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    Volk's Game
    Volk's Game
    Volk's Game
    Audiobook10 hours

    Volk's Game

    Written by Brent Ghelfi

    Narrated by Stephen Hoye

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A firefight reverberates through Moscow's dark, rain-soaked streets; shattered glass and screams echo in the air. In the lawless ways of Russia's capital city, the gunmen melt away into the night. Two men are dead, the targets not what they seem. A shadowy figure lopes along the riverbank outside the Kremlin walls. Known to all as Volk, a battle-hardened veteran of Russia's brutal war in Chechnya, he prowls Moscow's grim alleyways, a knife concealed in his prosthetic foot at all times.

    As both a major player in the black market and a covert agent for the Russian military, Volk serves two masters: Maxim, a psychotic Azeri mafia kingpin with hordes of loyal informers; and a man known only as the General, to whom Volk is mysteriously indebted. By his side is Valya, an exotic beauty charged with protecting her lover from his unsavory associates. Valya is the most dangerous weapon in Volk's arsenal. Together they are commissioned to steal a long-lost da Vinci painting called Leda and the Swan from St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. Leda's ethereal radiance is undeniably captivating and incalculably dangerous. Volk must choose which powerful man he will betray in order to escape with the painting-and with his life. With the high-octane rush and vivid intensity of a feature film, Volk's Game delivers at every turn, announcing Alexei Volkovoy as the boldest hero of a new generation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 26, 2007
    ISBN9781400174515
    Volk's Game

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    Reviews for Volk's Game

    3.5/5

    41 ratings6 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I was a bit thrown by the comparisons to Dostoyevsky et al in the book blurbs; the connection didn't hold for me at all. That was my initial attraction to the book, as well as the fact that I love all Russian literature and am fascinated with the dirty little art world. However, this is not a book for wimps (which I am; I don't watch scary movies and I don't ride scary roller coasters). It is brutal and mean in many ways, but it is a rather stunning portrait of contemporary Russia- not that it would make you want to visit anytime soon- and there is a humanity to it (in the protagonist Volk and Valya, his girlfriend) that is belied by the constant violence. I couldn't decide whether to give it two stars (due to the wimp factor) or three or four(because it is memorable and extremely written). You decide; but be prepared for graphic gore. I'm not sorry I read it...now, if someone can just stop the nightmares I'll be okay.
    • 4/5
      A decent debut novel. I enjoyed the story but I think some parts of the story are rewrites of things I have read before. The characters are not developed sufficiently for me to relate to. Having been to St Petersburg, I enjoyed reading about places I have visited.The book, if even remotely accurate of the crime in Russia, should make any westerner rethink visiting Russia.I will look for the author's next book in the hope that he develops.
    • 3/5
      Alex Volkovoy, Volk is a veteran of the Chechnya war. He's an underworld figure in Russia who works for a psychotic Mafia kingpin named Maxim.He's an undercover agent for the Russian military and works for a nameless person named the General.Volk is a compassionate person as shown in his friendship with Masha, a woman he met at a clinic for amputees.First Volk is asked about his knowledge of diamonds but then he's presented with a challenge, a lost De Vince painting.The novel has dark characters and shows a part of Russian life that might have been illustrated by Dostoevsky.Fans of Russian literature and the manner of cruel life in Russia will enjoy this novel.
    • 4/5
      Volk’s Game, a debut thriller, introduces Alexei Volkovoy, a Russian gangster, veteran of Russia’s war in Chechnya, and a covert agent for the Russian military. Dark, intense and brutal, Volk is also filled with compassion for veterans and the widows of those who didn’t make it home to Mother Russia. Volk and his partner Valya are commissioned to steal a long-lost Da Vinci painting and both the Mafia kingpin he answers to and the General he is curiously indebted to wish to possess the painting. Who he decides to betray will determine whether he escapes with the painting and his life. Non stop action from start to finish with Volk both the hunter and the hunted. The portrait Ghelfi paints of contemporary Moscow is bleak and dismal, made more so when you compare it to the radiance of the painting at the center of this story . Leda and the Swan; this is definitely a book of contrasts from start to finish and also a commentary on the hidden costs of the war in Chechnya. Not for the faint of heart but the beauty of Ghelfi’s prose makes this a must read book. The final paragraph is exquisite and if I hadn’t already been captivated by this book that alone would have made the read worthwhile. And how perfect an answer to the question posed in the first sentence of this extraordinary book. There is so much to appreciate inside the circle that is Volk’s Game.
    • 3/5
      Alexei Volkovoy lost his foot as a Russian soldier fighting in Chechnya. Now, he deals in pornography and drugs. When he learns about a long-lost da Vinci painting that has been discovered in the bowels of the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, he agrees to lead a team to steal the treasure. When he is betrayed by his teammates, who subsequently have the painting stolen from them, Volk is charged by his superiors with recovering the painting. At the same time, he is trying to discover exactly who it is who is behind the theft in the first place.This book is the first of a series, and I suspect it may be the author's debut novel. My biggest complaint during the reading was that I couldn't tell whether Volk was a "good guy" or a "bad guy". It was impossible for me to determine who he worked for, as he seemed to report to a couple of different "bosses". Plus, there was a very disconcerting tendency to show him behaving first in a kind, gentle, sypathetic fashion towards someone and then, in the next chapter, torturing someone else and watching them die. I realized later that this was done intentionally, and Volk's true position is revealed late in the book. The mystery of da Vinci's missing painting was good - I don't know art history well enough to know whether there may actually be such a thing or not, but it made for a good story. This book was rather frantically paced and disjointed, but again, I think this was done intentionally. Lots of interesting, but bleak, looks at modern Russia after the fall of communism.
    • 4/5
      brutal, scary, a police officer / gangster bending the rules - what rules?