A Matter of Death and Life

A Matter of Death and Life by Andrey Kurkov. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781843431046.

Marital troubles? Sick of life? Suicide the answer? Why not get yourself a contract killer? Nothing easier, provided you communicate only by phone and box number. You give him your photograph, specify when and in which cafe to find you, then sit back and prepare to die. Murdered, you will be of greater interest than ever you were in life. More to him than met the eye will be the judgment. A mysterious killing lives long in the popular memory. As with Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, so with our hero: meticulous planning, nothing left to chance. Nothing, beyond that chance is not predictable. Raskolnikov, intending to kill one, kills two, and our hero suddenly wants to live. The setting for this intriguing tale is a snowy Kiev as immediate as Simenons Paris and Conan Doyles London.