The author Russia sentenced: 5 detective novels by Boris Akunin

Indian Express

20-07-2025

Boris Akunin carved his literary legacy with detective novels set in imperial Russia, works that made him one of the country's most beloved authors. Now, the same pen has made him a wanted man. A Russian military court sentenced Akunin in absentia to 14 years in prison for voicing support for Ukraine and criticising President Putin's rule.
Writing under the pen name Boris Akunin, Grigori Chkhartishvili redefined crime fiction for a post-Soviet readership. His most famous creation is Erast Fandorin, a Russian detective with Japanese swordsmanship. These mysteries are filled with conspiracies and the menace of unchecked power. That's what has made his books beloved by readers and threatening to those in power. Here are 5 detective novels that brought Boris Akunin global fame and continue to be relevant today.
This is where the game begins. A promising young student shoots himself in a public park in 1876 Moscow and no one seems particularly surprised. Except for Erast Fandorin, new to the force and already too perceptive for his own good. A puzzling suicide turns into a tangle of clues. A photograph of a mysterious woman, an English orphanage, a will rewritten just before death. A whodunit that shows how easily one life can fall apart. A single question can echo across continents- what really happened? Fandorin is just trying to understand a world that doesn't always make sense. And that hunger for truth is what makes Boris Akunin's detective truly unforgettable.
A mansion in Paris. Ten bodies. One golden whale shaped key. The trail leads to the Leviathan, a luxury steamship sailing to Calcutta, and now a crime scene at sea. Among the suspects are- a secretive doctor, a relic obsessed aristocrat and a Swiss woman with secrets. Also aboard is none other than Erast Fandorin, unbothered by the waves or the rising body count. A locked-room mystery. And a floating theatre of suspicion, where manners mask murder and every alibi is rehearsed. Claustrophobic and tightly plotted. A must-read for locked-room mystery fans.
The city is dressed in gold and expectation. Moscow prepares for the grand coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and that's when chaos strikes. The heir to the throne is kidnapped. A deadly ransom demand follows. Then enters Erast Fandorin, who must solve this mystery. A case of abduction that quickly turns into a critique of power and corruption. With time slipping away, Fandorin races against court politics and cold-blooded villains to rescue the future of Russia.
Trains, spies, ninjas and a double life across continents. In 1905, Fandorin races to stop Japanese sabotage along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Bombs tick and war hangs heavy in the air. But the real origin of this conflict is decades earlier. We rewind to 1870s Japan. A younger Fandorin arrives in Yokohama. He learns swordplay, earns scars, meets Masa and uncovers a murder. This case quickly takes a turn into betrayal and heartbreak. Past and present collide in a gripping finale that bridges two eras and reveals what truly forged Erast Fandorin.
War is chaos. But in Akunin's hands, even the battlefield becomes a chessboard. In 1877, amid the Russo-Turkish War, Erast Fandorin is sent to the front, undercover and still recovering from past wounds. His mission is to unmask a saboteur tipping the war's balance. He's joined by Varvara Suvorova, a journalist with no love for empire or for men like Fandorin. But when her fiancé is accused of spying, she's forced to rethink everything. As ideologies blur, so do the loyalties drawn in war. A taut, slow-burn mystery where alliances shift like the frontlines.
(The writer is an intern with indianexpress.com)