Customer Reviews

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel: A Novel (Mortalis)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was a major disapointment. maybe my expectations were set too high by Akunins other great books. way too much irrelevant violence and a silly ending.

I'm a big fan of Sister Pelagia, having followed her cases in two earlier books. A redheaded Russian nun in the late nineteenth century, Pelagia has a knack for detection and a penchant for disguising herself as a beautiful socialite.

In this book Sister Pelagia is on a steamship with her spiritual father, Bishop Mitrofanii, when a gruesome murder takes place. Peeking through a window, she discovers the body of the leader of The Foundlings, a curious sect of Russian Christians who have embraced Judaism.

Pelagia's talent for figuring things out results in endangering her life, and the bishop sends her on a long journey to lay low. But the incurably curious nun chooses the Holy Land as her holiday destination, knowing full well that she's investigating further, not hiding out.

If you don't have a head for detail, you may have trouble navigating her adventures among Russian officials, Zionists, Arabs, Ashkenazi Jews, Foundlings, sodomites and holy fathers. I got lost more than once. But the colorful characters and exuberant prose compensate for the sometimes-daunting complexities of the plot.

The author permits some of my favorite characters to be murdered, which I resented a bit. But there's an undercurrent of wry humor throughout that reminds you this is fiction after all.

This is my least favorite in the Sister Pelagia series, though it has a zany appeal of its own. I recommend reading the earlier books first, starting with SISTER PELAGIA AND THE WHITE BULLDOG, followed by SISTER PELAGIA AND THE BLACK MONK.

St. Petersburg's Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod is outraged with the behavior of Sister Pelagia; he questions whether she should be allowed to wear the veil. Not long after her censuring, Sister Palagia is sailing on the steamboat Sturgeon when someone kills Manuila, the messianic leader of the Jewish sect Foundlings. Though she knows she should keep her opinions to herself she offers advice to the Inspector Dolinin.

Not long after Manuila was murdered, someone tries to kill Sister Palagia several times before she flees Russia and heads to the Holy land where she continues to investigate the homicide on board the Sturgeon. While she is in Palestine, back in Russia friends and foes debate the merit of Sister Pelagia who continues her sleuthing instead of doing her sisterly duties as befitting a bride of Jesus.

The third Sister Pelagia amateur sleuth (see SISTER PELAGIA AND THE WHITE BULLDOG and SISTER PELAGIA AND THE BLACK MONK) is a super historical although there is a lot less detecting than in the previous entries. The story line is fast-paced as the heroine has to get out of "Dodge" (at least St. Petersburg) because she is unable to investigate freely why someone wants her dead and the church leadership wants her banished. Her adventures in the Holy Land continue as Sister Palagia cannot resist a mystery. Fans of the saga will relish Boris Akunin third late nineteenth century thriller as Tsarist Russia and Palestine come alive though the beleaguered nun's eyes.

Harriet Klausner

In the third Sister Pelagia novel, Boris Akunin sends the strong-willed detective-nun from her post at the Zavolzhsk Diocesan School for Girls all the way to the Holy Land. She is both pursuing and pursued with odds stacked heavily against her. All is well, more or less, in the end - whether with the help of God or not is up to the reader to decide.

The book includes quite a lot of religious debate. Judaism and Christianity with variants of each come under consideration. Is the prophet Manuila the Second Coming of Christ or the first coming of the Jewish savior? Or is he insane? Or is he duping everyone? Who are the forces resisting him?

At the same time that Pelagia is in Palestine, the local prosecutor Berdichevsky is off on his own far-flung investigation into religious extremists. His investigation leads him to some very unexpected names and places.

I found the multiple plot lines overly complicated and difficult to follow. At times one struggled to recall what Pelagia or Berdichevsky were up to. The ending suggests that the Red Cockerel may be Sister Pelagia's last adventure. I enjoyed the first two books in the series, but after this trip around the labyrinth, I will not miss the sister. Fear not fans of Boris Akunin; he has written 12 Erast Fandorin crime novels and has started a series (yet to be published in the US) featuring Erast's grandson!

The book starts promising but gets more and more improbable, and abstruse. In addition there are several historical mistakes. E.g. there is mention of a Russian sect that in reality were the zars secret police agents and lived like 200 years before they were placed in the book's history time line. To confound the case of Sister Pelagia acting a lot out of personality and the book infused with a sort of doubtfull religious mysticism, there are criminal cases that go unsolved and unrevenged, when in real they would certainly have been. And to top it all off, the translator made really embarassing mistakes regarding Jewish religious writings that could have been easily checked on the Internet. Thus we read in the English version about the "Zogar" instead of the "Zohar" and about the dispute between "Gillel and Shammai" where there is even a Wikipedia page about Hillel the Elder". In short, while the story is nice to read, it fell way short of all the other Boris Akunin works I have read so far.

I read the three Pelgia stories in order: White bulldog, Black monk and this one. Each gets progressively complex and interesting. Characters are well developed and sympathetic, even the villains. This book goes further, about as far a story can go. I agree that it could have been a bit shorter but reading just 20 pages a night, I never felt the book was too long. I wanted to come to it each night. After finishing it, I woke up next day thinking about the ending which I did not think silly. It makes sense and fits with the story. Ok, so it is a bit scifi but so what, it works.

The Red Cockerel has many things to recommend it--wonderful descriptions of Imperial Russia's rampant anti-semitism, its suffocating bureaucracy and a society that seems steeped in the 18th rather than the early 20th century. Akunin helps you visualize the Jews aching to exit and the revolutionaries on the horizon. That said, The Red Cockerel disappoints too often. The author would have benefited from a better editor who tightened up the story with the deletion of fifty to a hundred or so pages. A multitude of characters float in and out of the plot and Sister Pelagia avoids assasination with the abilities of a character better suited to a Bond thriller than the tale of an Orthodox Nun. Sending her off to Palestine is interesting but a ploy rather than a creditable plot development. Unless you believe visiting the Holy Land was as commonplace as a visit today to a seaside resort.

The second half of the book picks up a bit, but the ending is all too pat and yes, a little silly. Give it a read if you are an Akunin fan but wait til it's available at the local library.

True, this one is not at all like the White Bulldog or Black Monk, but really, I did not mind that one bit.

This one was thought provoking, giving one a magnificent "what if" scenario. Philosophy behind the work is solid and appealing. Two things that bothered me a little bit were - a) could have had a little less violence/killings and b) how many admirer can a woman have in ONE book ? but really, they were not serious enough objections, obviously, and never spoiled my enjoyment.

I will say this though, if you are strictly expecting a White Bulldog or Black Monk, you will probably not take to this one.

I really enjoy all of Boris Akunin's books, particularly the Erast Fandorin series. This trilogy of books about Sister Pelagia also held my interest, but I believe that this third (and possibly last) one was somewhat confusing. There are several narrative threads, and at times it was difficult to see any connection between all of them.
The book is a veritable travelogue through late 19th (or very early 20th) century Russia, and then Palestine and Jerusalem in particular. This book more than any of the others intertwines religion and mysticism with the plot. That's what got me confused at times, but reading on certainly helped.
It's difficult to say if this is the last Sister Pelagia book, as the ending is kept (deliberately) vague and open-ended. I found all of the chracters well fleshed out, even the minor ones, and you certainly develop an affinity for many of the folks who live on these pages. I hope it's not the last Pelagia book, but if it is, it is a fittng one to end a remarkable series.

I found this book to be very anti-semetic. I know that this was the prevelant attitude at the time of the story, but it detracted from the enjoyment of the mystery.