A Watch for Mr. Kelly

Arkady and Georgy Vainers are recognized masters of the detective genre. In their works devoted to the work of criminal detective Stanislav Tikhonov, on the one hand, there is always an exciting, tightly wound plot; on the other, complex psychological and ethical problems are raised, and the everyday life of a militiaman is described without embellishment.

Tikhonov can’t afford to protect himself. To catch a criminal, you always have to act fast, get ahead, use the smallest clues, think several moves ahead, unravel traces, and ask questions to many people—because everyone has their own story and their own interest. As a result, in many cases there can be no talk of rest; the investigator has almost no free time and major difficulties with his personal life… Only a person with an acute sense of justice—convinced that a thief and murderer belong in prison—can withstand such monstrous tension.