The Ireland Anthology — George O'Brien

Reggie Nadelson, an American journalist and documentary filmmaker living in London, has created a fascinating character for her first mystery: Artie Cohen, a New York cop who was Artemy Maximovich Otalsky before he left Russia as a teenager. Artie, burned to a crisp by working on some of the worst crimes America has to offer, is seriously reconsidering his choice of careers when his old Russian mentor/hero—former KGB general Gennadi Ustinov—is shot dead on a live television talk show. Egged on by a slippery federal prosecutor and the beautiful woman who hosted the show, Artie goes after the truth about Ustinov's life and death. His search takes him through the streets of Brooklyn's Brighton Beach and a shiny new Moscow that is as full of dangerous potholes as the old one he left behind. The London Times called the book A Gorky Park for the 1990s, as Dashiell Hammett might have done it, and they were right on the money.