The Ghost of the Nameless Lane

In Moscow's Nameless Lane, in the basement of a former soap factory, a burial dating back centuries has been discovered. The remains belong to seven individuals, two of whom are children, all shot in the back of the head with... a Mauser. This ancient murder-execution led to a blood feud and a series of new crimes, equally horrific and mysterious. The eerie family history of the soap makers Astakhovs, passing down their trade and their secret through the female line: from Annette to Aurora, Alexandra, and Alice, has greatly intrigued Senior Lieutenant of Police Dmitry Luzhkov, as well as Ekaterina Petrovskaya, a crime reporter for the Press Center of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate, and her old friend Sergey Meshchersky. Together, the three take on the investigation of this grim crime, whose statute of limitations has long expired…

The novels of hereditary investigator Tatyana Stepanova allow the reader to enter a literary "room of fear." Mysterious murders, an almost tangible atmosphere of crime, the agonizing and anxious anticipation of something unknown and frightening... Tatyana Stepanova manages to reproduce all this brilliantly. Random encounters, everyday affairs, insignificant details are depicted in her detective stories in a special, dramatic light, like a harmless spring meadow before an impending storm.