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The coronation of Russia's last Tsar is looming, and Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich arrives in Moscow with his children, his entourage and the rather alluring governess, Mademoiselle Declique. Ambushed by bandits on a short outdoor stroll, one of the Grand Duke's children is snatched - despite the well-timed intervention of an elegant gentleman and his oriental sidekick.
A ransom note appears mysteriously inside the Grand Duke's lodge, and the have-a-go heroes reveal their true selves: Fandorin is back on native soil, hot on the heels of master criminal Doctor Lind. Lind has eluded our hero before, to tragic effect. And as Fandorin's attempts to buy time are plagued by red herrings, distracting royal romances and the growing certainty that the Duke's party is infiltrated, it would seem that either the boy's life, or the magnificent coronation diamond The Count Orlov, will have to be sacrificed.
With Lind's footsoidiers on the inside, can the gentleman detective triumph in his most closely matched fight to date? Erast Fandorin returns in a gripping race against the clock, where old grudges and mistaken identities might just conspire to make his days as numbered as those of the Tsars...
