Readers' Reviews

Volk's Game by Brent Ghelfi.

The Thriller genre is a difficult medium in which to make one's debut as a novelist; it is jam-packed with familiar, formulaic heroes created by commercial blockbuster big names, as much successful for their publisher's marketing skills as for their writing ability. After a time these books take on a weary familiarity, a depressing sameness, an 'I-know-what's-coming-next' reaction, and a heartfelt wish from the reader for something new and different to bring back those old, delicious feelings of suspense and the prickling excitement of a true page-turner.

I am happy to report that the breath-of-fresh-air has arrived: it is 'Volk's Game' by Brent Ghelfi, who has passed the test and produced the classic spine-tingler. Graphic, gory and tightly plotted, with a darkly sardonic streak of humour infusing the narrative, 'Volk's Game' is set in today's Russia, 'Russia, always the same whether she toils under the tsars, the Communists, or the republicans. Vast quantities of vodka are required just to endure the unleavened sameness of it all.' Ghelfi's anti-hero is Colonel Alexei Volkovoi, an amputee who suffered - and inflicted - unspeakable horrors during the war in Chechnya, and is a consummate master of the double game, being in the employ as a gangster assassin for one of the top Moscow mafiosi, and an undercover spy for an illustrious general in the military.

Unfortunately for Volk, his masters are playing a game as well, and he finds it increasingly harder to fulfil his obligations to them, to be a pawn on their chessboard - and to stay alive. At times he wonders why he wants to: he has endured the horrors of Russia's infamous orphanages and prisons, has been recruited into the army and fought against Chechen rebels; he has seen and done monstrous things which will haunt his nightmares all his life, but as always, there is someone to survive for: his love, his darling, his Valya, also buffeted by the cruelties of life, but brave, loving and resolute - and shrewd, as in her assessment of Volk's Mafia Boss: "He's the only one who scares me more than you, Alexei." There are a host of vividly drawn minor characters, all neatly dovetailed convincingly into the action - and what action! The pace doesn't slacken for a minute from the start of the book, when Volk is asked the question: 'What do you know about Art, Volk?' and he and the beautiful Valya are despatched on supposedly separate missions from the Mafioso and the General to steal the same priceless art work from the Hermitage, to the end when the final threads of the plot are drawn together and Volk and Valya part.

I was infuriated by this: why couldn't they have a happy ending and wander off into a Moscow sunset? But I am consoled by the information on the book jacket that Mr. Ghelfi is at work on Volk book # 2 - what a relief, for Volk and Valya are unforgettable; not since Martin Cruz Smith's 'Gorky Park' and succeeding Arkady Renko novels have we been so well-served, or so well thrilled.

Highly recommended.

 Reviewer: Julia Kuttner

3 June 2008