Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkinâ??s surly commander has given him an ultimatum to close the case quickly. Then there is the KGB colonel who seems a bit too interested in the course of Matyushkinâ??s investigation... and Pavelâ??s womanizing office mate, who gets involved with a subject of the case... and a series of petty burglaries that defy resolution... and of course Pavelâ??s complicated love interest, who is as prickly as she is perceptive... Alexei Bayerâ??s debut novel, set in 1960s Moscow, peels back the layers of late Soviet life to offer a vivid, gripping tale of deception, greed, murder, and a simple detective just trying