This is a detective story. The hero, Fandorin, is a very junior figure in the Moscow CID. In order to keep up with fashion, he wears a Lord Byron corset, which gives him a trim figure and occasionally saves his life. It appears that a spate of suicides is plaguing the city of Moscow at the end of the 19th Century, and Fandorin decides to investigate, although his superior officer does not really agree that the situation warrants the expenditure of police time.

Slowly, the plot thickens, and Fandorin is sent to London to try to get to the bottom of it.

This is a lovely, innocent book, full of intrigue, action and humour that makes you smile. You don't really know who the bad people are till the end.

If Pushkin could read it, he would recognise many of the characters from his own works, the gamblers and duellists, the drinkers and henchmen, the ravishingly beautiful upper class ladies, princesses and duchesses.

Akunin manages to write about the 19th century as though he was writing during it. All the little details of pre-Revolutionary Russian society are included, especially concerning rank and social class. Here is a simple mystery, in the style of Sherlock Holmes.

Easy to read, enjoyable, but with a twist at the end that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief. Ideal holiday reading.