The State Counsellor : an Erast Fandorin mystery

by Boris Akunin

Other authorsAndrew Bromfield (Translator)

Paperback, 2009

Status

Available

Series

Erast Fandorin (6)

Genres

Publication

London : Phoenix, 2009

Description

Russia, 1891. The new governor-general of Siberia has been secreted away on a train from St. Petersburg to Moscow. A blizzard rages outside as a mustachioed official climbs aboard near the city; with his trademark stutter, he introduces himself as State Counsellor Erast Fandorin. He then thrusts a dagger inscribed with the initials CG into the governor-general's heart and, tearing off his mustache, escapes out the carriage window. The head of the Department of Security soon shows up at the real Fandorin's door and arrests him for murder. The only way to save his reputation is to find CG--and the government mole who is feeding the group information. Can Fandorin survive corruption among his fellow officials, the fearlessness of an unknown enemy, and the advances of a sultry young nihilist with his morals intact?… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ericlee

I'm a great fan of Akunin and have read all his Erast Fandorin novels. This is in a way the most interesting of them all - and perhaps the last? Akunin in this novel takes on an aspect of the history of the tsarist police which he didn't touch in earlier books -- the infamous strategy of

provokatsiia. Though he changes the names, anyone familiar with the history of the Okhrana will recognize super-agent Azef and his handlers. The book is extraordinarily relevant to today's "war on terror" and shows the tsarist regime as being too clever by half in its effort to manipulate rather than destroy the terrorist underground. I hope there will be more after this one ...

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LibraryThing member polarbear123

Always the same, always different. Every Fandorin mystery is unique but easily recognisable. WOnderful storytelling, revealing, deep but with an overwhelming sense of fun also. Anyone who loves a good mystery will lap this stuff up. Fandorin is a legendary character.

LibraryThing member mcdenis

State Counsellor Erast Fandorin in his role as detective is charged not only to protect but also to bring to justice revolutionaries who are assassinating key political figures in the Tsar’s regime. The lengthy novel deftly moves the reader within the historical background of Imperial Russia and

all its foibles and greedy intrigues. It is an excellent translation.

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LibraryThing member ffortsa

This is the latest entry I could find in the series by Akunin that features Ernst Fandorin, a gifted and sometimes cursed detective operating in old Russia before WWI. I think the first of these occurs during the Crimean War, or at least a war with Turkey.

In this one, Fandorin has signed on as a

Counsellor with a prince who also runs the various police departments in Moscow, just as the anarchist movement is blowing things up. The dual track of the anarchist leader and Fandorin is well managed, and the subtle politics is definitely worth the read.

note: Fandorin has spent time in the East, and has a Japanese manservant and physical trainer who could have been the straightfaced basis for Inspector Clouseau's manservant in the Peter Sellers movies. Fandorin's guests are inevitably surprised by the man and the physical training they witness.

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