The Turkish Gambit
Russian edition
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| Author | Boris Akunin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Турецкий гамбит (Turetskiy gambit) |
| Translator | Andrew Bromfield |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Series | Erast Fandorin |
| Genre | Historical detective |
| Publisher | Zakharov (Russia), Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK), Random House (US) |
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Publication date
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1998 |
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Published in English
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2005 (UK January, US March) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback), free text online (Russian) |
| Pages | 211 (Hardcover English translation) |
| ISBN | (Russian) (UK hc) (US hc) |
| Preceded by | The Winter Queen |
| Followed by | Murder on the Leviathan |
The Turkish Gambit (Russian: Турецкий гамбит, Turetskiy gambit) is the second novel from the Erast Fandorin series of historical detective novels by Russian author Boris Akunin. It was published in Russia in 1998. The English translation by Andrew Bromfield was published in 2005 as third of Fandorin novels, after Murder on the Leviathan which follows it in the internal chronology.
The novel is subtitled шпионский детектив ("espionage mystery"). It takes place in Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) with Fandorin investigating the doings of a Turkish agent thwarting Russian advance. Each of the 14 chapters plus an epilogue is headed by a quote from a fictional newspaper article, some written by the novel's characters.
The novel opens with a young Russian woman of "progressive" sympathies, Varvara Suvorova, traveling to meet her fiancé Pyotr Yablokov, who has volunteered to fight in the war. Her guide steals all her luggage and disappears as she approaches the war zone, but she is rescued by Erast Fandorin, who has been fighting as a volunteer to forget his tragedy. He accompanies her to Russian army headquarters to which he's bringing an important message. Upon arrival, Varvara is reunited with Pyotr, and Fandorin delivers his message: the Turkish army is advancing towards the Bulgarian town of Plevna, which sits on the road to Sofia and must be taken so the Russian army can easily advance through Bulgaria and into Turkey.
Varvara sees little of her fiance, who is busy with his duties as an army cryptographer, so she spends her time at the correspondents' club, where she meets various interesting characters: Irish reporter Seamus McLaughlin, French reporter Charles Paladin, Romanian liaison Colonel Lukan (unlike Bromfield's English translation, some others use proper Romanian spelling "Lucan"), Russian hussar officer Count Zurov (Fandorin's old friend from The Winter Queen), and the charismatic General Sobolev (based on the real-life Mikhail Skobelev). Fandorin is informed that a Turkish agent, Anwar Effendi, is conducting an intelligence operation against the Russian army and might even have penetrated Russian headquarters. This is confirmed when the telegram directing the Russian army to take Plevna is mysteriously changed to an order to take Nikopol, a strategically irrelevant town. Varvara's fiance Pyotr, who encoded the telegram, is jailed on suspicion of treason. Fandorin is charged with finding Anwar and uncovering the Turkish plot.
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Wikipedia