Can Fandorin infiltrate a secret society to save Moscow’s youth? A dark and decadent detective story from the master of Russian crime fiction.
There’s been rising concern in Moscow over a wave of suicides among the city’s young bohemians. An intrepid newspaper reporter, Zhemailo, begins to uncover the truth behind the phenomenon – that the victims are linked by a secret society, the Lovers of Death. But Zhemailo is not the only investigator hot on the heels of these disciples of the occult. Little do they realise that the latest ‘convert’ to their secret society, assuming the alias of a Japanese prince, is none other than Erast Fandorin.
But when a young and naïve provincial woman, Masha Mironova, becomes embroiled in the society, and Zhemalio dies a mysterious death, Fandorin must do more than merely infiltrate and observe. Especially when the spin of the Russian roulette wheel decrees that our dashing hero be the next to die by his own hand. Can Fandorin fake his own demise, all while outwitting the cult’s dastardly leader?
There’s been rising concern in Moscow over a wave of suicides among the city’s young bohemians. An intrepid newspaper reporter, Zhemailo, begins to uncover the truth behind the phenomenon – that the victims are linked by a secret society, the Lovers of Death. But Zhemailo is not the only investigator hot on the heels of these disciples of the occult. Little do they realise that the latest ‘convert’ to their secret society, assuming the alias of a Japanese prince, is none other than Erast Fandorin.
But when a young and naïve provincial woman, Masha Mironova, becomes embroiled in the society, and Zhemalio dies a mysterious death, Fandorin must do more than merely infiltrate and observe. Especially when the spin of the Russian roulette wheel decrees that our dashing hero be the next to die by his own hand. Can Fandorin fake his own demise, all while outwitting the cult’s dastardly leader?
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Reviews
Akunin's novels are a fasciating mixture of pathos and pastiche; his characters are larger than life but never absurd...as ingenious as the earlier Fandorin novels and full of clever and unexpected twists.
Extraordinarily readable, full of incident and excitement, swift-moving and told with a sparkling light-heartedness which is impossible to resist
Fandorin is an impossibly heroic figure ... irresistible
Boris Akunin shows how it should be done ... an absurdly imaginative story, surreal and comic ... irresistible
The beguiling, super-brainy, sexy, unpredictable Fandorin is a creation like no other in crime fiction
An unpredictable, swift-moving and imaginative piece of crime fiction.