The Winter Queen (Erast Fandorin Mysteries, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 07, 2011 Jen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: russian, z-2011-read, murders-mysteries-thrills, fiction, historical-fiction

Fun little mystery in czarist Russia and an adorably naive--yet intuitive and effective--young police investigator named Fandorin. I'd definitely read more in this series. ...more

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Aug 09, 2020 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: novels, historical-fiction, setting-russia, crime

I originally read this first book in a wildly popular Russian series around 15 years ago, right after it came out in English. At the time, I didn't really get what all the hype was about, and in retrospect, maybe I was reacting to the over-effusiveness of the marketing. This time around, I more or less enjoyed it for what it is -- a period mystery with a ridiculous conspiracy plot that most readers will likely figure out well in advance of the hero. Set in Moscow and London in the 1870s, the her I originally read this first book in a wildly popular Russian series around 15 years ago, right after it came out in English. At the time, I didn't really get what all the hype was about, and in retrospect, maybe I was reacting to the over-effusiveness of the marketing. This time around, I more or less enjoyed it for what it is -- a period mystery with a ridiculous conspiracy plot that most readers will likely figure out well in advance of the hero. Set in Moscow and London in the 1870s, the hero is Erast Fandorin, a young clerk for the Moscow police. The book starts promisingly enough, with the bizarre suicide of a young gentleman in an upscale public park. This piques the interest of Fandorin's superior, and the eager-beaver clerk is let loose to check it out. This leads to the salon of a beautiful tease who has a whole passel of men wrapped around her finger. And this leads too... well, a whole bunch of other stuff that gets progressively sillier and sillier.

In the old days, this is what was called a "penny dreadful", and the Russian angle is kind of interesting -- for about forty pages, then one starts to realize that Moscow in the 1870s doesn't feel particularly different from Paris or London of the same time with a bit of a stricter social hierarchy. Fandorin is initially interesting, with his energetic idealism and naivete, but after a while he starts to grate. Many reviewers compare him to Sherlock Holmes, but that's a very poor analogy. Fandorin (unlike Holmes), seems to find no clue too obvious to overlook, is repeatedly tricked and manipulated by his enemies, and is impulsive rather than deliberative. A much better fictional model is James Bond (as presented in the books, not in film). Fleming's Bond is remarkably foolish and tends to blunder around until the villains tell him their plot, only escaping death through some desperate act of bravado -- all of which fits Fandorin pretty well. The parallels truly come together in the ending, which is lifted straight from one of the Bond books.

The writing and translation are fine; everything is rendered in a kind of mock period style that works fine in the context of the book. On the whole, it's a workmanlike period piece that veers into unfortunate excess. I gather that the author's stated aim with the series is to write every book in the style of a particular sub-genre of crime fiction, and that this one was the "conspiracy" book. The books are short enough that I'll read another one or two at least (there are around twelve in the series), to see how that approach plays out. ...more

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