William Ryan was called to the English bar after university in Dublin, then worked as a lawyer in the City. His Korolev series, set in 1930s Stalinist Russia, has been shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award, the CWA New Blood Dagger, the Irish Fiction Award and the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award. The Twelfth Department is the third book in the series. William is married and lives in West London.
'I haven’t read the previous two novels in this series, but The
Twelfth Department is so good that in fact, while not hindering the
reader’s enjoyment, it further succeeds in whetting the reader’s
appetite for the previous novels. The fetid and suffocating
atmosphere created by Ryan, where friends, colleagues and even
family cannot be trusted, is brilliantly realised and becomes
progressively worse as the narrative unfolds and Korolev’s choices
narrow. The characterisation is simply excellent. Korolev is a
conflicted and complex character whose personal story intertwines
with the twisted and turning investigative narrative while the
other characters, such as the Moscow mob boss, Count Kolya, are all
energised and smoothly drawn. As a crime story this is excellent,
but as a historical crime novel, it is outstanding' Historical
Novel Society
‘This is the third William Ryan novel to feature Moscow detective
Alexei Korolev during Stalin's reign of terror, and it's as richly
satisfying as its two predecessors . . . As in the earlier books,
Korolev is an engagingly flawed hero . . . Ryan's achievement is to
make his characters and their milieu so tangibly immediate that you
feel you're actually in their presence. Obviously his historical
research has been considerable, but he's managed the rare feat of
subsuming it into his narrative in such a way that it's never
obtrusive – you really do have the sensation of being on that
particular street or in that particular apartment block or
municipal building alongside Korolev, his tenacious sidekick Slivka
or any of the other vividly realised characters who inhabit the
book. The Holy Thief, published in 2010, was an immensely assured
introduction to this police detective and his perilous Moscow beat;
The Bloody Meadow (2011) confirmed that first book's promise; and
The Twelfth Department is even more engrossing, especially for
those readers who've come to regard Korolev as a trusted friend and
sceptical moral guardian in an otherwise unsettling world’ Irish
Independent
‘For some time the talented Ryan has been among the very best crime
novelists working in a period setting and if your taste is for
similar fare by Martin Cruz Smith or Philip Kerr in which an honest
sleuth tries to do his best in a corrupt foreign regime you should
not hesitate. The dogged Korolev is a police investigator and works
in the dark years of Stalin's Great Terror. The dictator does not
like him but is aware that the detective's past in the tsarist
regime was distinguished by his immense skills and calls upon
Korolev to solve a variety of problems: tasks which tax the
conscience of this diligent Russian copper, always forced to walk a
tightrope between duty and simple survival . . . The first two
outings for Ryan's sleuth, The Holy Thief and The Bloody Meadow,
met with almost universal acclaim and were shortlisted for a
variety of prizes. It will be absolutely no surprise if this gleans
similar praise. Once again the balance of pungent period detail and
increasingly tense plotting are handled with total authority and
Korolev remains one of the most persuasively conflicted characters
in crime fiction’ Daily Express
'Ryan’s latest has a fine set of characters, puzzling murders,
interesting police work, and a strong sense of
the terror that pervaded Stalin’s Russia. But it is his eye for
period detail that makes this one special' Booklist starred
review
'The shooting murder of Boris Azarov, a high-level Russian
scientist conducting secret psychological research, propels Ryan’s
excellent third pre-WWII thriller featuring Alexei Korolev, a
Moscow CID detective . . . While the police work will keep readers
engaged, the series’ chief strength comes from Ryan’s skillful
evocation of everyday life under Stalin' Publishers Weekly starred
review
'Ryan is one of the best modern writers in the emerging
Soviet/Russian mystery genre . . . There is a believable sense of
the era and the characters are true to what we know of people
living through the horrors of Stalin’s regime' Russian Life
‘Set in Moscow in the 1930s, The Twelfth Department is the third
outing for William Ryan’s increasingly impressive Captain Korolev
series . . . There’s an Orwellian influence to the manipulation of
language and meaning in The Twelfth Department, while Korolev’s
quest to uncover the “facts” of his investigation ensures that he
soon resembles a pawn kicked around the board by warring superiors.
The geographical setting and political backdrop are compelling
enough, but Korolev is a fascinating character in his own right, an
army veteran of “the German War” who acknowledges the poisonous
nature of the regime he serves even as he clings to the hope that
its propaganda might some day chime with reality’ Irish Times
‘Ryan's tense, tightly plotted whodunnits feel gloriously
plausible, a function of the intimate link he forges between his
readers and his characters, never mind that those characters are
living through extraordinary times’ Guardian
'This book is amazing! Even better than THE BLOODY MEADOW, the
previous book by this author, it keeps you hanging on by drip
feeding you morsels of information and cranking up the tension to
fever pitch as it does so . . .
A truly magnificent book: addictive, interesting, well-written and
full of interesting characters. Captain Korolev is helping Ryan
establish himself as a first rate author of historical crime
fiction. I am definitely a fan of this series and already desperate
to read the next one! Extremely highly recommended' Eurocrime
'I haven't read the previous two novels in this series, but The
Twelfth Department is so good that in fact, while not hindering
the reader's enjoyment, it further succeeds in whetting the
reader's appetite for the previous novels. The fetid and
suffocating atmosphere created by Ryan, where friends, colleagues
and even family cannot be trusted, is brilliantly realised and
becomes progressively worse as the narrative unfolds and Korolev's
choices narrow. The characterisation is simply excellent. Korolev
is a conflicted and complex character whose personal story
intertwines with the twisted and turning investigative narrative
while the other characters, such as the Moscow mob boss, Count
Kolya, are all energised and smoothly drawn. As a crime story this
is excellent, but as a historical crime novel, it is outstanding'
Historical Novel Society
'This is the third William Ryan novel to feature Moscow detective
Alexei Korolev during Stalin's reign of terror, and it's as richly
satisfying as its two predecessors . . . As in the earlier books,
Korolev is an engagingly flawed hero . . . Ryan's achievement is to
make his characters and their milieu so tangibly immediate that you
feel you're actually in their presence. Obviously his historical
research has been considerable, but he's managed the rare feat of
subsuming it into his narrative in such a way that it's never
obtrusive - you really do have the sensation of being on that
particular street or in that particular apartment block or
municipal building alongside Korolev, his tenacious sidekick Slivka
or any of the other vividly realised characters who inhabit the
book. The Holy Thief, published in 2010, was an immensely
assured introduction to this police detective and his perilous
Moscow beat; The Bloody Meadow (2011) confirmed that first
book's promise; and The Twelfth Department is even more
engrossing, especially for those readers who've come to regard
Korolev as a trusted friend and sceptical moral guardian in an
otherwise unsettling world' Irish Independent
'For some time the talented Ryan has been among the very best crime
novelists working in a period setting and if your taste is for
similar fare by Martin Cruz Smith or Philip Kerr in which an honest
sleuth tries to do his best in a corrupt foreign regime you should
not hesitate. The dogged Korolev is a police investigator and works
in the dark years of Stalin's Great Terror. The dictator does not
like him but is aware that the detective's past in the tsarist
regime was distinguished by his immense skills and calls upon
Korolev to solve a variety of problems: tasks which tax the
conscience of this diligent Russian copper, always forced to walk a
tightrope between duty and simple survival . . . The first two
outings for Ryan's sleuth, The Holy Thief and The Bloody Meadow,
met with almost universal acclaim and were shortlisted for a
variety of prizes. It will be absolutely no surprise if this gleans
similar praise. Once again the balance of pungent period detail and
increasingly tense plotting are handled with total authority and
Korolev remains one of the most persuasively conflicted characters
in crime fiction' Daily Express
'Ryan's latest has a fine set of characters, puzzling murders,
interesting police work, and a strong sense of
the terror that pervaded Stalin's Russia. But it is his eye for
period detail that makes this one special' Booklist starred
review
'This book is amazing! Even better than THE BLOODY MEADOW, the
previous book by this author, it keeps you hanging on by drip
feeding you morsels of information and cranking up the tension to
fever pitch as it does so . . .
A truly magnificent book: addictive, interesting, well-written and
full of interesting characters. Captain Korolev is helping Ryan
establish himself as a first rate author of historical crime
fiction. I am definitely a fan of this series and already desperate
to read the next one! Extremely highly recommended' Eurocrime
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
