ROSTNIKOV'S VACATION

Kaminsky's vacation is more like it, since Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov has taken a trip to Yalta with his wife under strict orders from his superiors (why?), whereas Kaminsky seems to be on holiday from the intensity of A Cold Red Sunrise (1988). As Rostnikov looks into the death of his old colleague Georgi Vassilievich, his buddies back in Moscow—Sasha Tkach and Emil Karpo—are chasing, respectively, a gang of computer thieves and the killer of a German businessman. All very normal, even quiet, for Kaminsky, and the connection between two of these cases—a KGB plot to assassinate Gorbachev?—slips in almost unnoticed between Sasha's adventures trying to pass himself off as Jewish and Rostnikov's new friendship with an American cop and his dying wife. A lesser, lighter entry in this fine series, with the most understated Soviet political plot you're likely ever to see.