The Treachery of Russian Nesting Dolls

Thank you Net Galley. Interesting book with a female PI as the protagonist. I enjoyed the story and the touches of comedy. Look forward to reading others in the series.

A Russian window prostitute is murdered at Amsterdam's Red Light District. Private investigator Nadia Tesla gets assigned to find the killer. The search leads from Amsterdam to Bruges and back. This is a well crafted story, fast paced and excellent in writing, with an unexpected ending. It grabbed me from page one and I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

This is an edgy murder mystery, set in modern Holland and Belgium. The murder victim is the twenty-something daughter of Russian immigrants and is working as a prostitute in Amsterdam's red light district (where prostitution is legal). Nadia Tesla is a Ukrainian investigator whose biggest client is a Russian oligarch, Simeon Simeonovich (a.k.a. Simmy) . She also happens to have a crush on him. Simmy asks Nadia to investigate the brutal murder because her mother is one of Simmy's old friends. Nadia goes undercover as a "window prostitute" in the red light district and gets a clue that leads her to Bruges, a historical city in Belgium. From there the story takes off on a race to find the killer. There's a spectacular and exciting conclusion to the hunt for the killer. However, the most shocking event is after that and includes an appearance by the Russian president.

There's plenty of political rhetoric in the story about modern day Russia and the views of Russian immigrants who have left the country. The Dutch hate the Russians and give them a hard time. Nadia is Ukrainian and wears her ethnicity on her sleeve.

This is the 4th book in a series featuring Nadia and Simmy and this is the only one I've read up to now. I think this one can be read as a standalone, although some things may be more meaningful to a reader if they have the Nadia?Simmy backstory from previous books in the series. The relationship between Nadia and Simmy has apparently developed over earlier books and it is as much part of the story as is the murder mystery. There's a bittersweet ending in this book which affects their relationship, although the groundwork is laid for the series to continue.

Nadia is the most interesting character in the book and her story makes reading the book worthwhile. She's a smart cookie and willing to do the tough stuff to get the job done. The undercover work as a window prostitute is a good example of that. I found the book to be reminiscent of the Ava Lee series by Ian Hamilton and the Aimee Leduc series by Cara Black.

The Treachery of Russian Nesting Dolls (Nadia Tesla #4) is the second of Orest Stelmach's books that I have read; the first being The Boy from Reactor 4 (Nadia Tesla #1). Both books were good reads, and I really liked this one, which was hard to put down. This fast-paced book transports us to Amsterdam and Bruges with Nadia Tesla as she tries to get to the bottom of a particularly gruesome murder she has been hired to solve by a friend. In her pursuit of the murderer, she is determined, strong and seemingly fearless, hiding her secret vulnerability. The mystery was complex, and the ending of this book was both unexpected and intriguing.

Although this is the fourth book in the Nadia Tesla series, it can definitely stand on its own and doesn't leave the reader feeling like they have missed something. I definitely recommend it and hope to see a fifth book in this series.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are solely my own.

If you are looking for a thrilling read look no further.
I absolutely loved The Treachery of Russian Nesting Dolls.
The characters were richly described,lending to the ability to submerge yourself into the dark streets of this novel.

Such a great sweeping story that takes in all the geopolitical nuances of Russia, weaves in a murder mystery, and produces a fine set of nesting dolls of a story that builds and adds to itself. An amazingly engaging mysterydsx