Forty Years Among Thieves and Murderers

The first chief of the St. Petersburg detective police Ivan Dmitrievich Putilin (1830—1893) became a symbolic figure in Russian detection. He could identify a murderer by the smallest clues and bring a case to a conclusion, even if it reached a dead end. In his memoirs, Putilin refers to interesting and shocking cases from his work experience.
The book includes 22 detective stories co-authored with the journalist M. Shevlyakov, as well as «An Outline of Some Types of Theft in St. Petersburg».
The collection is preceded by an article by Anatoly Koni (1844—1927) — prosecutor and judicial orator of the Russian Empire.