Madness Treads Lightly, by Polina Dashkova

Madness Treads Lightly

by Polina Dashkova

Translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz

AmazonCrossing, 2017

Only three people can connect a present-day murderer to a serial killer who, fourteen years ago, terrorized a small Siberian town. And one of them is already dead.

As a working mother, Lena Polyanskaya has her hands full. She’s busy caring for her two-year-old daughter, editing a successful magazine, and supporting her husband, a high-ranking colonel in counterintelligence. She doesn’t have time to play amateur detective. But when a close friend’s suspicious death is labeled a suicide, she’s determined to prove he wouldn’t have taken his own life.

As Lena digs in to her investigation, all clues point to murder—and its connection to a string of grisly cold-case homicides that stretches back to the Soviet era. When another person in her circle falls victim, Lena fears she and her family may be next. She’s determined to do whatever it takes to protect them. But will learning the truth unmask a killer...or put her and her family in even more danger?

REVIEWS

". . . captivating storytelling, distinctive characters, and the eternal conundrum of Russia itself." -- Publishers Weekly starred review

“The scenery is...stunning and interesting... when someone mentions Siberia, I generally think of snow and frozen tundras, but Dashkova’s descriptions of a deeply forested and frozen land are magical and lend a certain level of grandeur to an otherwise ordinary thriller... this is a fine novel if you’re interested in Russia and the changes that took place in the ’80s and ’90s when the country transitioned from communism to capitalism as well as wonderful descriptions of the land from a native.”—Fresh Meat (starred review)