Second title in Akunin's Erast Fandorin series. We find Fandorin again after the tragic ending of his first real case. He's become more detached, older despite his very young age. Less vain, less social. Which is the perfect backdrop for this tail of life, intrigue and heroism in the War between Russian and Turkey in the 1887. Fandorin is not much there, except for the high points of the mystery. We see life with the army, on the edge of the battlefield through the eyes of Varya. A young Russian woman who followed her fiancé to the army camp and the Press. This is something Akunin does really really well, using the press of the time, the journalists and making them the every day man or woman to whom the reader can identify.

The historical background is interesting. I had almost no knowledge of that war at the edge of Bulgaria, Roumania and Turkey. The spy/mystery plot is more obvious and I guessed who was the villain early on but it didn't impact my enjoyment of the story.