In a respectable boarding house, a guest’s daughter disappears. She disappears—and then returns again. And no one can say where the girl was or what happened to her. Except one person, who is already preparing a new crime. A wealthy old man played a cruel joke on his own family. Who is the victim and who is the monster? Answering that question isn’t easy, because every closet holds its own skeleton behind tightly shut doors, and not a single member of this wealthy family is eager to open them. Detective Sergey Babkin, called to the boarding house to investigate this strange case, slowly unravels the tangled ball of intrigues and passions. A single thread leads him to a crime from twenty years ago. Will he be able to stop the murder being prepared, when the investigation becomes dangerous even for him? A masterful detective intrigue, love and self-sacrifice, friendship and betrayal, and Cinderella’s story revealed from an unexpected angle—all of this is in Elena Mikhalkova’s new novel, “Cinderella and the Dragon.” Who of them is hiding nearby?