I never would have found The Winter Queen (#197) by Boris Akunin on my own. A friend from the GoodReads Historical Fiction 2012 Challenge highly recommended it, and I'm glad she did.
When a young aristocrat commits suicide in the crowded Alexander Gardens in Moscow on a fine spring day in 1876, Grushin, the commander of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Police, finds the daily incident report curious. He reads the report aloud to Erast Fandorin, who has just joined his department on the lowest rung of the civil service ladder. Young Fandorin has his own opinion on the suicide. His ideas intrigue Grushin enough to send Fandorin out to do some investigating of his own. What he discovers is that there is much more behind the apparent suicide. Affairs almost take a deadly turn for Erast as he begins to suspect a wide international conspiracy is behind events. But who is running the cabal, and to what purpose?
The characters and background are drawn so vividly in The Winter Queen, you are pulled into the world of imperial Russian bureaucracy seamlessly. Russia is hovering on the edge of great social and technological changes, and these elements play their own roles in the plot. The main character is young and endearing. You want Erast Fandorin to succeed in his investigation and discover the truth. Athough he accomplishes his mission, he will pay a high price for his rapid advance through the bureaucracy in a way that will mark him for life.
The Winter Queen has been translated from Russian for the English-speaking world. Mr. Akunin is already one of the most widely-read authors in Russia, and it's easy to see why in the first mystery featuring Erast Fandorin. Fortunately for us, many of the other novels in this series have also been translated, and I am looking forward to reading his further cases.
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