The Deadly Labyrinth

1844. After the death of the famous Russian fabulist Ivan Krylov, the treating doctor, Fyodor Galler, unexpectedly becomes entangled in a dangerous intrigue. To obtain the papers of the “Neptune Society,” in which, for more than a century, the empire’s highest aristocrats had belonged, he must pass through a labyrinth packed with deadly traps—built long ago by Abram Gannibal, “the blackamoor of Peter the Great.” But these same papers are hunted by the Gendarmerie Corps and the agents of the British ambassador in Russia, Baron Rothsay.

In the papers lies one of the most strictly guarded secrets of the imperial court—its publication could trigger a real revolution even in the “buttoned-up tight” Russia of Nicholas I. Like in all of Andrey Dobrov’s novels, alongside fictional heroes, real historical figures appear on the pages. And truth and fiction are so tightly interwoven that sometimes they are impossible to tell apart.