THE FIRST BOOK IN THE MULTI-MILLION COPY, INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING ERAST FANDORIN MYSTERIES SERIES
''A sparkling romp of a story'' TLS
''In Russia Boris Akunin is roughly the counterpart of John Grisham'' TIME
''Think Tolstoy writing James Bond with the logical rigour of Sherlock Holmes'' GUARDIAN
Moscow 1876.
A young law student commits suicide in broad daylight in Moscow''s Alexander Gardens. But this is no ordinary death, for the young man was the son of an influential industrialist and has left a considerable fortune.
Erast Fandorin, a hotheaded new recruit to the Criminal Investigation Department, is assigned to the case.
Brilliant, young, and sophisticated, Fandorin embarks on an investigation that will take him from the palatial mansions of Moscow to the seedy backstreets of London in his hunt for the conspirators behind this mysterious death.
What readers are saying about the Erast Fandorin Mysteries:
''I loved it... I just couldn''t put it down!'' My book Obsession
''A delightful mystery/adventure! There''s a dark twist at the end that has me anxious to continue in this series'' Neil on Goodreads (five stars)
''Ultimately, the overall success of The Winter Queen is due to the vibrancy of its setting, the cleanness of its prose and the magnetism of its protagonist... Odds seem good that Akunin will be the next detective to capture readers'' fancy en masse'' Sarah Weinman, January Magazine
''These books are a fun, riotous read that you don''t want to put down until you''ve completed each and every one of them'' Jill on Goodreads (five stars)
''The conclusion is shocking and this reader can''t wait to delve into the next in the series'' A Writer''s Jumble
''Nail-biter all the way through!'' Corin on Goodreads (five stars)
A page-turning delight perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and the Russian literary greats.
Industry Reviews
A bizarre and unexpected round of Russian Roulette on an early summer day opens the English translation of this novel, first published as Azazel in Russia in 1998. After a brief bout of fooling around in the park in front of a couple of women, a young man - Pyotr Kokorin - shoots himself in the head in full view of promenading Muscovites. Before long the case comes to the attention of central character and all-round wizard of deduction Erast Fandorin, who specializes in the solving of murders and mysteries in late 19th-century Russia. Unfortunately Fandorin is the only remotely interesting character in this unconvincing yarn which has somehow managed to sell six million copies in Russia as well as becoming a bestseller all around Europe. Even before the end of page one, it comes over like a cross between a police report and the results of an official post mortem, and just because it's set in Tsarist Russia doesn't mean it has to be written in the language of the time. Unbelievably clumsy and lengthy sentences compete with inexplicable shifts of tense to leave readers as uninvolved as they are uninspired. A lumpen collection of impudent fellows, 'motley buffoons', tomfoolery and 'quite wonderfully pretty girls' leaves you wondering if it's all supposed to be a Russian parody of Sherlock Holmes or a particularly poor tribute to an already flimsy tale of Victorian England. It's difficult to know whether it originally read like this in its native language or if it's just the victim of a particularly unsympathetic translation. Whatever the reason, this is an unconvincing and often irritating tale, made all the worse by the smug headings that herald the introduction of each chapter. As cold and uninviting as its title. (Kirkus UK)
