The «KSD» publishing house has released a debut mystery novel by a young Ukrainian writer Taras Melnyk. This is the creative pseudonym of a scientist and historian, and now a military man, Serhiy Tymofiyko. He has already published books before, but at first it was online literature, and then several paper editions, but as part of self-publishing. «Empty Graves» became the author’s first novel to be fully published by a publishing house, especially a large one like «KSD». In the material below, you will find out how the book turned out, whether it is worth reading, and whether fans of mysticism and fiction, detectives and thrillers will like the story.
Author Taras Melnyk
Publisher KSD
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 256
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 135×205 mm
Website bookclub.ua
December 2018. Young detective Vadym Chernov has just started working at the Chernihiv police department. The hero has served in the ATO and various military companies abroad. Now he has returned to Ukraine and wants to build a career as a police officer. His newly acquired ability to see people’s souls, whether they are dark, evil, neutral, or light, should help him with this.
Vadym’s first case is the death of a guard at a local cemetery. It also turns out that someone has been digging up graves here, and the traces lead to a psychiatric hospital adjacent to the cemetery. Vadym does not even suspect that he will start digging for an ancient and serious deal with the local authorities, and in doing so, he will not only implicate himself, but also his colleagues and family.
I like modern detective thrillers, especially when they are by Ukrainian authors. In my opinion, this is light genre literature that entertains, is easy and quick to read. It was the same with «Empty Graves», but with nuances.
The novel is short, 256 pages, so it really is easy to read. And then there’s a twist in the form of mysticism and the protagonist’s supernatural abilities, so what could go wrong? Gradually, it turns out that the author has endowed his protagonist with an undoubtedly useful phenomenon in his profession, i.e., the vision of the true essence of people, but has not used it in the book in any other way. Yes, Vadym Chernov saw a few «black souls» and that’s it. This is where the mysticism and fantasy in the novel ends.
Not that this had any negative impact on the reading or became an important disadvantage in the perception of the book. But you must admit that it is strange and incomprehensible. And questions arise. Why add it at all? Why didn’t you finish it? What did you expect? Where were the editors looking? And so on.
It is clear that this is the author’s first full-fledged debut. Yes, this is not the writer’s first book, but it was within the framework of the publishing house, that is, in terms of working with an editor, that the author worked for the first time. Here and there, we notice some strange descriptions or clumsy, simple dialogues, and sometimes Russianisms slip through.
And some additional plot lines, such as the relationship between one of the characters and the murdered guard, or the love line with the protagonist, are crooked and implausible. And the local love scene, though barely two paragraphs long, is one of the strangest and most awkward descriptions of sex I’ve ever read.
Although in these cases, there are probably more questions to the editor than to the author. After all, it is his or her job to throw out the unnecessary, point out weaknesses, ask for rewrites and revisions. But we have what we have.
However, do not rush to dismiss «Empty Graves». Yes, there are some serious problems here, as I described above, but even with them, the novel is easy and quick to read. It’s a classic detective thriller, but also an atmospheric story with a flavor of the 90s gangster. There is a cemetery and a psychiatric hospital, an adequate protagonist, an interesting twisted story, a good mystery, and a decent ending with a hint of a series.
The mystical is also present, and I was personally looking forward to it the most. And the author scattered hints and signs about it here and there, but in the end he ended the story loudly, but without the fantastic. At least there was no influence of mysticism on the plot. Not at all. It’s just there in the background, as I said above.
I liked the hint of a sequel, and it would be really cool if the author and «KSD» set their sights on a full-fledged series. Because the main thing here is — a hero who evokes empathy, the author’s ability to create an interesting story and build a high-quality atmosphere over it all, and also to add suspense.
So if all this is transferred to other books and the above-mentioned mistakes are corrected, we will have a wonderful, hopefully mystical series of Ukrainian detective thrillers. And although it won’t be the first, I think there are never too many of these things.
As for the publication itself. The cover is atmospheric and hints at the genre of the book. The print quality is good, the paper is pleasant to the touch and yellowish. The font is easy to read. The binding was not a letdown.
