- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: W&N; First Edition edition (1 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297848259
- ISBN-13: 978-0297848257
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 257,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
She Lover Of Death: The Further Adventures of Erast Fandorin
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"His characters are outrageous and thoroughly unbelievable. Fandorin is an impossibly heroic figure. The combination is irrestible." (Marcel Berlins THE TIMES )
"self-indulgently enjoyable... (Akunin's) artfully constructed novel also nods in the direction of Arthur Conan Doyle" (John Thornhill FINANCIAL TIMES )
"A special treat for Akunin's fans" (Jessica Mann LITERARY REVIEW )
"self-indulgently enjoyable... (Akunin's) artfully constructed novel also nods in the direction of Arthur Conan Doyle" (John Thornhill FINANCIAL TIMES )
"A special treat for Akunin's fans" (Jessica Mann LITERARY REVIEW )
Book Description
Can Fandorin infiltrate a secret society to save Moscow's youth? A dark and decadent detective story from the master of Russian crime fiction.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Drawn to the city by a young boy she has met, a young girl of a romantic nature renames herself Columbine and travels to Moscow from the provinces to create a new life for herself. Although her Harlequin turns out to be a disappointment, he introduces her into a secretive group that the whole of the capital is talking about - the Lovers of Death, a small group of sensitive poets, each of them eagerly waiting their turn to die a romantic fin-de-siècle death by suicide. The close proximity with Death inspires them to create fine poetry until the moment that Death judges them as being worthy of being called to be her lover.
The sudden rise of incidents of suicide, the victims leaving behind a final flourish of a poem as a suicide note, hasn't gone unnoticed by the newspapers or by the authorities, each of whom try to infiltrate the group, fearing that the epidemic will spread and inspire others to end their lives. Following the calling of another one of their number to the other side, the leader of the group, the Doge, introduces a new applicant into the Lovers of Death group - a distinguished gentleman with a Japanese servant who it would seem has already had a close encounter with Death in the past.
She-Lover of Death has everything you expect now from an Akunin Fandorin mystery, taking in questions about the nature of the Russian people and their temperament with literary allusions - here evidently the romantic early deaths of its greatest poets Pushkin and Lermontov - philosophical musings and considerations of advances in technology, that all have a profound impact on Russian society at the turn-of-the-century. Fandorin's investigation is as usual followed from a number of perspectives; newspaper reports, an official investigation and from the diary entries of a romantic young girl, all of them adding up to the usual pulp thrills, spills and humour with a characteristically dark edge.
The companion book He-Lover of Death takes place at the same time as the events in this novel, concerning the parallel adventure of a young homeless thief on the streets of Moscow who aspires not only to be taken seriously by the city's criminal fraternity, but also to gain the love of a glamorous, enigmatic young woman known only as Death. There is very little overlap in the two adventures however, both of them functioning as standalone works.
The sudden rise of incidents of suicide, the victims leaving behind a final flourish of a poem as a suicide note, hasn't gone unnoticed by the newspapers or by the authorities, each of whom try to infiltrate the group, fearing that the epidemic will spread and inspire others to end their lives. Following the calling of another one of their number to the other side, the leader of the group, the Doge, introduces a new applicant into the Lovers of Death group - a distinguished gentleman with a Japanese servant who it would seem has already had a close encounter with Death in the past.
She-Lover of Death has everything you expect now from an Akunin Fandorin mystery, taking in questions about the nature of the Russian people and their temperament with literary allusions - here evidently the romantic early deaths of its greatest poets Pushkin and Lermontov - philosophical musings and considerations of advances in technology, that all have a profound impact on Russian society at the turn-of-the-century. Fandorin's investigation is as usual followed from a number of perspectives; newspaper reports, an official investigation and from the diary entries of a romantic young girl, all of them adding up to the usual pulp thrills, spills and humour with a characteristically dark edge.
The companion book He-Lover of Death takes place at the same time as the events in this novel, concerning the parallel adventure of a young homeless thief on the streets of Moscow who aspires not only to be taken seriously by the city's criminal fraternity, but also to gain the love of a glamorous, enigmatic young woman known only as Death. There is very little overlap in the two adventures however, both of them functioning as standalone works.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Akunin, as those who read or have heard of his Fandorin novels know, aims to write each volume in a particular genre of crime fiction. This one deals with decadence in turn-of-the-century Moscow. A suicide club has formed and it attracts aficionados from all rungs of society. Written in the multi-person perspective familiar from previous books, here we have the story as seen by a young girl arrived in Moscow from the provinces, a newspaper journalist investigating the club, and the police. Bohemians attracted to the society are urged by its leader to write down their ruminations on death in verse, to be praised or condemned by him. The Russians pride themselves on the poetry in their souls, and so they do not necessarily take kindly to being dismissed, but so in thrall are the cultists to their leader that they accept every word of his as manna. Naturally, the world at large is not indifferent to the club, and both the police and the papers attempt to infiltrate it. Fandorin himself, incognito and persona not very grata in Moscow after the disastrous events of the Coronation, embroils himself, too. There are a couple of twists in the tale, and all once again is not as it seems. This is not as good an offering from Akunin as some of his older works, but still worth an evening by the fireside.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A poor outing for Erast Fandorin, with a lame, transparent plot and a diffident Fandorin who lacks any of his earlier flair. The fact is that, as he gets older, Fandorin has turned into a pompous, conservative bore, and little of his youthful charm has survived the ravages of time. Too much allusion, too little action and Fandorin's once charming enigma comes across in middle age as reclusive defensiveness. Perhaps this comes to all of us at that time of life, and if so then our interest in him is probably over.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Oh dear
I think I have read most of Erast Fandorin's adventures prior to this book. However, I haven't read any for a while so I was looking forward to catching up with Mr Fandorin. Read more
Published 3 months ago by pigsmayfly
Akunin makes delightful reading
I used to think that The Death of Achilles was Akunin's most accomplished book, but I see that he has outgrown even that. He now writes for the sheer pleasure of writing. Read more
Published 6 months ago by D. Timpau
She Lovesssss...
Maybe one of the most melodramatic and quite preposterous of the Fandorin novels - a farfetched tale that takes in a suicide club and a snake clad heroine is as wonderfully camp as... Read more
Published 8 months ago by McKittrick
She lover of death. By Boris Akunin
The next chapter in the tales of Erast Fandorin. I love how this author writes about his main character, generally from other characters perspectives. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Pippa. R
technically accomplished
Akunin's abilty to write in different styles and different voices, both within and between books, is undiminished. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Graham R. Hill
Boris - slightly under form
Not as good as his previous ones, but what you would call a 'rollicking good read'. Characters are as brilliantly portrayed as always, it is well plotted and very evocative of... Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2010 by carey r
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
