Moi Lichniy Vrag; by T. Ustinova;
(My Personal Enemy)

I've been braindead for ages, so I asked my Mum to rec me some easy reading. Fiction that's pleasant enough, not too thinky, not too simple. Nothing that would make me want to wash my eyeballs and put them on shelf to rest. Forever.

I liked Ustinova's works. Sure, she belongs to the army of many a mystery writers who somehow manage to produce eight hundred paperback volumes per year, but she's one of the best in there.

Moi Lichniy Vrag is a story about a young woman who works on one of the major television channels in Russia, and somehow finds herself in the middle of a dirty intrigue. Her loved one turns out to be a classical asshole, friends all around happen to enter gloomy times of their own (though they do not abandon her), she's left jobless... blah, blah.

Ustinova paints her characters well. Sometimes I get the feeling that she goes overboard with protagonists (though the supporting cast is never left out), but she does it so well, it doesn't annoy me. (Only just a little.) And there's also one definitive thing I enjoy in her writing: she creates little details and never forgets to pick them up throughout the story. These little signs that actually make you feel like you know the character.

Lovely.

Somehow, there are three versions of this book (paperback, hardcover, audio) currently available on Amazon. I'm shocked. So if you speak Russian, go for it. Even if your level is intermediate. It's easy to read and is entertaining enough.

Labels: books, mystery, russian