The Winter Queen, the first novel by Boris Akunin about Erast Fandorin, was released in 1998 and almost immediately caused a sensation in literary circles. I usually approached widely popular books with caution, so I didn’t start reading the series about the remarkable detective until Boris Akunin had already written seven or eight books. But once I devoured the first one, I eagerly moved on to the next. And so it went until I had read them all in succession.
After that, I consistently bought each new book in the series as soon as it was released, read it right away, and waited for the next one. However, after the tenth book, The Diamond Chariot, I felt that the best days were behind. The books were still good, but they no longer sparked the same excitement as the earlier ones. The final novel, Not Saying Goodbye, where Erast Petrovich finally leaves, brought more sadness and melancholy than anything else. After fifteen novels, his story came to an end, but I still longed to revisit it, hopefully at the level of the best books.
Then, in 2020, Boris Akunin unexpectedly released the novel Just Masa. No, it’s not about Erast Petrovich, but rather about his loyal servant and companion—the Japanese Masahiro Shibata. Masa first appears in the fourth novel in the series, The Death of Achilles. As I recall, Akunin describes the first meeting between Erast Fandorin and the young yakuza from Yokohama in the tenth novel, The Diamond Chariot, where much of the story focuses on the young detective’s life in Japan.
In the new book, it’s just Masa. Erast Petrovich has passed away, and his now-aging assistant, after many decades, has finally decided to return to his homeland, a country that has changed significantly in his absence.
In terms of the story, it consists of several smaller investigations, tied together by a single thread—the mystery of Masahiro Shibata’s origins. Previously, we only knew about his youth as a gangster (although the yakuza aren’t quite “gangsters” in our sense of the word, more like “noble outlaws”). In this book, we’re also told about the origins of the yakuza as a whole and how Masa came to serve in the organization before being found and taken under the wing of a young Russian.
In style, this book closely resembles the early works in the series, bringing genuine joy to the heart. Most of the narrative is dedicated to Japan, a topic on which the author seems capable of speaking endlessly. This gives the novel something in common with the incomparable The Diamond Chariot, where Boris Akunin similarly indulged in his love for the subject.
It’s an excellent continuation of what seemed to be a long-buried series. Yes, Erast Fandorin is gone, but his legacy lives on in the capable hands of his loyal assistant. And, who knows, Masa may yet have more to show us—he hasn’t gone “not saying goodbye.”
However, there are some nuances with the book itself. Boris Akunin released it in three formats:
- Audio version. This was the first release of the novel.
- E-book. Available exclusively on Bookmate, which not everyone (myself included) was happy about. However, this version includes numerous footnotes that provide readers with more information about Japan and its culture.
- Print version. This one lacks the extensive footnotes but includes wonderful illustrations.
I would have preferred a version with both illustrations and footnotes, but unfortunately, such a version hasn’t been made available yet.
My rating: 4.5/5
