Starling, Boris

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Starling, Boris

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Trinity College, Cambridge, graduated.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Dutton, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER: Journalist, writer, and consultant. Worked with a company involved in kidnap negotiations and confidential investigations; reporter for Sun and Daily Telegraph, both London, England.

WRITINGS:

Messiah (thriller novel), HarperCollins (London, England), 1999.

Storm (thriller novel), Signet (New York, NY), 2000.

Vodka (thriller novel), Dutton (New York, NY), 2005.

Also author of a television screenplay based on his novel Messiah.

SIDELIGHTS: Boris Starling is the author of several thrillers, beginning with his 1999 book, Messiah, a story about a serial killer who murders men, cuts out their tongues, and leaves silver spoons in their mouths. Redfern Metcalfe, a Scotland Yard detective known for his ability to track down serial killers, chooses a team to help him hunt the madman while dealing with some secrets of his own. Writing on the Tangled Web UK Review Online, Martin Edwards noted, "Short snappy chapters and a present-tense narrative style … contribute to the pace." Edwards added, "This is a griping mystery and augurs exceptionally well for Starling's future in the genre." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that the author's "debut sustains a sense of fear and uneasiness" and observed that even when "the case is close to resolution, Starling manages to step up the already considerable tension."

In Storm Starling once again delves into the mind of a serial killer who horrifically dispatches his victims, this time by forcing rats to eat the victim's stomachs. The killer is dubbed the Blackadder because he leaves a snake on his victims' bodies; he also chooses his victims based on the characters in the Greek tragedy Oresteia. On the gruesome case is Detective Chief Inspector Kate Beauchamp, who is trying to overcome her own guilt about being one of the few survivors of a ferry accident. Unknown to Beauchamp, however, is the fact that the murderer is someone with whom she has had an emotional relationship. "Starling expertly renders a strong heroine," a Publishers Weekly contributor noted, adding that the author "skillfully builds the suspense as he joins various plot lines to the main story and slowly reveals the killer's identity."

In Vodka Starling sets the scene in Moscow, Russia, in 1991. The country is struggling with its new democratic freedoms and increased economic hardships, including food shortages. Furthermore, a powerful Mafia organization has gained wide influence, and a vampire-like serial killer is murdering children. When the beautiful Alice Liddel, an International Monetary Fund advisor, arrives to help privatize local industry, she focuses first on the Red October vodka distillery. In the process, she begins a romance with Lev, who runs the distillery while moonlighting as both a gang leader and a parliamentary deputy.

An Economist contributor felt that the book has too many subplots and themes to keep track of, noting that "the result is like one of the gargantuan but indigestible banquets he [Starling] describes so vividly: impressive but over-elaborate, with some dishes overcooked and others raw." A Publishers Weekly contributor, however, commented that "this great mass of detail is so fascinating that delighted readers will gulp it down like the novel's free-flowing, ubiquitous vodka." Writing in Booklist, David Wright asserted that Vodka is a "sprawling spectacle … awash with detailed background, punctuated by swift and ruthless action that sweeps in off the steppes with bloodthirsty ferocity."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2005, David Wright, review of Vodka, p. 828.

Economist, March 20, 2004, review of Vodka, p. 93.

Library Journal, January 1, 2005, Barbara Conaty, review of Vodka, p. 101.

MBR Bookwatch, February, 2005, Harriet Klausner, review of Vodka.

Publishers Weekly, August 2, 1999, review of Messiah, p. 80; October 23, 2000, review of Storm, p. 62; January 10, 2005, review of Vodka, p. 37.