When the new governor-general of 1891 Siberia is secreted away on a train to Moscow only to be assassinated by a man pretending to be State Counsellor Erast Fandorin, the real Fandorin must navigate government corruption and the activities of an unknown enemy in order to find the real killer and clear his own name.

"When Masha Mironova alights in Moscow at the turn of the century, with a modest inheritance and a determination to shed her provincial Siberian upbringing, she becomes Columbine: reckless and daring-and with the dramatic outfits to prove it. In her quest for danger and passion, Columbine soon discovers the Lovers of Death-a small gathering of poets who conduct séances to determine death's next chosen lover. Once named at a séance, the chosen one...