The Capital of Runaways

College adviser Lykov has fallen out of favor with his superiors. Bandits killed the parents of his assistant Sergey Azvestopulo in Odessa. And he involved Sergey himself in the search for the murderers instead of sending him to Petersburg as ordered. As punishment, Lykov was sent to the Turukhan region. From there, escapes by exiled prisoners increased; it was necessary to find out how they managed to disappear from such a doomed place. Arriving at the Arctic Circle, the detective learns that escapes have become routine. And somewhere in the vicinity of Irkutsk, there are "numbers for runaways." In these places, the elite of the criminal world sits out, changes their appearance, and gets new documents. And when the police cease their search, the bandits return to big cities. No wonder Irkutsk is called the capital of runaways. Lykov decides to go there to find and destroy the den.

The main character of all works with plots relating to the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century is Alexey Lykov. In addition to this fictional hero, historical figures are introduced into the action of the novels and stories – civilian officials and military ranks, real subjects of the Russian Empire of those years. All books are based on thoroughly studied and carefully selected historical materials.

«Nikolai Svechin's book is beautifully written. But I wouldn't say it's the new Akunin. Although the presence of the king of modern Russian detective is felt there. In the main character, detective Alexey Lykov, I discovered a kind of symbiosis of Fandorin and Romanov – two heroes from different Akunin series. Alexey Lykov is like a Nizhny Novgorod Superman from the second half of the 19th century, who combines Fandorin's intelligence and Romanov's simplicity.
Svechin's main character quite organically (as much as this artificial genre allows, like detective) grows out of Nizhny Novgorod, the trading capital of 19th century Russia. Lykov is a participant in the Russo-Turkish War, wounded, came to the Nizhny Novgorod police to continue serving the homeland. And he immediately got into a predicament from which he miraculously emerges alive... as the deputy head of the Nizhny Novgorod investigation. The story is fantastic and, of course, entirely fictional. But you believe it because it is not the hero that captivates you, but the place and time in which the hero acts.
Svechin's novel belongs to the genre of "ethno-detective." In it, the ethnographic component is more important than the detective one.» – Pavel Basinsky


Svechin's books are a synthesis of retro-detective and popular regional studies. This subgenre can be called "regional retro-detective" (and the alliteration will be good). The action always takes place in the author's native Nizhny Novgorod and its surroundings. Most stories, as far as I understand, are taken from life (that is, from documents), and therefore in terms of plot, Svechin is not very expressive.
The language is carefully stylized. Occasionally, there are almost Coliadian gems: «I wrote to the Sovereign! To no avail. I received favor for responsible citizenship...», but such obvious blunders are quite rare. However, a philologist could collect a whole handful of minor flaws here. The word «one» cannot relate to the Yarmonkin brothers, as it denotes female individuals. The word «kruzhalo» is a folk-poetic term, long outdated, and in the 19th century, it could only be used by epic storytellers, but certainly not by peasants in everyday speech, etc.
The atmosphere is pleasant. Distinguished gentlemen with names like Petrovo-Solovovo – and even (I'm not lying!) Golenychev-Kutusov-Tolstoy – serenely drink «shustovsky» and snack on frozen persimmons.