The name of Nikolai Leonov is well known to all fans of the detective genre as the author of more than thirty novellas featuring the top-class investigator Lev Gurov. The rest of the public knows him as the screenwriter of the hugely popular films "The Tavern on Pyatnitskaya" and "Agony". Leonov is, so to speak, a detective writer of the old school. For him, what matters is not only action and a cleverly twisted plot, but also the psychological motivation behind characters' actions, attention to detail, knowledge of the subject being written about, and the presence of a hero who invariably achieves the triumph of justice. His Lev Gurov differs from a dozen other literary detectives in that he is not a schematic figure but a living person. Across the pages of his books he has lived an entire life, transforming from a shy young man into a seasoned investigator.