The Russian Detective
  • Published: 7 March 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529926316
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 112

The Russian Detective

Formats & editions
Hardback
18 Jun 2024
EBook
7 Mar 2024
EBook
7 Mar 2024
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A stunning detective story from the winner of the World Illustration Award

A stunning detective story from the winner of the World Illustration Award

**OBSERVER GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE MONTH Pick for March**

'Could not be more rich or more beautiful if it tried'
OBSERVER

In this stunning reimagining of a nineteenth-century Russian crime thriller from the world of Dostoevsky, Carol Adlam presents Charlie Fox, stunt journalist, magician, liar and thief, who reluctantly returns to her hometown of Nowheregrad to investigate the murder of Elena Ruslanova, daughter of a fabulously wealthy glass manufacturer.

In Nowheregrad Charlie finds herself caught up in a multi-layered story that is told through the richly varied visual devices of the time. With the unwitting assistance of her lover, Netochka, Charlie unravels the mystery of the Bobrov family, only to face the truth about herself.

Exquisitely drawn and compellingly told, Adlam's complex, elegant narrative brings to life the lost legacies of early crime fiction and the first women journalists and detectives.
  • Published: 7 March 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529926316
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 112
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About the author

Carol Adlam

Carol Adlam holds a PhD in Russian and an MA in Illustration from the Cambridge School of Art. She won a World Illustration Award in 2018, and was shortlisted in both 2016 and 2015. She was a writer-in-residence at the University of St Andrews in 2020 and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge in 2021.

portrait photo of Carol Adlam

Praise for The Russian Detective

I mightily enjoyed lingering over this beautifully-drawn story. A deliciously layered palimpsest of texture, period pastiche and detail; subversive, immersive and elegant

Kate Charlesworth, author of Sally Heathcote

Could not be more rich or more beautiful if it tried. This is a book that replays multiple readings… its illustrations, so deeply atmospheric and so inordinately beautiful

Observer

The Russian Detective is truly incredible… a gorgeous intricate work of art with a really gripping and touching story. The book took me to Russia so fully that I could almost taste the vodka! Carol Adlam does character detail so well, all her illustrations are full of daring experiments with scale and structure, but also so many small moments of humour and warmth.

Helen Cross, author of My Summer of Love

Grin-inducingly clever, this is a thrilling tour de force

Stephen Holland, Comics Laureate

Dostoevsky eat your heart out -- here come the women crime writers erased from the Russian canon!

Val McDermid