A Sense of Reality by Polina Dashkova, summary

The novel, written in 2002, is a thrilling detective story with elements of political thriller and psychological drama. The narrative weaves together the intrigues of the Russian political elite at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, the covert operations of the Cold War-era intelligence services, and the characters’ long-standing psychological traumas, rooted in the Soviet past.

Crime in the center of Moscow and an echo of the past

The action begins in the spring of 2000 in Moscow. Housekeeper Svetlana Anatolyevna Lisova discovers the bodies of two people in an elite apartment on Patriarch’s Ponds. The murdered men are Victoria Kravtsova, head of the press service for the State Duma faction "Freedom of Choice," and Thomas Brittain, a US citizen and official consultant for the American media concern "Paradise" and an undercover CIA operative. Both were shot in bed with a rare weapon.

A MUR task force, led by Major Alexander Arsenyev, is dispatched to the crime scene. Soon, FSB officers, led by Major Ptichkin, take control of the investigation, seeking to conceal the foreigner’s death from the general public. An initial inspection reveals that valuables and jewelry remain untouched, and the apartment is in perfect order. Forensic expert Georgy Masyunin, in an informal conversation, informs Arsenyev of strange details: the woman was bound with adhesive tape before her death, strangled, then given permanent lipstick and shot in the back of the head while already dead.

Meanwhile, events unfold in New York surrounding former KGB Colonel Andrei Yevgenyevich Grigoriev, who defected to the United States in 1983. CIA officer Bill McMurphy convinces Grigoriev’s daughter, twenty-eight-year-old psychology doctor Masha (identified as Mary Grig), to travel to Moscow. Her official mission is to consult at the press center of the Freedom of Choice faction, led by Yevgeny Nikolayevich Ryazantsev. The unstated goal of the mission is to determine the cause of Britten’s death and investigate the party’s financial ties to criminal organizations.

For Masha herself, this trip was fraught with personal tragedy. In November 1985, as a thirteen-year-old student at a sanatorium and forest school in the village of Yazvishchi, near Moscow, she was attacked by an unknown man with a burned face who covered her mouth with a bandage. Fleeing the rapist, the girl jumped from a third-story window onto an apple tree and broke her arm. Her injury was later ruled a suicide attempt and she was prescribed strong psychotropic medications. Only the intervention of her father and foreign doctors allowed her to be taken to the United States.

Political intrigue and shadowy intelligence games

Arriving in Moscow disguised as a naive intern, Masha meets Stephen Lowood, the assistant cultural attaché at the US Embassy. Lowood is acting nervous: he’s being blackmailed by the thugs he hired, who are demanding compensation for a failed assassination attempt on Britten. Unaware that another assassin has beaten Britten to it, Lowood panics and tries to force Masha to reveal the purpose of her visit.

Faction leader Yevgeny Ryazantsev is grieving the death of Kravtsova, his lover and chief image maker. During a live broadcast, an anonymous source asks a provocative question about an American found in Victoria’s bed, after which the broadcast is abruptly interrupted. Chaos reigns in the politician’s entourage. The Duma press center is virtually paralyzed, and his deputy, Felix Nechayev, is abusing alcohol and constantly making faces. The party press center is run by crime boss Grigory Khavchenko (aka "Khach"), who embezzles election funds.

Meanwhile, ballistics testing confirms that the bullets and MagSafe cartridge casings recovered from the bodies of Kravtsova and Britten are identical to those from the recent murder scene of convicted church furnishings dealer Kulikovsky ("Kulka"). Major Arsenyev contacts Pavel Voronkov, the brother of the deceased drug addict Vorona, who shot Kulik. It turns out that Vorona accidentally found a new IZH-77 pistol during a motel binge, hid it, and then, in a deranged state, planted it in the trunk of a Volkswagen Golf, which Pavel had just driven from Germany for Victoria Kravtsova.

Soon, Masyunin informs Arsenyev of the discovery of the body of a young prostitute, Katya, in Lake Bezdonka. Her face bears similar bandage marks on her nose and wrists, and her lips are covered in the same waterproof lipstick.

The Ryazantsev Family’s Secret and the Exposure of a Manipulator

Officially, Ryazantsev’s wife, Galina Dmitrievna, lives in Italy, where she studies painting. In reality, she has been confined for six months to a closed private psychiatric clinic in the village of Yazvishchi — in the very building of the former forest school. She suffers from severe psychosis with bouts of delusional self-blame.

Ryazantsev asks Arsenyev and Masha to find out who planted his old cell phone at the clinic and triggered his wife’s attack with a threatening call. By interviewing Lisovaya, the housekeeper, and reviewing medical records at the Yazvishchi clinic, the investigators piece together the true story of the long-running tragedy.

At the age of twelve, Galina experienced an accident: her friend Lyuba Gordienko drowned while swimming in a reservoir. Afterward, the dead girl’s mother publicly declared Galina a murderer. The psychological trauma gave rise to a pathological fear of water. Galina kept a green notebook-diary, in which she recorded her experiences and memories of Lyuba’s belongings — a gray collection of Yesenin’s works from 1959, a black doll, and a postcard with Brigitte Bardot.

Svetlana Lisova, who had been unrequitedly in love with Ryazantsev since their student days, stole her friend’s diary and systematically destroyed her psyche for years. She planted objects mentioned in the notebook under a bench in the hospital park, faked Galina’s suicide attempts, and convinced Ryazantsev that his wife was incurably insane. It was Lisova who called the live broadcast and sent the phone to the hospital room, seeking to completely destroy her rival and take his place next to the politician. Upon learning of this, Ryazantsev shamefully ejected Lisova from his home.

The capture of the maniac and the finale

That same night, Arsenyev and Masha drive to the Moscow Ring Road, where they find the dead prostitute’s sister, Irina. Masha recalls the driver’s distinguishing features: unnaturally white teeth, a sticking passenger door, a license plate with the letters "MU," and a keychain shaped like a skeleton in a lace skirt hanging from the windshield.

Masha immediately recognizes the car: it belongs to Kravtsova’s deputy, Felix Nechayev. A search of his apartment reveals an IZH-77 pistol, rolls of adhesive bandages, scissors, and cosmetic kits.

During interrogation, Nechayev confesses to all the crimes. It turns out that in November 1985, he was serving in a construction battalion at the generals’ dachas near Yazvishchi. Having suffered facial burns while welding and lost his eyebrows and eyelashes, he watched too many videos about serial killers, broke into a forest school, and attacked little Masha Grigorieva, who jumped out of a window. Fifteen years later, having bought the imported Volkswagen from Kravtsova, Felix found a pistol in the trunk and took it as a sign from above. Arriving at Victoria’s house one night in response to a work call and finding Britten there, he waited until the lovers were asleep, shot the American, raped Victoria, and strangled her, reenacting an old ritual with a bandage and lipstick. He then repeated the murder on a highway outside Moscow, using the first woman he saw who looked like him.

In New York, Andrei Grigoriev carries out a complex operational scheme. Meeting in Prospect Park with General Vsevolod Kumarin, head of the deeply undercover Deep Immersion Directorate, Grigoriev finds a way to neutralize the traitor Lowood and protect Masha from further involvement in the intelligence agencies’ schemes. Lowood is hastily transported to the United States for treatment.

The novel concludes with a scene in a Moscow restaurant: Masha is dining with Arsenyev, discussing the case they’ve solved. At that moment, a waiter brings them a bottle of vintage wine from a table by the window, where General Kumarin, who has moved to Moscow, sits and smiles benevolently.