Description:
1st in the Erast Fandorin series, suave, young policeman in Tsarist Russia

Mystery Lovers Review:
An utterly charming novel that introduces Erast Fandorin, a naïve young policeman in the Moscow of 1876 who begins an investigation of a bizarre suicide. Akunin marvelously recreates the tsarist Russia of the period in a novel with the flavor of 19th century fiction and Fandorin is an irresistible protagonist whose blundering always produces good results that he had not foreseen. Nine further Fandorin books have already been published in Russia and I look forward to their appearance in the US.