Anton Chizh is a well-known Russian writer, perhaps one of the brightest contemporary authors of historical detective fiction. The novel “A Dangerous Surname” continues the cases of the brilliant detective Rodion Vanzarov, a favorite of young ladies.
Having barely crossed the threshold of his twenty-fifth year, the hero takes on another investigation: under delicate circumstances, a well-known government official has been brutally murdered. His son Serge, a successful entrepreneur engaged in railway construction, is suspected of the killing. It seems we have before us a classic crime born of family conflict, and Vanzarov is only a step away from catching the murderer. But while solving one murder, he revives an old, unfinished investigation that was once begun by… Leo Tolstoy himself!