The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov

 As World War I winds down, Kyiv is being fought over by six different factions.  Regardless of who wins, hunger is everywhere and the streets aren't safe.  Samson Kolechko is walking with his father when a group of Cossacks thunder through on their horses.  Seemingly for fun, they pull their sabers and attack.  Samson's father is killed and he loses an ear.

Now he is rattling around alone in their big apartment.  But the current group who rules Kyiv is starting to requisition furniture and when two soldiers see how big the apartment is, they decide to move in.  Samson doesn't argue as he knows it is useless as they have guns and he doesn't.  He was hoping to let the woman he is interested in move in but he won't ask while they are there.  Samson discovers that his severed ear which he saved can still hear and he soon finds that the soldiers are robbing houses to fund their upcoming desertion.  He goes to the police to report them but is drafted into becoming a policeman himself as he can write and is logical, having studied to be an engineer.

Once the soldiers are arrested, he finds that they are connected to his first murder case.  The clues in the case are a bone encased in silver and a suit that was never made.  While the police are ready to move on, Samson is tenacious and refuses to end the case until he has solved it.  Was a policeman what he should have been all along?

Andrey Kurkov is a well known Ukrainian author, very popular in his homeland.  This book is the start of a mystery series he is writing and was nominated for the International Booker.  Readers will learn about conditions in Kyiv from a hundred years ago and marvel at how similar the situation is today.  Samson is an interesting character and readers will be ready for his next adventure.  This book is recommended for mystery readers and those interested in foreign authors.