In this sixth Fandorin mystery, we experience the collision of Fandorin’s humanistic, enlightened ethics with the labyrinthine bureaucracy and Czarist power politics of 1891 Moscow. Fandorin is now a State Counselor, placing him inside the very apparatus whose corruption and institutional self-interest test his commitment to justice. I continue to value the series most for its vivid historically accurate slice-of-life: Akunin makes Muscovite society, political factions, manners, and official machinery come alive. The revolutionary Nihilists again provide the adversarial force, led by an autistic mastermind with fun eccentricities and powers. I found the thriller mechanics enjoyable, although the Christie-like reversals sometimes become melodramatic and over-done. The passionate, sexually liberated women are less convincing as characters; their opacity serves the mystery but leaves them underdeveloped. Fandorin himself is also less dominant than in earlier installments, with his deductions and actions constrained by his position.
A political assassination draws Fandorin into a conflict among revolutionary conspirators, government officials, and competing factions within Moscow’s ruling apparatus. He must investigate while navigating institutional rivalries, concealed loyalties, and a conspiracy whose real architect is hidden.
I enjoyed The State Counselor as much for its historical atmosphere as for its mystery. Fandorin’s diminished freedom is an interesting evolution of the character, even if it reduces some of the earlier books’ intellectual fireworks. The plot twists are entertaining despite their excesses, while the depiction of 1891 Moscow is, again, the best part of the series. The original Russian novel was so popular in 1999 that it became the most-expensive film in Russian history in 2005, for which Akunin wrote the screenplay.
