Book review: The Winter Queen by Boris Akunen

The Winter Queen by Boris Akunen is a mystery that is set in Russia during the Victorian era (or I guess since it's in Russia, the Alexander II era?). Akunen wrote the book in Russian, and it was translated into English by a translator. The story focuses on Fandorin, a young police detective (not the term used in the book; I've updated it) who starts off investigating a showy public suicide and gets sucked into a huge international political conspiracy. You get the usual goodies like beautiful women, faked deaths, thwarted murders, hidden weapons, and a secret society named after demon.

This book was very well-written and exciting and interesting, with lots of twists and turns.  However, it ended on a cliffhanger, and SPOILER Fandorin's bride gets murdered immediately after the wedding!! WTF???? I hate cliffhangers, and fridging female characters (aka killing off the main dude character's wife or girlfriend so he has to have Revenge and Manly Pain to drive the story) is so dumb. I do want to read the rest of the series, though.

If you like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, you'll like this story and this style of writing. It was also nice to read a Victorian-type mystery that wasn't set in England.

The cover is very interesting and does a good job of capturing the style of the book with its mysterious graphic design and images of a gun, train, silhouette of St. Basil's cathedral, and painted portrait of a beautiful lady, all of which show up in the book. This cover is what drew me to buy the book, especially since I like purple.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: earlyish January
From: thrift store
Format: paperback
Status: tentatively holding on, but may give away in the future because I have limited space available