Can’t get enough of Lee Child? How about taking a chance on his Russian counterpart, Alexei Volkovoy? Now, Volk, as he’s known to all, hasn’t appeared in as many titles as Jack Reacher (c’mon Brent, we’re waiting!), but his stories are as fast-forward and brutal as any thriller series going.
Who is Volk? For starters, he’s a veteran of the Chechen wars, where he left a leg and whatever was left of his conscience. He’s a drug dealer, an online pornographer who uses his seedy business to steal the identities of his Western customers, and a murderer. He’s a master thief, capable of planning and carrying out a daring operation to steal one of Russia’s greatest treasures on behalf of a top-level criminal. All that makes him a major player in the underworld that emerged in the wake of the demise of the Soviet Union. But there’s another side to him, deeply hidden and known to a select few, a side that offers Volk a measure of surprising redemption.
Volk’s world is populated by people like him—at least like his public persona. They are men and women who do not hesitate to use money, sex, and violence to get their way. There is a fierce undercurrent of rivalry, but it seems that their common target is the mass of Russians and foreign visitors who ask for or provide their services. And God help anyone who gets in their way, because this environment is wilder than the Wild West, with the sheriff in on the action. As Bob Dylan said, “The cops don’t need you, and man, they expect the same.” To survive in an atmosphere like this, you need people on your side, and Volk has his lover Valya watching him at all times. Like Volk, Valya is a survivor of Chechnya and an astoundingly capable killer whose only interest is Volk’s safety. The two are a seamless team, so their interactions on and off the streets move like a ballet.
Readers of Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series are familiar with the corruption he depicts in post-Soviet Russia, but from the perspective of a world-weary cop who tries to protect a small circle of friends. Although Volk is at the other end of the spectrum from Renko, he has some of the same goals. Russia may be for sale to the highest bidder, but there are some lines even the most hardened criminal won’t cross. Volk knows precisely where his are.
Check the WRL catalog for Volk’s Game
