Red Gas

by Edward Topol

North The huge gas line to Western Europe is in the last stages of construction. Soviet Prestige and a mammoth financial investment are at stake. Ten Days before the official inauguration there's a break-out from a labour camp. Two top officials are found gruesomely murdered. For Anna Kovina of the Criminal Investigation Department, the pressure is on to close the case before all hell breaks loose. But nothing is as it seems, and Anna's investigations uncover a dangerous world where high technology and higher finance clash with the ancient forces of primitive belief. And Anna is not the only one for whom time is running out... Red Gas, the gripping thriller of espionage and exploitation amidst the frozen wastes of Siberia

Genres: Crime

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Edward Vladimirovich Topol (Russian: Эдуард Владимирович Тополь; real name Topelberg (Russian: Топельберг; born 8 October 1938) is a Russian novelist.

Born in Baku, Topol spent his teenage years finishing local school in Baku and graduated from Azerbaijan State Economic University.[1] He also did his military service in Estonia. He worked as journalist for newspapers such as Bakinskiy Rabochiy and Komsomolskaya Pravda and wrote the screenplays for seven movies, of which two were banned due to censorship under the Soviet government.

In 1978 he emigrated to USA, New York, and lived for short periods in Boston, Toronto and Miami.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s obviously a risk to read a random novel just because a friend picked it up in a charity shop and said, “This one has a main character with your name!” I like trying out random books, as it keeps my shelves interesting. That said, I would not have read ‘Red Gas’ had I known there would be so much rape in it. An important spoiler to warn any potential readers: the main character Anna is brutally and graphically gang-raped just over half way through. I seriously considered giving up on the book at that point. However, I was interested in the setting (early 1980s Siberia) and figured it couldn’t get any worse than that scene. It didn’t, but it didn’t get much better either. I assume the (male) author thought men raping women made a clever allegory for Soviet oppression of the native Siberian people. It’s barely allegorical, in fact, as the rapes literalise political power. However that doesn’t make them any less horrible to read about, nor does it justify describing them in lurid detail. Further warning: rape of pre-teen girls is a theme and one character repeatedly justifies it in disgusting style, citing Lolita of course. Misogyny towards Anna is background noise throughout the book and she only speaks to one other woman throughout (while torturing her, because she enabled Anna's rape - yes, you read that correctly). You can tell Anna was written by a man because she refers so often to her ‘figure’. While investigating brutal murders, most women wouldn’t spend so much time contemplating how hot their body is. Isn't it odd that male characters never seem to do this while trying to solve crimes?

Anyway, much like The Curious Eat Themselves, this book has a very interesting setting but I disliked the way it was used. The insight into Soviet politics was intriguing and felt plausible, although I don’t know enough to say that it is. I did appreciate the rapid escalation from murder mystery to political drama. The depiction of life inside the Arctic Circle was vivid and involving, likewise the local inter-bureaucratic conflicts. It amused me that the KGB were widely referred to as ‘the Gee Bees’. I wanted to like Anna, but she was so clearly a sex object written by a man that she just depressed me. Although the plot was tense, the denouement made me grind my teeth. The perpetrator of the murders is uncovered, as is his motivation: the murdered men raped his twelve year old sister to death. He dies while spectacularly blowing up a gasworks, which was quite satisfying. What I bitterly resented was Anna’s ultimate role: to save the remaining child rapist from being murdered. At the end, this paedophile rapist has made millions from the gas pipeline, faced zero punishment, and is totally unrepentant. We are given no insight into whether Anna feels conflicted about this. If it had been up to me, she would have murdered the bastard herself.

In short, what could have been a serviceable thriller providing insight into late Soviet politics turned into a nightmare of rape and misogyny. Why the fuck do male writers do this? If a female writer has ever spiced up their novel by having a man get brutally raped, I haven't encountered it yet. I have come across the reverse repeatedly this year alone. It’s enraging and exhausting.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edward Topol is a very talented writer.

His characters have a real persona about them... his storylines stand up to scrutiny and his descriptive prowess is a marvel.

[Тимур Ехлаков · Rating 5 out of 5]

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