The Sphinx Estate

The long-awaited continuation of the popular books “Red Chains” and “The Hammer of Witches” offers a new investigation by Alina and Gronsky.

An author who changed the very approach to the genre and turned the thriller into art.

Five victims. Every five years.

Saint Petersburg. Apartments locked from the inside. Lilies with a cloying fragrance. Young women who die without resisting. Deep bites on their bodies—as if this were work of animal teeth, not human.

At first glance, the victims have nothing in common. Except—stunning beauty and death…

Reveal the truth. Seek in the dark.

The Sphinx Estate. In the Elite Academy located within its walls, the children of the most influential people study. Their assignments are to lure the next victim into a trap, and their exams are someone’s death.

But who among them is the real killer and manipulator of young minds? The ideologue of genetic superiority running the academy? The gloomy maid with a disfigured face? The attractive psychology professor? Or is the estate itself a living labyrinth of death with a history worse than any nightmare?

“This book is more than just a thriller—it’s an immersion in a cold river of time, where the past, like an invisible ghost, rises from the darkness and whispers into your ear. Obraztsov masterfully weaves secrets that don’t want to be revealed and fears that prevent sleep into the plot. Each page is a step across the fragile glass of high society, and each turn is a door behind which hides an ancient evil.” — Maria Skripova, author of the thrillers “Unreliable Narrator” and “The Secret Observer,” winner of the “Russian Detective” award in the nominations “Detective Thriller” and “Readers’ Choice”

“Reading ‘The Sphinx Estate’ feels like falling into an enchanted dream, where the boundaries of reality disappear, turning the world into a mystical and shifting illusion. It’s as if you find yourself in another world where anything is possible. And all of this ‘anything’ is concentrated in one place: hidden caches, mirrored doubles, dungeon knights, a monster hunting beautiful women, references to myths… Against the backdrop of an old estate—gloomy and alluring, full of mysteries—the plot unfolds. The author’s delightful style carries you into this dream irrevocably, and you just want to stay in the world of illusions and secrets forever!” — Yulia Yakovleva, author of the blog Books around me