Not bad, but just not for me. 

 

I'm not keen on pastiche and this was very ... unoriginal. It felt like a story cobbled together with bits and pieces of other books: Sherlock Holmes, Conrad's The Secret Agent, some Chekhov...and possibly some early James Bond.

 

The writing was consistently good and there was certainly lots of fun to be had and lots of atmosphere to be enjoyed, but I just couldn't get excited about the story or the characters.

I know, I wanted "light entertainment" to balance out de Beauvoir's magnum opus, but The Winter Queen may actually be too light for me right now. 

 

It's like all of the most ridiculous spy and mystery stories jumbled into one. I like it, but ... it's not really keeping me engaged because it seems almost too familiar a story. 

 

The story even features individuals who are instruments of terror and are referred to by numbers - and I keep wondering who Nos. 2, 4, and 27 are in this organisation:

Then suddenly Erast Fandorin’s heart was wrung with pity. These were no terrorists, these were all decent and respectable individuals! These were the victims of terror! Nihilists from various countries, each of them concealed behind a coded number, were reporting to central revolutionary HQ about the terrorist acts they had committed!

 

 

Still, it's a better book than many James Bond novels.

‘What it means is not for me to judge. But I have a good idea how things happened. Our well-heeled and pampered gilded youth decided to bid the world farewell. But before he died he wanted to give his nerves a bit of a thrill. I read somewhere that it’s called “American roulette”. It was invented in America, in the goldfields. You put a single shot in the cylinder, give it a twirl, and then – bang! If you’re lucky you break the bank, if not, then it’s goodbye and farewell.

Oh, this IS fun. 

It's a little bit like Sherlock (the BBC series, not Conan Doyle's original) but set in Moscow in 1876.

I need something to balance the "heavy reading" I've got going on right now. I hope this is a fun story. If not, I'll turn to one of Martin Edwards' picks.

The State Counsellor: A Fandorin Mystery... A brilliant historical mystery set in Imperial Russia.



If I had done it properly – started not from the book #6- I would have opened my review with
“A great start for a very promising historical mystery series with one of the most interesting characters” But I read it unfortunately(or as very often) not in the right order. So I'll keep this opening for my next Fandorin's book.

The good news—you can read this book as a stand-alone.

Of course, I am going to read this series from the very beginning. Though, even if I know that [b:The State Counsellor: Further Adventures of Fandorin|957241|The State Counsellor Further Adventures of Fandorin|Boris Akunin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1335343729s/957241.jpg|3324541], the book#6, is not the last one, I’ll decide later if I’ll go on with the next, the N°7, installment.

Because the ending HERE was a perfection pure.

Besides, to tell the truth, I’m a bit afraid that the books after this one could ruin the feeling, or that I’ll get tired and bored with our State Counsellor Erast Fandorin.

[a:Boris Akunin|34589|Boris Akunin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1209706400p2/34589.jpg] gives a great historical feel of the era, but he choose to tell a story that is free from any ideological system. He created the Fandorin series following the real historical facts and events, without being political or fictional, remaining very accurate in his research but trying to give his idea of what HAPPENED in Russian two centuries ago, and why.

It is an adventures, entertaining and very thrilling mixture out of a murder mystery, a sarcastic spy thriller, the most exciting action movie and a relationship drama in the most authentic historical setting.



I am always surprised(positively), when I see other readers, without any connection to Russia or its history, who enjoy and understand Russian classic literature or Russian historical fiction.
Yes...the enigmatic Russian soul, with its passion for suffering, pain and grief and the overall mood for melancholy..bla-bla-bla…Cliché but true, but I totally got the rating here.

The plot is great, Fandorin is not only attractive and smart, but he also embodies the ideal of a nobleman of the nineteenth century: high morals, dedication and honesty, loyalty, courage and chivalry, intelligence and faithful to his own principles.

Is his counterpart Green so much different from Fandorin? No, actually not, but he has other methods. Don’t ask me though what side I took for. I am still torn between…(you’ll understand when you read it).

My tiny worry: There are many secondary characters that are fantastic, but they have maybe unusual names for someone without a Russian background, and I hope a lot that all readers will get along well with it. :)

Highly recommended for all fans of historical fiction and historical mystery!


**Copy provided by Mysterious Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**