The Darkening Field (Thorndike Press Large Print Thriller)

It is 1937, and Captain Alexei Korolev of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Militia finds himself on an airplane bound for Odessa after a suspicious suicide. Loyal young party member Maria Lenskaya supposedly had an illicit relationship with the party director. Korolev's instructions are to determine if her suicide was actually a cover-up for murder, and if so, to find her killer -- but under no circumstances reveal her ties to the director.