Special Assignments
Russian edition cover
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| Author | Boris Akunin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Особые поручения |
| Translator | Andrew Bromfield |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Erast Fandorin |
| Genre | Historical detective |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
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Publication date
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1999 |
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Published in English
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11 January 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 328 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 71347251 |
| 891.735 22 | |
| LC Class | PG3478.K78 O8413 2007b |
| Preceded by | The Death of Achilles |
| Followed by | The State Counsellor |
Special Assignments: The Further Adventures of Erast Fandorin (Russian Особые поручения) is a book by Russian author Boris Akunin, published in 2007. The book contains two historical detective novellas featuring his character Erast Fandorin: The Jack of Spades (Russian Пиковый валет) and The Decorator (Russian Декоратор). Special Assignments was originally published in Russian in 1999.
Moscow, 1886. Four years after the events depicted in The Death of Achilles, Fandorin is still serving as the Deputy for Special Assignments to Moscow governor Prince Dolgurukoi. He is cohabitating with the Countess Addy, a married woman. After a gentleman con man named Momos, who goes by the alias "The Jack of Spades", dupes the Prince as part of a hundred-thousand ruble swindle, Fandorin is called in to apprehend him. Fandorin takes on as his investigative assistant a meek young policeman named Anisii Tulipov, and together Fandorin and Tulipov try to apprehend Momos and his beautiful lady accomplice, Mimi.
Fandorin sniffs out and shuts down a fraudulent lottery being run by the Jack, but Momos and Mimi escape. Momos in turn tricks Fandorin's Japanese manservant, Masa, into letting him steal all of Countess Addy's baggage. An angry Fandorin vows revenge on Momos and sets up a sting where he poses as an Indian prince in possession of a large emerald. Momos and Mimi again escape, but not before Mimi and Tulipov have a romantic encounter. Momos sends back all of Addy's baggage in an effort to relieve the pressure from Fandorin. Fandorin subsequently sends Addy back to her husband.
Momos decides to flee Moscow to avoid a determined Fandorin, but changes his mind after a chance encounter with Samson Eropkin, a thoroughly corrupt, criminal Moscow official. Momos decides to rob Eropkin, but the con goes horribly wrong. Momos and Mimi wind up captured by Eropkin, who is on the verge of murdering them both when Fandorin arrives and saves them. Eropkin is arrested for his crimes. Fandorin lets Momos go for lack of evidence and from a desire to save his boss, Prince Dolgurukoi, embarrassment. Mimi, on the other hand, faces trial for her involvement in the fraudulent lottery. She appears to be headed for prison and exile in Siberia—and Tulipov, who has fallen in love, dreams of marrying her after she is released from jail—when Momos, disguised as a lawyer, defends Mimi in court and blackmails the judge into dropping the charges. Tulipov watches Mimi and Momos leave the courthouse, not realising until it is too late that Momos is the lawyer, and he watches disconsolately as the Jack of Spades takes the woman of his dreams away.
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