The Lost Soldiers: A Novel (The Kyiv Mysteries, 3) by Andrey Kurkov

“The Kyiv Mysteries provide timely lessons for anyone living under an oppressive regime.” —The Atlantic “Though [The Lost Soldiers] is set more than a century ago, its parallels to conditions today are clear. A darkly comic mystery with deep roots in history.” —Kirkus (starred review) “[The Lost Soldiers is] excellent . . . Kurkov excels at capturing the profound political instability of war-torn Kyiv . . . This series continues to impress.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) In this riveting installment in the Kyiv Mysteries series, detective Samson investigates the sudden disappearance of a troop of Red Army soldiers from a bathhouse. Fresh from the case of the stolen heart, one that shattered his belief in the regime he works for, Samson Kolechko is confronted by a new mystery that borders on the impossible. A troop of Red Army soldiers has disappeared without a trace while visiting a banya, a traditional Ukrainian bathhouse, in the heart of Kyiv. Their abandoned boots and uniforms are the only proof that they ever existed. Faced with such a fantastical conundrum, Samson must resort to a fantastical investigation method: stitching his operative severed ear into a bathhouse worker's jacket, he is able to eavesdrop on his every move. But he discovers far more than he bargained for, further complicating matters when he uncovers human remains in the stoves and the presence of a sinister religious cult in the city. Read more