Customer Reviews

Pelagia and the Black Monk

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As a fan of Akunin's Erast Fandorin mysteries and impatient for the next installment to be translated, I've begun reading the Pelegia mysteries. The first, _Pellegia and the White Bulldog_ was good, but not great. _Pelegia and the Black Monk_ is much better: it is more stronlgy written, the mystery itself is difficult to unravel, the red herrings Akunin leaves are all plausable, the variety of characters intriguing and all equally possible of being involved in the crime.

The story revolves around a series of initially, murders, later, investigators going insane, at an Orthodox pilgrimage site. As Bishop Mitriofanii is contintually confounded by the lack of progress in the investigation (and the fact that his investigators go insane as they seek to unravel the mystery), Pelegia takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of the crime.

The prologue and first few chapters (where investigators other than Pelegia seek to solve the crime) dragged; be patient - the foundations being laid here are of critical importance to the later story. (I wish I had been more patient in my reading of this part of the story, the better to guess the ending.) Things naturally pick up as the story focuses on Pelegia and her investigation. I don't want to give the story (or relevent plot points) away, suffice it to say that, true to Akunin's form, things are never as they seem, and of course the theories, clues and inferences by characters are all important in the final resolution of the tale.

I throughly enjoyed the mystery and highly recommend it.

This was the first book I've read by Boris Akunin, and I cannot recommend him more highly. His writing style is unique and highly intelligent. His affection for most of his characters is infectious. This is beyond a mere mystery; it is a novel, and a superlative one.