Boris Akunin: Leviathan

Reviewed by MICHAEL LARSEN


Fans of the Russian private eye Erast Fandorin will be delighted to know that a new mystery starring the super-sleuth has just hit the shelves. Those fans will be largely habitues of Moscow, as this is the first time that Akunin, immensely popular in his home town, has been translated into English.

The Winter Queen, the first Fandorin mystery has also been released, so if you're a devotee of Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries, you have a bit of catching up to do, because in this genre, Akunin is top-notch.

In a setting so Christie it is homage rather than plagiarism (I think), Akunin puts his suspects on the Leviathan, a huge steamship on its maiden voyage from Southampton to Calcutta.

The suspects are, of course, mostly upper-class twits, each with their own tics, agendas — and possible motives to have murdered the unfortunate Lord Littleby in his Paris home, made off with some important pieces from his Indian collection and knocked off his entire staff while they were at it.

Akunin plays lovingly with the whodunit genre: most action takes place in the Gulf of Suez, the cast are a mixture of races and the whole thing is set in 1877, so he can view the events of the time — Britain still Great, Americans still vulgar, yellow-skins to be feared, Indians to be subdued — through the mores of that era.

The story revolves around lost jewels, hidden in northern India, which gives Akunin much room to discuss the jewel trade in some detail, as well as the opportunity to look at the east-west divide.

His methods are his key to success: while the plot is largely told by the overweight and charmingly naive French cop, Gauche (ha!), several chapters are written by the suspects, as diary entries, letters home, in general ruminations.

The classic characters — the lovesick spinster Clarissa Stamp, the insupportable Renate Klebe, the eccentric Reginald Milford-Stokes — all have their theories, which become more preposterous as events unfold.

At the centre is Fandorin, charming, erudite, handsome and mysterious. Of course he outwits Gauche and well ... that'd be telling. It's a whodunit!

Yep, the clues are everywhere, so you have as much fun as Fandorin in picking the plot apart. Convoluted as it is, the denouement is not totally farcical, and the ride is a merry one.


Weidenfeld & Nicholson, $35.00

* Michael Larsen is an Auckland freelance writer