- Hardcover: 328 pages
- Publisher: Piatkus Books (27 April 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749905328
- ISBN-13: 978-0749905323
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 860,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Claire Brennan travels to Moscow to work, only to find her ex-lover has died there in hospital. She bribes the authorities to fly his body back to the USA, where an autopsy reveals his death was no accident. Claire has stumbled upon a conspiracy. Did those involved also have a motive for murder?
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Crosby knows Moscow well - this is evident in her descriptions of what is a very strange place for Westerners. She makes some very shrewd observations and had me nodding in recognition at times. A visitor to Moscow has to brace himself or herself for culture shock. The heroine in "Moscow Nights", a journalist called Claire, clearly has such an experience. The visit to the hospital on her arrival is harrowing, and nobody would disagree with her descriptions of the ghastly place and the lack of dignity afforded to patients. However, after this she comes across as a spoilt Western brat. The author, Ellen Crosby, has extensive experience of work and study abroad, but Claire's snobbish horror at everything that is not like her comfy life in New York is irritating for the reader. She clearly takes absolutely everything for granted, which is something Crosby must surely have overcome during her assignments abroad.
Furthermore, Claire is not an intriguing character - she has no depth. She is portrayed as a privileged, bed-hopping American kid who works and spends time with other privileged, bed-hopping Americans. Crosby could have developed her character more, which she manages to do with David Manning, one of the other major characters. Instead, Crosby seems pre-occupied with physical attraction, so much so that Claire is basically an overgrown, hormonal teenager. Not only is this frustratingly superficial to the reader, but it is also out of place in at least two scenes: when she is describing the good looks of Nick Ivory's elder brother when Nick's disfigured corpse is lying in a coffin in another room, and when she is in a tussle with the killer at the end - not a time for a description of how the ruthless man is so good at kissing.
The conspiracy she uncovers is interesting, and this, coupled with the realistic pictures of Moscow she paints, is the reason I give this novel two stars, not one. The main feeling I got from this novel, though, was that I really wouldn't like to meet Claire.
Format:Hardcover
I chose this book for some light reading on the plane but it turned out to be more substantive. The descriptions of Moscow during the death throes of the Soviet Union are vivid. You can feel and see the gray, dismal city and the wretched lives of its citizens. If one wonders today why Russia can't get its act together, then one sees in this book that the moral and environmental bankruptcy were so deeply rooted as to make chaos inevitable. The story is also a good one. I really enjoyed the immediacy of the heroine's narrative. It was entertaining and engrossing: one of those books you stay up late to read the last 50 pages. I give it five stars because it was also intelligent and informative.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
7 of 15 people found the following review helpful
"Moscow Nights"
10 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
We have enjoyed the other novels by Ellen Crosby but had been unable to find her first novel as it was published in the UK. Thanks to Amazon.com we were able to receive it through their connections with those publishing houses. It appeared to be a used book but still in very good shape. It arrived quickly and the price was very reasonable. We have a number of friends with whom we will share this book.
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