A new book in the stylish design of the trendiest retro-detective author Nikolai Svechin! The book is part of the series about detective Alexey Lykov and is the 35th in the count, but it can be read as a standalone work.
It's no wonder that the cashier of a large bank, a native of Finland, Rautapyaya, took advantage of such a convenient opportunity. The Finnish border is just a stone's throw away. And there, in the chilly windswept Helsingfors, the Russian police are powerless. Local law enforcement officials, for whom the orders of the imperial authorities are mere sounds, are in charge. Using forged documents, Mr. Rautapyaya stole almost three hundred thousand rubles and was gone...
On one of the days in August 1913, State Counselor Lykov heads to the cold and rainy Finnish capital. The order is to find, catch, and return the thief along with the money. But the search for the criminal quickly hit a dead end. The cashier was found murdered, and the money he had stolen vanished without a trace.
There remained one small, almost hopeless lead: near the corpse lay a strange note that shattered all of Lykov's previous theories and turned the case from criminal to political...
