With Siberia Comes a Chill

It's spring 1945, and San Francisco police homicide inspector John Kost (born Ivan Kostoff in Moscow to a loyal czarist officer) slowly concludes that the murder of a beat cop is connected with the arrivals of Soviet foreign minister Molotov, ambassador Gromyko and a slew of other Soviet diplomats and secret police for the meeting at which the United Nations is established. The cast of this intricate, suspenseful Cold War novel includes Russian and American characters who are never as they seem at first; a murky Russian emigre community; the mysterious, beautiful Soviet consul's wife--with a beloved daughter held hostage by Soviet secret police chief Beria--who reminds Kost of his late wife; a killer NKVD agent who knew and adored Kost as a boy in Siberia during the Civil War. Although his prose is heavy at times, Mitchell ( Black Dragon ) makes the most of the Bay Area setting and provides a satisfying, taut story. (Feb.)