A detective story in a postwar atmosphere—about betrayal, a secret weapon, and a secret hidden in an old book.
A hot summer of 1950. In a children’s library on Kirova Street, they find an elderly front-line veteran murdered in the reading room. His belongings are all in place—nothing was stolen. Only one thing is missing:
A LUXURIOUSLY PUBLISHED VOLUME OF GOETHE.
Investigator Arkady Nikitin immediately understands: this isn’t an ordinary theft. Who needs German poetry? To burn it? To sell it to dealers? Or is something hidden between the pages that
NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO FIND.
Almost at the same time, the district policeman Sidorenkov notices an oil-soaked bundle in the trash bin. Inside are seven PPSh submachine guns and an old Polish rifle. Nikitin still doesn’t suspect that within a day Sidorenkov will be stabbed in the stairwell—quickly and mercilessly—and on the wall they will leave a chalk inscription:
“HE TOOK WHAT WASN’T HIS.”
Who’s running this game? The elusive “Engineer” trading guns? A working man from Mosgaz? Or someone from a neighboring department who knew about Sidorenkov’s find before
THE BODY HAD TIME TO COOL.
Colonel Pinchuk demands that Nikitin close the case quickly and not dig deeper. But Nikitin won’t back down—and uncovers what should have been buried forever. Because the game continues: among their own might be someone with two faces—guardian of the law and seller of death. And now the main question isn’t “who killed?” but…
CAN YOU STAY ALIVE IF THE TRAITOR KNOWS EVERY ONE OF YOUR MOVES IN ADVANCE?