues, friends and family, she is determined to investigate and get to the truth. Kalinina's reputation is being unjustly trashed, and Natalya cannot help but feel for the dead woman's young son and her mother. To this end, Sledkom, who have a reputation of going after the innocent on behalf of the guilty, take over the case. The woman turns out to be 25 year old Elizaveta Kalinina, a surveyor, and an anti-Putin activist allied to a group that the politically powerful in the country wish to crush. In the desperately freezing and snowy cold of a St Petersburg winter, Natalya is on the scene of a murdered woman's body dumped in a ditch. Her body has now been discovered in the grounds of a monastery. So Misha finds himself travelling to places like Siberia, from where a young girl, Diana Maricheva ran away in 2012. After previous events in the SCU led by Colonel Vasiliev, the new head of the unit is Colonel Dostoynov, a man keen to be rid of Natalya's husband, Mikhail or 'Misha', a Major in the Unit. Abson writes a atmospheric crimes series that captures the dark heart of Putin's tyrannical Russia, and the crooks and thieves of the political establishment, and its no holds barred approach against those politicians, journalists and activists that challenge and oppose it. GD Abson follows up his excellent crime debut Motherland set in St Petersburg, Russia, featuring the wonderfully offbeat detective, Captain Natalya Ivanova of the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU), with this brilliant sequel. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. However I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging, and though the book climaxed with a satisfying conclusion, I doubt I will be looking out for other books in the series. The political intrigue of modern Russia I found to be of particular interest, for those of us in the west who really have no idea what goes on in the post-Soviet era. I did find Black Wolf to be an enjoyable police procedural, and the setting of the Russian winter was memorable. As Natalya continues to pursue the case unofficially she finds not only is her job at risk, but also her life. As the case starts to progress government agents shut it down, and Natalya and her husband find themselves on the outer. ![]() The case falls to Captain Natalya Ivanova, who quickly links the case to a group of dissidents with political motivations. A young woman, with no visible signs of injury, lying in a ditch. In the depths of a Russian winter in St Petersburg a body is found by the side of a road. ![]()
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