by Boris Akunin
Translated by Andrew Bromfield
In 1877, war wages between Russia and
the Ottoman Empire. Diplomat and police agent Fandorin is recruited to
find the identity of and capture the mysterious Anwar, a Turkish spy who
is intervening with the course of war in the middle of the operations. A
young, headstrong and beautiful woman, Varya, whose fiancé is arrested
for espionage himself, is pressed upon him as an unwilling assistant.
She is pressed on all sides by gallant generals, war heroes, a dashing
French reporter, and obsequious lieutenants.
Fandorin himself is
mostly absent – he leaves for England and solves the case off-page,
returning to arrest the culprit and explain his deductions. The main
character this time around is Varya, who falls for Erast despite her
modern sensibilities, and serves as a stand-in for the reader, a
newcomer and mostly confused about all the goings-on. Despite Fandorin's
demotion to co-headliner, this remains an excellent entry to the
series. Full of exciting, larger than life characters and suspense on a
grand scale, it’s a fun swashbuckling spy story a la Flashman.
four stars
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