With the release of the novel As He Was Leaving, He Asked, Boris Akunin has fully completed his historical cycle, in which he simultaneously told the history of the Russian state and accompanied it with works of fiction set in the corresponding historical period.
Boris Akunin concluded the history of the Russian Empire with the reign of the last tsar of the Romanov dynasty — Nicholas II. Beyond that point, in the author’s view, it was no longer the history of an empire (though recent events show that imperial history seems unwilling to let Russia go).
The fictional cycle, as I have written many times before, is essentially the story of a completely different dynasty, one that managed to traverse the entire path from the Varangian era to the Revolution of 1917. And if in the earlier works of the cycle representatives of this dynasty played a rather prominent role — sometimes even stepping directly into the spotlight (as in the novel The Fortunate Adventures and Reflections of Lucius Catin) — then in the penultimate The Road to Kitezh it was the events of the era that came to the fore, rather than one of the heirs with the telltale birthmark on the forehead. The final novel, titled As He Was Leaving, He Asked, is likewise far less focused on the last heiress of the family in the cycle.
In this novel, Boris Akunin seems to return to his roots. Once again, it is in many ways a detective story involving the investigation of a kidnapping, once again layered onto the historical events of the era in which Akunin’s main character, Erast Fandorin, came of age. Even the heiress mentioned here, Marie Larr, is in many respects the same Erast Fandorin of The State Counsellor period, or a bit earlier. That is, someone who has already seen much, runs a private detective practice, knows her own worth, and has clear views on life.
And yet, even in this novel she is not the main heroine. Her story is shown to us through the eyes of another Russian detective, Vasily Gusev, who by fate’s will is forced to work with Mademoiselle Larr on a rather delicate case. Gusev is an innovator and a progressive in Russian detective work, but all his innovations unexpectedly pale beside the talents of women — who at that time were not considered capable of dealing with anything complicated at all. After all, the struggle for women’s rights had only just begun.
I will not go into the details of the case itself or reveal that the kidnapper is the butler. A detective story is meant to keep you interested in following the twists and turns of the investigation. I will only say that in the novel As He Was Leaving, He Asked the author focuses on the “loud” facts of that era — the growing workers’ movement and the mystical Rasputin at the court of the tsar’s family.
And also the ever-present, long-standing illness of Russia — those with strength and power live well. Akunin had already shown the life of the mighty in his novel Coronation, but there the emphasis was precisely on the idea that for the sake of Russia and honor, one sometimes has to sacrifice what is most precious in life — one’s own children. In the new novel, however, a different tendency is evident: for the sake of personal gain, nothing and no one is spared.
The case turns out to be much more tangled and difficult than it seemed at first; at times the detectives reach dead ends and are forced to start over. During their joint adventures, Gusev falls in love with Marie Larr and even begins to respect her as a detective (something that, within his worldview, was initially inconceivable). Yet when they finally manage to solve the crime, he decides to conceal its true motives from his colleague.
And the story of fleeting love finds no continuation.
And the book itself ends rather symbolically — in the courtyard of a Cheka prison, where the history of the Russian Empire also came to an end for many of its subjects.
What will become of the Larr dynasty — that is unknown. Perhaps we have already encountered its descendants somewhere in other books by Boris Akunin (as sometimes happens with him) but failed to recognize them. Or perhaps we will see them yet. Boris Akunin does sometimes like to bring his characters together.
My rating: 4/5
As for the cycle as a whole — a good cycle, but middling. It lacks unity, especially when separated from the “historical” part.
