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Title details for The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin - Available

The Turkish Gambit

#2 in series

by Boris Akunin
Paul Michael
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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"[Akunin] writes gloriously pre-Soviet prose, sophisticated and suffused in Slavic melanchioly and thoroughly worthy of nineteenth-century forebearers like Gogol and Chekhov."
–Time
It is 1877, and war has broken out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian front resounds with the thunder of cavalry charges, the roar of artillery, and the clash of steel on steel during the world's last great horse-and-cannon conflict. Amid the treacherous atmosphere of a nineteenth-century Russian field army, former diplomat and detective extraordinaire Erast Fandorin finds his most confounding case.
It's difficulties are only compounded by the presence of Varya Suvorova, a deadly serious (and seriously beautiful) woman with revolutionary ideals who has disguised herself as a boy in order to find her respected comrade– and fiancé–Pyotr Yablokov, an army cryptographer. Even after Fandorin saves her life, Varya can hardly bear to thank such a "lackey of the throne" for his efforts.
But when Yablokov is accused of espionage and faces imprisonment and execution, Varya must turn to Fandorin to find the real culprit . . . a mission that forces her to reconsider his courage, deductive mind, and piercing gaze.
Filled with the same delicious detail, ingenious plotting, and subtle satire as The Winter Queen and Murder on the Leviathan, The Turkish Gambit confirms Boris Akunin's status as a master of the historical thriller–and Erast Fandorin as a detective for the ages.
From the Hardcover edition.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Erast Fandorin

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 15, 2005

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415952115
      • File size: 225307 KB
      • Duration: 07:49:23

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A witty and gabby historical whodunit from Russia is set in 1877 during hostilities between the motherland and the Ottomans. As diplomat/stutterer/detective Erast Fandorin investigates a case of espionage, the accused's lovely, spirited fiancée keeps getting in his way. Paul Michael nicely delivers the lengthy conversations of les Russes. But his narrative, with slurred diction that sounds ever so modern and American, clashes with the book's setting, atmosphere, and sophistication. Michael lacks variety and an appreciation for the book's humor. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 21, 2005
      If chatty digressions on love and war tend to slow the third Erast Fandorin historical to appear in the U.S. (after 2004's Murder on the Leviathan
      ), Russian author Akunin does a superb job of rendering the immediacy of battle in the 1877–1878 conflict between the Motherland and Turkey, and illuminating the politics behind czarist fantasies of recapturing Constantinople. At the Balkan front, the quiet, stuttering Fandorin befriends Varya Suvorova, a midwife turned telegraphist. Varya is bent on visiting her court-martialed fiancé, who's accused of being a spy. Fandorin and Varya are soon caught up in the fortunes of the Russian army, which a well-placed mole seems intent on betraying. Suspicions point to various Russian staff officers and to some glamorous foreign correspondents, including Seamus McLaughlin from London's Daily Post
      and Michel Paladin from the Revue Parisienne
      . Codes, courtesans and love letters all come into play, as well as murder and suicide in combat, in a plot more complex than some West Point battle plans. While the plethora of minor characters can be confusing, the quirky Fandorin and determined Varya stand out amid the turmoil of their surroundings. Agent, Linda Michaels Ltd.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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