Altyn Tolobas - Boris Akunin

Altyn Tolobas features a new Akunin character, Nicholas Fandorin, the modern-day English great-grandson of the famous detective Erast Fandorin. A distinguished English historian, the news of the discovery of a piece of parchment brings Nicholas back to his ancestral homeland of Moscow on a personal investigation. The document appears to be the other half of a will he has in his possession written by one of his ancestors - Cornelius von Dorn who started the Russian line of the family - and Nicholas hopes that piecing the complete document together will reveal some great secrets in his family’s past. He no sooner sets foot in Russia however than he is involved in a lot of trouble. A powerful figure in the Russian mafia is also interested in the contents of the document, and Nicholas finds himself pursued around Moscow by a deadly assassin.

Nicholas’s story is mirrored to some extent in alternate chapters by the story of his ancestor and founder of the family’s Russian branch of the family tree, Cornelius von Dorn. Arriving in Russia as a mercenary, Cornelius’s introduction to Russia is no less of a culture shock. Becoming a captain in the musketeers and gaining access to the Royal Court at the Kremlin, Cornelius finds himself unwittingly involved in a dangerous intrigue in the search for a legendary hidden treasure. The parchment found by Nicholas seems to indicate its modern-day whereabouts.

Disappointingly, neither character in Altyn Tolobas has the strength of Akunin’s other marvellous creations – Pelagia and Erast Fandorin.  Nicholas in particular - an eccentric lanky historian who listens to Chris deBurgh, has a penchant for composing limericks and whose preferred mode of travel is rollerblades - is not really all that compelling a character. Akunin’s trademark writing flair, with its philosophical pondering and literary referencing, is also below par here, but there is some consideration of what it means to be Russian from a historical as well as a modern viewpoint. Good, but not great.

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