First published in Russia in 1998; published in translation in Great Britain in 1999; published by Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press on July 4, 2017

The State Counsellor is a man named Erast Petrovich Fandorin. The novel, set in Tsarist Russia, is the sixth in a series by Boris Akunin.

Fandorin has been assigned responsibility for the safety of General Khrapov in Moscow. The revolutionaries blame Khrapov for the brutal flogging and suicide of a young woman before he was made the Governor of Siberia. Khrapov, who claims it wasn’t his fault and doesn’t understand all the fuss about “an ordinary bourgeois girl,” has been hidden away in Siberia for his own protection, but the time has come to return him to Moscow. His return is brief, however, as a revolutionary assassin who goes by the name Green enters the train, posing as Fandorin, and dispatches Khrapov in the opening pages.

The real Fandorin is briefly arrested, but it soon becomes clear that the murderer was in imposter. It then becomes Fandorin’s duty to find the villain who killed the villain. Only a few people in various security roles knew that Fandorin was assigned to protect Khrapov, so Fandorin begins his inquiry by asking whether any of those might have leaked the information.

A seductress named Diana becomes a key character. She adds flavor to the novel by expounding on the weaknesses of men and the various ways in which women can exploit those weaknesses. A seductress named Esfir, clearly sympathetic to the revolution, wastes no time in taking Fandorin to bed. Modern women are a true mystery to poor Fandorin, but they are considered outrageous by high society women (even as they are admired by high society men).

The novel explores the utility of terrorism as an instrument of revolution — in this case, to spark a revolution that will overthrow Tsarist rule. Green is the novel’s philosopher of terror. But the plot explores the corruption of power and the ruthlessness of people who seize it. The mystery involves the identity of the person who is betraying the police by helping Green, and while the truth is telegraphed in a way that makes it easy to guess the betrayer’s identity before it is revealed, I prefer that to mystery stories that plant no clues at all.

Fandorin is an interesting, stuttering detective who is forced to cope with a doomed political structure that hampers his ability to do his job. The story is cerebral, but it has spurts of action that keep it lively. Life in Tsarist Russia is well imagined. I haven’t read other entries in the series but it is easy to enjoy The State Counsellor as a stand-alone mystery novel.

RECOMMENDED

The usually twisty world of Erast Fandorin becomes an impenetrable mystery (adventure? intrigue? ) that I think assumes more than an average non-Russian's understanding of Russian history, especially the role of insurgents in the 1890s. I, for one, got super lost and gave up trying to place who was where and why about 2/3 of the way through. The female characters are over-the-top insipid, bu then no one comes off particularly well. Not a recommend here, even though it's been a long while between English language Fandorin novels.

This is a case where the translator and I don't see eye to eye. Russian and English novels are different, I know, but I do not think that the translator was able to bridge the gap well enough. The text is stilted and I found it hard to pay attention. I did not finish and will not renew online.

When most people think of Russian literature, they don’t think of anything contemporary. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Pasternak – these are the names that spring to mind, and yet none of these authors lived past the 1900’s. A great deal of this has to do with politics; political themes pervade Russian literature as much as it does Russian life. As political and social ideologies fall in and out of favor with Western sensibilities, so does literature influenced by these movements. Modern Russian writers are no less talented, just less fashionable. Considering the current state of affairs between Russia and America, it seems unlikely, then, that the U.S. release of Boris’ Akunin’s novel, The State Counsellor, will attain much publicity in the States – which is a shame, as the book is well worth the read.

In The State Counsellor, fans of Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky will find themselves in familiar territory – revolutionary Russia in the 1800’s. The story is one of political intrigue told from two perspectives: the titular state counsellor, Erast Petrovich Fandorin, and the hardened, battle-worn revolutionary known by the alias ‘Green’. The assassination of a prominent political leader starts off a game of cat and mouse between government authorities, led by Fandorin, and Green’s Combat Group, a band of terrorists intent on overthrowing the tyrannical tsarist government. Treachery and shifting loyalties on both sides make you question who the good guys really are (or if there even are any), and keep you guessing the outcome until the final pages.

For Western readers, the dense, complex political structures in The State Counsellor may be difficult to navigate. Also complicating matters is Russian tripartite naming conventions; the use of patronymics can make it challenging to differentiate between the large cast of characters within the story. At times, I found the portions of the story dealing with the revolutionary group more enjoyable simply because their single name aliases made it easier to understand the players involved. But the lead character, Fandorin, is an interesting character, and keeps you drawn in. While the British refer to Fandorin as a “Russian Sherlock Holmes”, for me he seemed more akin to Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot – a bit less priggish & morally high-handed, perhaps, but with the same precise, fastidious nature and attention to details others might overlook. It is no wonder that the novel, originally released in 2000 in Russia, has attained such popularity, and that Fandorin went on to be featured by Akunin in a series of books. Hopefully, it will not take another 17 years for the rest of the series to be released in the U.S. I look forward to reading more of Fandorin’s adventures.

These are terrific books! The combination of Russian history and a mystery just can't be beat, especially with a character as entertaining as Fandorin. If you have not read Akunin before, try this one- you don't need to have read the earlier books to enjoy it. You'll discover a whole new really cool series, complete with lots of twists and turns. The fact that the author is a Georgian and grew up in the USSR no doubt adds to the atmospheric nature of the tale. This is well translated, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I really enjoyed this and highly recommend for a solid, intelligent, and rip roaring read. I am eagerly awaiting more of Akunin's work.

If you’ve read more than a handful of entries here you know that I recommend the Erast Fandorin mysteries frequently. The first in the series, The Winter Queen, came to America in 2003. The Fandorin novels were fabulously popular in Russia and public intrigue swirled about the true identity of the author (Boris Akunin is a pen name). In Russia, literature was meant to be serious and profound. A series of detective adventures was unheard of.

Unfortunately for ravenous readers of the books, like me, the publisher stopped releasing the novels in the US after three or four of them. (In fact, while I was honeymooning in the UK, I bought two Fandorin novels since I couldn’t get them here). Luckily with the advent of sites like Book Depository, most of the titles are available.

Fandorin is a character both completely familiar and refreshingly new. He shows shades of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, James Bond, and Jack Ryan. Yet he is something altogether unknown to a Western audience. He is a Tsarist civil servant navigating the unending and nonsensical bureaucracy of 1880s Russia, while solving all manner of crimes and catching anarchists.

Each of the Fandorin novels takes a slightly different tone, on purpose, as Akunin pays homage to the Doyle, Christie, and Fleming (Murder on the Leviathan is a take on Death on the Nile). The State Counsellor chapters alternate between spies of the dualling networks. The reader sees the push and pull and tangle from both sides.

It’s a taut spy novel that reminded me most of Agatha Christie’s They Came to Baghdad, one of her standalone books. In fact, the main spy’s code name is “Green” — the main character in Baghdad is Anna Scheele — Scheele’s Green. A stretch? Probably but then what’s a literature degree for?

Erast Fandorin spent the rest of that sleepless, agitated and confused night at Nikolaevsky Station, trying to piece together a picture of what had happened and pick up the perpetrators’ trail. Although there were numerous witnesses, both blue-coated gendarmes and private individuals, they failed to make things any clearer. They all talked about some officer who had supposedly thrown the bomb, but it turned out no one had actually seen him. ~Pg. 184

The State Counsellor fits well within the constellation of Fandorin novels but it is not one for first-time readers to begin with. It relies on a working understanding of Fandorin’s world to be completely successful. Additionally, Akunin uses traditional Russian appellations — first name, patronymic, last name and nickname. The characters might be called any combination of those names depending on the speaker. A complicated thriller is not the place to start trying to remember all these names.

It’s a great installment. I recommend it, just not until you’ve read a couple Fandorin novels first.

I’m thrilled Grove Atlantic has decided to pick up The State Counsellor, and I hope they bring more of the Russian detective to American readers.

I was given access to an e-book file on NetGalley, however I read my personal paperback copy to write this review.

I honestly did not like it as much as I thought I would. A crime mystery taking place during the Russian revolution? Sounds like something I would enjoy. It was confusing and hard to follow. I know who was speaking most of the time. I had to call it quits unfortunately. This book just wasn't for me.

Action packed smoothness complete with complicated interesting characters, yes Green and Erast Petrovich, I am talking about you. But not only about you but all the others as well. In this story which could have easily been superficially presented as a good vs bad story, we get instead the shades of grey which all sides of a story have. And so we get character driven writing. With people who even in their 'baddest' moments make us connect to their humanness.

Akunin's plot is enjoyably labyrinthine which pressed a lot of my like buttons. We get a continuous cause and effect and hidden human agendas abound. Intelligently written and delicious to read.

My first Fandorin has turned out to be a great read which has created a need in me to see both the earlier and the later Fandorin. I want to know about Erast.

This being by first of this series I cannot compare to it's predecessors so my rating is going to be free, based only upon my reading enjoyment.

Fandorin finds himself accused of murder. Someone had imitated him and killed the new Governor General of Siberia. It doesn't take long before they realize it was not him. But who was it and how did he know the Governor General would be on that train?

Mysterious Press and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published July 4th.

This is a tale of the princes, politics, political favors and positions of power versus the Resistance. Those at the top want the resisters to go away. Those at the bottom use bombs, weapons and their brains to steal money or assassinate their enemies.

Fandorin finds himself in the middle of more than one power play by the politicians. He knows someone in the establishment is feeding information to the Resistance but he can't figure out who. As time goes on, more people die, more money is stolen and more people gain and lose power. Soon Fandorin is on his own, his benefactor has been removed from office. He doesn't stop looking for the traitor.

Crooked officials are everywhere. There are more killings, several positions open up and new people are happy to fill them. By the end of the story, the whole political system in Moscow has changed. So has Fandorin. Life in Moscow will go on but it will do it without Fandorin.

A brilliant historical mystery set in Imperial Russia.

If I had done it properly – started not from the book #6- I would have opened my review with
“A great start for a very promising historical mystery series with one of the most interesting characters” But I read it unfortunately(or as very often) not in the right order. So I'll keep this opening for my next Fandorin's book.

The good news—you can read this book as a stand-alone.

Of course, I am going to read this series from the very beginning. Though, even if I know that The State Counsellor: Further Adventures of Fandorin, the book#6, is not the last one, I’ll decide later if I’ll go on with the next, the N°7, installment.

Because the ending HERE was a perfection pure.

Besides, to tell the truth, I’m a bit afraid that the books after this one could ruin the feeling, or that I’ll get tired and bored with our State Counsellor Erast Fandorin.

Boris Akunin gives a great historical feel of the era, but he choose to tell a story that is free from any ideological system. He created the Fandorin series following the real historical facts and events, without being political or fictional, remaining very accurate in his research but trying to give his idea of what HAPPENED in Russian two centuries ago, and why.

It is an adventures, entertaining and very thrilling mixture out of a murder mystery, a sarcastic spy thriller, the most exciting action movie and a relationship drama in the most authentic historical setting.

I am always surprised(positively), when I see other readers, without any connection to Russia or its history, who enjoy and understand Russian classic literature or Russian historical fiction.
Yes...the enigmatic Russian soul, with its passion for suffering, pain and grief and the overall mood for melancholy..bla-bla-bla…Cliché but true, but I totally got the rating here.

The plot is great, Fandorin is not only attractive and smart, but he also embodies the ideal of a nobleman of the nineteenth century: high morals, dedication and honesty, loyalty, courage and chivalry, intelligence and faithful to his own principles.

Is his counterpart Green so much different from Fandorin? No, actually not, but he has other methods. Don’t ask me though what side I took for. I am still torn between…(you’ll understand when you read it).

My tiny worry: There are many secondary characters that are fantastic, but they have maybe unusual names for someone without a Russian background, and I hope a lot that all readers will get along well with it. :)

Highly recommended for all fans of historical fiction and historical mystery!

This is a highly entertaining read, being that it involves the Russian secret service , undercover police, terrorism and violence.
However this is Russia in the late 19th century and The State Counsellor in the title is Fandorin, Deputy for Special Assignments to his Excellency the Governor General of Moscow. Fandorin has been tasked with the safety of corrupt character Khrapov who is travelling by train from St Petersburg to Moscow. However in a page turning beginning someone impersonating Fandorin alights the train and murders Khrapov and a state system fighting revolutionary terrorism stirs into action.
The author is himself the "undisputed champion" of Russian crime fiction and a critic of Putin (a dangerous position these days it would appear). The author also has a fascination for Japanese culture and his name (a pen name under which he writes his crime books) means 'villain'!
There are villains a plenty in this story. Secret agents, collaborators (the intriguing Diana, a veiled lady of the night) and the Combat Group including Green who undertakes killings, thefts and much violence in the revolutionary plan t overthrow the Tsarist regime.
It maybe confusing to unravel the various strands of Russian hierarchy (the Okhrana and Special Corps of Gendarmes are like the MI5 and MI6 here).
It's fast paced and the characters are well drawn. The author is unknown to me but he has a wide range of past publications across crime, history and factual essays and I am as intrigued with him as the people he creates. I liked Fandorin and his Japanese valet Masa - the book would make a great TV drama or film! Well worth a read.

A GRIPPING THRILLER:
A thrilling adventure set in pre-revolutionary Russia. Counsellor Fandorin is delegated a Special Assignment: to protect a senior State Official who is travelling on a train through Moscow. But as the train enters the outskirts of Moscow, it stops briefly, and a man calling himself Fandorin boards and murders the dignitary. The hunt is then on to catch the murderer and his co-conspirators. They are terrorists from the so-called "Combat Group". After brief interrogation the real Fandorin is set free to investigate the crime.
The reader is then immersed in this chaotic country at a time where duplicity seems to prevail and agents turn out to be double agents (and vice versa). It leaves the reader not knowing who Fandorin can trust. But Fandorin is not a wimp. He is a man of resilience and principle: a rare beast at that moment in Russian History on the Government side at least. Parallels can be drawn with the world around us today. Fandorin is determined to catch all the terrorists, preferably alive. It soon becomes apparent that many leading Government officials have their own agenda and may not have the same goals as Fandorin.
As you read you realise that the notion of dying gloriously for a cause is not a new one. Today it is Religious extremism, then it was Revolutionary zeal.
Fandorin is a character who springs to life from the pages. We find that Fandorin's home life is somewhat unusual, coming complete with a Japanese valet. There are echoes of Inspector Clouseau here.
The usage of Patronyms may initially appear off-putting to the reader, but persevere, as you will soon get used to it and readily recognise the characters.
I thought the book was a great read and provides much food for thought. The strong anti-Semitic feeling in Russia should come as no surprise to the reader.
The novel is completely different. The reader learns what motivated the Revolutionaries and just how widespread support for them was amongst the populace. We also learn how easy it is to make a deadly incendiary device. It is no great surprise that Revolution was waiting just round the corner.
An enthralling and educational thriller.

An engaging historical mystery combined with a spy thriller. Think a cross between Sherlock Holmes and George Smiley all set in pre-revolutionary Russia. Plot within a plot and the struggle between duty and corruption pit interesting characters against each other in a historical Moscow..

I didn't get on very well with The State Counsellor. It's a novel setting for a crime story and it's reasonably well done, but it just didn't ever quite engage me, I'm afraid.

Set in late 19th Century Tsarist Russia, Fandorin is a state security operative who acts rather like an Imperially appointed Sherlock Holmes. Here he investigates the murder of a very highly placed official who has received numerous threats from an anarchist group. Needless to say, the politics of the situation become very involved, but Fandorin is the equal of it all.

The setting was pretty well done, as was the sense of political skulduggery and shifting factions and the story was decent if rather run-of-the-mill. Somehow, though, this never took off or involved me much; the characters were all a bit thin, the plot wasn't really enough to hold my attention and the writing was over-wordy and often had a stale, almost clichéd feel – possibly due to the translation rather than the original. Phrases like "they waited with bated breath", for example, began to get pretty wearisome after a while.

So, this wasn't for me. It's not actually bad and others have enjoyed it very much, but I can't really recommend it.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

Fandorin returns in an exciting new adventure! The State Counsellor sees him chasing after a band of communist terrorists following the assassination of a leading figure in the Tsarist hierarchy - for which the terrorists impersonate Fandorin himself.

A rollicking good story, with a good number of plot twists, Imperial Court intrigues, and femme fatales, this is Akunin back to form in an engrossing new title.

Reason for four stars, and not five? There are a few story devices that annoyed me as a reader a bit - an action takes place, and then the story rewinds to play the same thing through another person's viewpoint. While this is used to advance the story somewhat, and adds to some of the plot twists, I feel that perhaps some of these could have been executed in a slightly more expedient way.

Secondly, there were a few anachronisms with the translation, such as the use of Flying Squad and turnpike, which bugged me. Both are cultural impositions from the UK and US respectively, and are out of place in the book. While the title of the Okhranka (Tsarist spy agency) is left untranslated, why were these translated so clumsily? For turnpike at least, perhaps tollbooth would be a better word - and one that is more universal in English?

Those are two small points really, but overall a thoroughly enjoyable read. Well worth a go.

I'm generally not one to buy historical novels, but the premise of this one piqued my interest so I gave it a try. So glad I did! The "good" guys were sympathetic characters to which you were easily drawn, and the "bad" guys were not bumbling idiots... they were a match to their counterparts. Political intrigue abounds, of course, but the book manages to keep from deteriorating into the mundane by sustaining the action evenly throughout. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.

The State Counsellor by Boris Akunin- A political detective mystery, sixth in a series, first published in 2000, and made into a film in 2005. Erast Petrovich Fandorin, the titular State Counsellor is framed for the murder of General Ivan Fyodorovich Khrapov at the very beginning and must stop revolutionists from killing the Governor of Moscow, who General Khrapov was in charge of protecting, all the while hampered by political intrigue and dubious assistance from his newly appointed aide. Fandorin is a sort of Russian Sherlock Holmes, with a Japanese valet and all the requisite quirks and sharp instincts to fathom what is going on in 1897 Russia. The leader of the revolutionist cell is a deftly drawn character who seemed to have created himself out of the frustrations and disappointments of the harsh life under the Tsars. The period feels real and authentic, and the historical background well covered. The Russian names can be confusing at first, but the author makes it easier to understand who is talking and who they are talking to. After the slam-bang opening, it takes a little time to build up some steam, but it always holds your attention with its character building, especially the main adversary's development. A great period piece of detective fiction.

I enjoyed reading the first book of the Earst Fandorin series a couple of years ago, and was eager to read The State Councilor, but I was greatly disappointed by the novel. Fandorin is overshadowed by several other characters, and at times his main contribution seems to be standing quietly while things are happening to/around him. He doesn't seem particularly clever or insightful, and certainly doesn't rise, in this novel, to the level of a character with a series named for him. Part of the problem might be that the novel itself seems neither carefully plotted nor interesting. I kept reading it because I assumed that something incredible was about to happen in the pages ahead. I thought that was starting to happen as the baths episode unfolded, but it never actually did. Not only was that episode improbable, but it also seemed like Akunin had rushed to finish it. The result there, as in other parts of the novel, was that it felt hastily completed.
It is possible that the novel was more nuanced in Russian, and the translation didn't capture subtleties throughout the novel. Fandorin's final act in the novel might, for instance, have seemed more clearly set up in the original language. In this translation, it seemed almost unrelated to the rest of the novel.
In the end, The State Councilor is pretty pedestrian stuff.

It is unutterably splendid to be reading a new Fandorin - the handsome, stammering and elegant sleuth in the Russian government at time of the Tsars is clever, enigmatic and always successful - and meanwhile Akunin (a pseudonym used by the author for all the Fandorin novels) is examining the ethics of revolutionary terrorist groups. We witness the police force of the government with all its rivalries getting in each other's ways to help their own careers, while the dedicated and ruthless Green pushes his comrades on killing and bombing when necessary but field by a compassion for his suppressed fellow citizens. There are the usual vixenish femme fatales who are often Fandorin's weakness - he is chivalric to a fault, and puts scruples ahead of brutal tactic. There is a deep secret in this story, someone is conspiring from the government side with the revolutionary terrorist - and he speculates who it is, even as he comes more and more to rely on the secret information - who is i? A witty and wonderful addition to the list of Fandorin titles.

4 and ½ Stars

Erast Fandorin is a wonderful character, as is his Japanese sidekick. In this story, we begin with the murder of someone who many people called a butcher. He is on his way via a train during the winter. Some people say he was running away from his crimes. Others saw his move as a transfer.

Someone dressed like Fandorin presents his credentials, and in appearance he resembles Fandorin, to the guards on the train. He then kills his target and escapes.

It doesn’t take the police long to recognize that Fandorin wasn’t the person who committed the crime. Tasked with investigating, Fandorin learns that very few people knew of the secret plans to move the victim by train.

We are off on another fascinating adventure in Tsarist Russia. The beautiful countryside in the dead of winter is breathtaking. The politics are fierce and deadly.

This is a well written and plotted book. I will certainly read more of Boris Akunin’s books.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press for forwarding to me a copy of this very nice book to read.