Scarlet Sails of Bluebeard

Better a cuckoo in the sky than a cuckoo in the head. Viola thought about this on her way to a small town in the Moscow region, anticipating a fun adventure. The publishing house "Elephant" asked Viola Tarakanova, writing under... the pseudonym Arina Violova, to go to Kustovo to participate in the game "Treasure Hunt." The game was initiated by the local mayor, Petr Zotov, to attract tourists to his town. The idea was for the Fork to find a golden 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 provided the wrong map of the area, so the Fork accidentally digs up not a chest but a box… with a child's shirt stained brown, 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. However, the favorite woman of the convict is convinced of his innocence and asks Viola to prove it. And just when the Fork learns who the real villain is, she becomes quite uneasy. After all, this person was too, too close! Darya Dontsova is the most popular and in-demand author in our country, a favorite of millions of readers. More than 200 million copies of her books have been sold in Russia. Her work fills hearts and souls with light, optimism, joy, and confidence in tomorrow! "Dontsova is an incredible hard worker! I do not know any other writer who works as hard as she does. I regard her with respect, as an example of literary diligence. Women need psychological support and receive it from Dontsova. I, too, read several of Dontsova's novels in my time. She is read by very different people. And very busy businesswomen, to switch off their minds for a while, and housewives who have a 15–20 minute break between dropping off and picking up children." – Galina Yuzefovich, literary critic