A Whisper to the Living continues the adventures (some would say trials and tribulations) of Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union. Rostnikov is one of the most engaging and relevant characters in crime fiction, a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing (that is, disintegrating) Russia. Â
This time Rostnikov and his team are searching for a serial killer who has claimed at least 40 victims. They're also handling the case of a missing boxer known as the Giant and two dead bodies who aren’t missing at all—the boxer’s wife and his sparring partner. And then there is the problem of protecting a visiting British journalist who is working on a story about a Moscow prostitution ring…and in doing so Rostnikov and his team uncover a chain of murders that lead to a source too high to be held accountable if the police want to keep their jobs
Or their lives.