The book that launched a career, nicely translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield. Akunin sets the action, which involves a suspected murder, charming detective (our hero) and loads of period detail, among the glitterati of late 19th-century Moscow. This is just the first of a series of clever detective novels starring the rascal Erast Fandorin, wildly popular in Russia. Akunin (pseudonym of Grigotry Chkhartishvilli, editor and translator of Japanese literature) writes in a wonderfully contrived, captivating voice. If only such a world ever existed!  (RUS210, $12.95)