Special Assignments - Boris Akunin

Special Assignments consists of two shorter stories where Akunin’s detective Court Counsellor Erast Fandorin is called upon to solve two very different cases that threaten to cause grave embarrassment to the Russian Royal Court of the late nineteenth century. The novella format suits the stories, rounding out the background of the special investigator, his personal life and acquaintances and expanding on his abilities, while still leaving the author room for some flashes of humour, literary referencing and light philosophising. Showing some variety in style and content, the two detective stories however are minor pieces, neither of them particularly fresh or original in the genre.

The Jack of Spades is an entertaining adventure of a cat-and-mouse chase between Fandorin and a clever conman and master of disguise who is not only making fools of the general public in Moscow, he has even taken in some prominent government officials with his schemes, leaving behind his calling card and causing major embarrassment for all concerned. It’s an entertaining light romp, Akunin capturing the wonder of the detective’s methods from the admiring viewpoint of a new assistant Tulipov who has been assigned to him.

The Decorator is a much darker prospect. After the first Erast Fandorin novel Azazel/The Winter Queen, the reader will be accustomed not to expect Fandorin’s investigations to run along too smoothly or without some serious consequences, and here his adversary is one of the most deadly – none other than Jack the Ripper himself. Akunin presents a strong and convincing psychological portrait of an intelligent and quite mad serial killer, but the appropriation of Jack the Ripper feels lazy, the investigation lacks focus and urgency, and some of the deaths that occur feel unnecessarily manipulative, the whole thing leaving a rather bitter taste in the mouth.