Written by a newcomer and with a back cover sporting a disheartening plot synopsis (A main character that’s an ex-soldier turned gangster? His beautiful yet dangerous femme fatale partner? Their search for a long lost Da Vinci painting? UGH), I came into this book without much in the way of expectations. In fact, I was more than prepared to dismiss it as just another uninspired thriller reworking the same tired act we’ve seen a thousand times before.
But I can’t.
|
|
Brent Ghelfi’s debit, Volk’s Game, is just too damn entertaining and its protagonist Alexei Volkovoy (y’know, that war veteran-cum-gangster that I wanted to hate) is just too captivatingly violent to ignore.
From the novel’s outset the reader is immediately immersed in the grim and desolate world inhabited by its hero Volkovoy. Known as Volk for short he is a man who is the most anti of anti-heroes: a veteran of Russia’s war with Chechnya now surviving in Moscow as both a covert agent for the Russian military and a major player in the Russian mob, Volk is as mean and vicious as they come.
|
The book opens with Volk and his partner Valya, (the good looks/bad intentions femme fatale I mentioned earlier), commissioned for the same job, the theft of a long-lost Da Vinci painting, by both his mafia and military bosses. From here the novel takes off like a rocket as Volk is drawn into one deceit after another and he finds himself in a constant struggle to survive just long enough to find out who is pulling his strings (and then make him pay afterwards).
But all of that is beside the point. The plot and overall structure of Volk’s Game is, for the most part, fairly conventional thriller fare and mainly serves to give Volk things to do. And that’s plenty fine by me because the brutally efficient manner in which Volk gets things done makes for some darkly engrossing reading.
The character of Alexei Volkovoy is what really makes Volk’s Game stand out. Battle-hardened from his time spent as a soldier at war, Volk is a masterful engineer of human pain and suffering. You get in his way and you’ll get killed; you get in his way while on his bad side and you’ll get maimed, then killed. Indeed, Volk is a hero that is more often than not monstrous rather than heroic.
|
Yet Volk is more than a mere monster. For every act of vicious brutality there is a desperate attempt at reconciliation with his humanity and it’s this constant internal struggle between the monster that he is and the humanity he wishes to posess that makes Volk such a fascinating character. Ghelfi imbues Volk with such a vivid multi-dimensionality that it’s impossible to not be enthralled by him and his struggle to survive not only physically, but spiritually as well.
|
|
In fact, it’s hard to not be enthralled by all of Ghelfi’s prose. He keeps the novel moving at a frantic pace, piling twist upon turn and lining his pages with vivid descriptions and a score of colorful characters.
An incredibly sharp debut that introduces an unforgettable character, Volk’s Game by Brent Ghelfi is definitely worth a look.
If you liked this post, Donate to help keep us going!
Written by DougG - Visit My Website
--------------------------
Share and Enjoy:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
No comments yet.