Princess Tenisheva's Cross

A cross from Princess Tenisheva’s collection of Russian antiquities goes missing. The guest is suspected, but Tenisheva prefers to dismiss the accusations. A century later, collector Kruz hkov buys a православный cross in Canada and hands it over to a church. The museum staff in Smolensk recognize it as an item from Tenisheva’s collection. The cross is stolen from the church. In Smolensk, an explosion rocks the city. Investigators Porfiry Potapov and Lelya Shvarts set out to solve the crime. Events from a hundred years ago and those of today intertwine in the plot. A historical detective story rubs shoulders with the modern day. The novel is thematically and genre-diverse: partly a women’s psychological story (an educated lady from the early twentieth century analyzes her life’s failures), partly historical (it looks at everyday life during revolutionary times in St. Petersburg and the provinces), partly biographical (Tenisheva’s life is reconstructed from available sources), partly detective (there are thefts, murders, and the work of the investigators), and partly social (the novel examines social stratification both a century ago and now).