Better a cuckoo in the sky than a cuckoo in your head. That’s what Viola thought on her way to a small town in the Moscow region, anticipating a fun adventure.
The Elephant publishing house asked Viola Tarakanova, who writes under the pen name Arina Violova, to go to Kustovo to take part in the “Treasure Hunt” game held there. The idea was started by the local mayor, Petr Zotov, to attract tourists to his town. The plan was that Vilka would find a golden chest with a diary belonging to Evdokiya, a local celebrity, and use it for her book. Tarakanova arrives in Kustovo, stays in the mayor’s house, and joins the game. But the organizers gave the wrong map of the area—so Vilka accidentally digs up not a chest, but a box… with a children’s shirt spotted brown, a little ball, and a knife!
Tarakanova finds out that this is evidence of an old murder of a little boy, and the criminal is already in prison. But the condemned man’s wife is convinced of his innocence and asks Viola to prove it.
And then, when Vilka learns who the real villain is, she feels truly uneasy. After all, this person was—far too, far too close! …
Age restriction: 16+