Dead Meat

Similar to another review here: if you like Martin Cruz-Smith's Renko novels, you'll like this. The writing and the black post-Soviet humor shouldn't be missed. Right behind Berlin Noir: March Violets; The Pale Criminal; A German Requiem as far as the Kerr books that I've read.

Kerr has written a provocative post-communist book that truthfully factors in the destructiveness of 70 years of Red Rule and the destitution of a super-power. He has captured the nuance of Russian Slang and the private language used in the criminal/police world. Lastly, the twists and turns of the plot are all plausible while at the same time comical for their surreal and absurd situations. Unfortunately, Kerr has never touched this subject or characters again. If you love this book, and you will, "Wolves Eat Dogs" by Martin Cruz Smith, is a great companion novel.

Philip Kerr writes a great detective novel. In "Red Meat", Kerr weaves an interesting yarn of modern day Russia with all the intrigue of the new Russian Mafia. Kerr has obviously done his homework on current conditions in Russia, particularly St. Petersuburg (Lenningrad) and is very accurate in his description of the city and region. If you like detective stories set in Eastern-Europe/Russia along the lines of Martin Cruz-Smith's "Gorky Park" series, you'll love "Red Meat". I hope he writes many more novels of this genre set in the Commonwealth of Independent States

Phillip Kerr is starting to look like the Robert DeNiro of writing. In his previous book, he immersed himself in every possible detail of pre- and post-war Germany, with his mysteries unfolding within the thread of Nazism. Now, in Dead Meat, he dissects post-Soviet Russia, with the optimism, fatalism and corruption that riddle the society. Kerr has captured the Russian psyche perfectly, while winding the plot around the killing of a crusading journalist. How does a Brit learn so much about what hides within the heart of today's Russia? I recommend this book for both the mystery and the sociology behind it.