THE WINTER QUEEN

Boris Akunin

translated by Andrew Bromfield

Weidenfeld & Nicolson hb, £9.99

Reviewed by Russell James

There are those, I'm told, who will read no book in translation. Ah, my friend, here is a book that should sweep all such prejudices aside. Do but essay the first chapter, and if by the end you are not enchanted, then by all means cast this book aside. I feel sure you will not do so. For The Winter Queen is a tale of such delight and wit, so elegantly translated, that this humble reviewer cannot believe your fingers will not be glued to the pages by the end. (Being a Weidenfeld & Nicolson book, the pages, you'll be glad to hear, have been sewn, not 'perfect bound'.)

It is a tale set in the Imperial Russia of 1876. Erast Fandorin, one of literature's great naifs, finds himself rapidly promoted through the labyrinthine ranks of detective hierarchy as he stumbles across secret after secret in the extraordinary affair of 'Arazel', a mysterious international conspiracy whose tentacles spread everywhere, and whose dastardly purpose cannot be deflected. Unless…

A wonderful book, in the glorious comic tradition of Turgenev and Dostoievsky at their most deft.