Salon

Arkady Vainer, the mystery writer who died of heart failure on Sunday at age 75, was best known as the co-author of the 1979 television miniseries "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" (Mesto Vstrechi Izmenit Nelzya). The series was an instant hit of the rare kind that sweeps people off the streets; the police reported plummeting crime rates during air time. Afterwards, no other series even came close.

"Meeting Place" was adapted for the screen by Vainer and his brother Georgy from their novel "Era of Mercy" (Era Miloserdiya). The series focused on the hunt for the ominous "Black Cat" gang in postwar Moscow. The key to its success, of course, was its charismatic star: the actor, singer and songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky. Supposedly, Vystosky pressed director Stanislav Govorukhin into shooting, prepared for his role with days of research and actually -- as reported by the crew -- directed much of the series.

Vysotsky's character, Gleb Zheglov, was a hardened police inspector. Zheglov firmly believes that the ends justifies the means. This leads him to clash with his junior partner, Vladimir Sharapov. Played by Vladimir Konkin in the series, Sharapov is a demobilized officer who insists on lawfulness and mercy. Although this conflict was central to the book, it seemed secondary in the series, perhaps because Konkin was no match for Vysotsky.

The Vainers excelled at recreating the atmosphere of the era, which was still fresh in the minds of many, leaving the authors little room for mistakes. The cityscapes, interiors, documents and manners of late-1940s Moscow were painstakingly reconstructed in both the book and the series, quite unlike the slipshod recreations of some recent "retro" mysteries. Arkady's background as a police detective and Georgy's background as a journalist certainly helped.

Several other Vainer books were also filmed. A few, however, were censored due to their touchy subject matter. One was about the mysterious death of Solomon Mikhoels, a prominent Soviet Jewish actor; another was about the "doctors' plot," Stalin's last bout of terror in the early 1950s, directed mostly at Jewish medical professionals.

After "Meeting Place," Vysotsky wanted to do a sequel and pestered the Vainers with demands for a new script. The actor's untimely death in 1980 stopped their work, but the idea recently resurfaced. The writers were thinking of killing Zheglov in the first episode and having the rest of the series focus on the hunt for his killer. There was more than enough unused material with Vysotsky for the first episode. Now, of course, this script is unlikely to be written, with the death of Arkady, the driving force of the writing duo.