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Overview: Located in Eric Flint’s 1632 universe the Miroslava Holmes books take place in Russia. The Russia of "1636: The Kremlin Games" and "1637: The Volga Rules." Miroslava is a Holmes style detective who sloves murders and other crimes with her partner Vasilii Lyapuno.
Genre: Fiction > Sci-Fi/Fantasy
A Holmes for the Czar (#1)
Ufa is going crazy. The new capital of the legitimate government of Russia, once a trading post in the far east, is now a fast-growing boom town. Into this maelstrom come peddlers and exotic dancers, criminals and craftsmen, nobles and assassins. Crime is running rampant and the city guards that passes for policemen don’t have a clue how to handle it—and wouldn’t know a clue if they stumbled right over it. They can manage to walk a beat, at least in broad daylight. But solve a crime?
Not a chance. And Czar Michael Romanov and his officials aren’t any help, since they’re pre-occupied with building a nation out of spit and bailing wire.
But the bargirl who was murdered had friends who cared. And those friends call in Vasilii Lyapuno, an engineer working at the newly-founded Dacha in Ufa, who loves up-timer murder mysteries.
Can Vasilii track down the killer? Luckily for him, he has the assistance of another bargirl named Miroslava, who has a unique way of seeing the world. Together they might figure out who did what to whom and who was responsible for the crime.
Crimes, rather. Murder starts adding up.
Two Cases for the Czar (#2)
Miroslava Holmes, the one and only licensed private detective in the United Sovereign States of Russia, has a new case. She’s been called in on a locked room murder—and to make things worse, it’s the locked room of an agent of the Embassy Bureau, a 17th century Russian James Bond. This is a political case, and the Embassy Bureau isn’t talking to anyone. Solving the case is going to leave Miroslava at the crossroads where law and justice part ways.
But not everything is murders and spies. No, sometimes it’s the theft of a piece of costume jewelry from a girl at the Happy Bottom Club. And this case leads Miroslava into the bailiwick of another detective. Detective Corporal Viktor Zuykov, who doesn’t want her interference.
That however, isn’t going to stop Miroslava. When money is involved things can get dangerous, and to catch the actual culprit, Miroslava and her faithful friend, Vasilii Lyapunov, must chase him to Kazan.
A Mission for the Czar (#3)
Vasilii and Miroslava are back at work again. Czar Mikhail wants a rail line built from Ufa, the capital of his United Sovereign States of Russia, to the capital of the USSR’s newest addition, the Khazak Khanate. For that he needs a steam engineer and diplomat—Vasilii’s jobs—as well as a top surveyor. Unfortunately, the surveyor is an arrogant snob who gets himself murdered—and now the czar needs a detective as well. Fortunately, Vasilii’s paramour Miroslava came with him, so she’s there to take on the case. She and Vasilii need to solve the murder quickly without blowing up the still fragile agreement between the USSR and the new State of Kazak.
And Miroslava and Vasilii aren’t the only ones with troubles. Vasilii’s young cousin Alla is hiding out in Moscow and has been since her family was murdered. She’s having to learn how the other half lives. It’s all going to come together if they can solve the murder without jeopardizing the rights of every citizen in Kazak—newfangled rights which are more fragile than anything else.
A Diogenes Club for the Czar (#4)
This is the fourth Miroslava Holmes book and all the Holmes books have dealt with Russian politics, but this one deals with them even more. Events from 1638: The Sovereign States are included in this novel and from there it continues the story of the main Russian thread of the 1632 Universe.
Czar Mikhail Romanov of the United Sovereign States of Russia has problems by the score.
The Embassy Bureau is run by an incompetent from an important family, who is possibly a traitor. Sheremetev is gone, only to be replaced by Mikhail’s Uncle Ivan, who, if he’s as corrupt as Sheremetev was, is a lot more competent. The advances in technology mean that while he can defend himself against Muscovite Russia, he doesn’t have the forces to defeat them.
So it’s looking like a long stalemated war.
Russia can’t afford a long war. The Sovereign States has no port not blocked by Muscovite Russia and the Swedes. Even if he should defeat Muscovite Russia, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth would still be sitting between him and western Europe. His foreign credit is failing and the conflict between the free states and the serf states is getting ready to shatter his new nation before the ink is dry on his new constitution. The Royal chef can’t prepare a proper croissant. The Pravdivyye Fakty is printing fantasies and code groups that are telling the Muscovites who his agents are, while the only private detective in Russia is off on the far end of Kazak.
Now someone has killed a congressman.
What’s a czar to do? Mikhail needs another Grantville. Another Ring of Fire to bring innovations to Russia, enough innovations so that the rich and powerful can’t steal all the new wealth before it reaches the poor.
Mikhail doesn’t ask for it but he gets what he needs. Because what he needs is A Diogenes Club for the Czar.
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