Scarlet Sails of Blue Beard

Better a cuckoo in the sky than a cuckoo in the head. Viola thought about this on her way to a small town near Moscow, anticipating a fun adventure. The publishing house "Elephant" asked Viola Tarakanova, who writes under the... pseudonym Arina Violova, to go to Kustovo to participate in a "Treasure Hunt" game. The local mayor, Petr Zotov, initiated the game to attract tourists to his town. The idea was that the Fork should find a gold chest with the diary of Evdokia, a local celebrity, and use it for her book. Tarakanova arrives in Kustovo, settles in the mayor's house, and joins the game. But the organizers gave the wrong map of the area, so the Fork accidentally digs up not a chest, but a box… with a child's shirt in brown stains, a ball, and a knife! Tarakanova discovers that these are clues to an old murder of a little boy, and the criminal is already in prison. But the convicted man's beloved is sure of his innocence and asks Viola to prove it. And just when the Fork learns who the real villain is, she feels very uneasy. After all, this person was too, too close! Daria Dontsova is the most popular and in-demand author in our country, a favorite of millions of readers. Over 200 million copies of her books have been sold in Russia. Her work fills hearts and souls with light, optimism, joy, and confidence in the future! "Dontsova is an incredible hard worker! I don't know any other writer who has worked as much as she has. I respect her as a model of a writer's diligence. Women need psychological support and receive it from Dontsova. I myself read several of Dontsova's novels back in the day. She is read by very different people. And very busy businesswomen who want to turn off their heads for a while, and housewives who have a 15-20 minute break between dropping off and picking up children." — Galina Yuzefovich, literary critic