A summary of Tatyana Korsakova’s "Darkest Night" Automatic translate

Tatyana Korsakova’s 2015 detective-mystery novel revolves around mysterious events at "Wolves and Wild Boars," an elite camp for troubled teenagers located in the ancient Shapovalov estate near the village of Makeyevka. The author skillfully interweaves dark family secrets from the past with the mystical forces of nature, where every thirteen years a fateful night descends, demanding human sacrifice. This novel is part of the "Secrets of the Old Estate" cycle, its first installment, which sets the stage for the key mysteries of the entire series.

Meeting at the estate

Sixteen-year-old Dan Kireev, a promising karateka, finds himself at a sports and patriotic camp this summer instead of a Black Sea resort. Last fall, he was attacked by a gang of hooligans led by Ryaboy, following a tip from his jealous rival, Vadik Ilyushkin. Dan was brutally beaten with a piece of rebar, sustained serious injuries, and lost his chance at the championship. He later staged a fair but brutal rematch with the traitor, after which his alarmed parents sent him away for re-education.

Other teenagers also arrive at the camp. Among them are Vasya Galyanov, who calls himself by the aristocratic nickname "Galyano," Matvey Plakhov, who is struggling with unrequited love due to his parents’ departure for Libya, and Stepan Tuchnikov, nicknamed "Tucha" (Cloud), a withdrawn, overweight boy suffering from complexes and the harsh pressure his father exerts on him after his parents’ divorce. The teenagers are assigned to a group of wild boars led by counselor Maxim Suvorov. At the estate, Galyano immediately falls in love with the local nurse, Elena Viktorovna, whom he mentally christens Marilyn Monroe for her striking appearance.

Meanwhile, a strange, wild girl named Ksanka with piercing blue eyes is brought to the camp in a luxury car. Her mother treats her like she’s crazy, and her father is disgusted. Ksanka is housed in a guest house with the laborers — Lidiya and her husband, whose son Vasily immediately starts an underground business among the new arrivals, selling cigarettes and renting out keys to the locked park gate. Camp director Anton Venediktovich Shapovalov announces the start of a competition between the wolf and boar squads, setting them up for a fierce competition.

First encounters and forest mysteries

On their very first day, the boars sneak out through a small gate into the forest, to a river backwater. There, young Vasily tells them dark legends: thirteen years ago, a young teacher, Lisa, drowned there, and in the forest there exists a Chudova gar — a scorched, demonic place where people die, and once every thirteen years, on the darkest night, a mysterious green light appears. While swimming, Matvey notices terrible post-surgery scars on Dan’s body.

Upon his return, Tucha is humiliated by Yurik Izmailov, his school tormentor, who arrived with the second squad of wolves, accompanied by the lanky Lyutik and the Golikov twin brothers. Dan, Matvey, and Galyano defend their comrade, and a mass brawl ensues. For breach of discipline, Shapovalov sends Dan and Tucha, who volunteered with him, to the punishment cell — a damp underground cellar in the outbuilding. That night, Galyano and Matvey secretly bring the prisoners food through a ventilation window. That same night, Dan and Tucha see a strange column of green fog over the forest and smell an ominous smell of burning, while someone creepy outside bangs on the punishment cell door.

The next day, the wolves set a trap for the boars during the competition: Izmailov unties the boundary flags during the orienteering phase. As a result, Dan, Matvey, Galyano, and Tucha, who was stubbornly searching for the count’s knife hidden by the organizers, wander deep into the forest and become lost. In a forest clearing, Tucha sees something glowing green rise from the ground. The teenagers encounter the local forester, Leshak, a frightening old man with monstrous burns on his face and hand. The camp guard’s wolfhound cowardly surrenders to Leshak, and the old man himself disappears without a trace. Later, the gardener, Artem Ilyich, explains to the boys that Leshak is the grandfather of Lisa, who drowned thirteen years ago and has gone mad with grief.

The Library’s Secret Stash and the Family Curse

For going AWOL, Shapovalov punishes the four boars with four hours of solitary confinement. Beforehand, the wolves throw a dead crow through a ventilation window, and one of the twins pushes Galliano off a stack of crates, causing a falling crate to severely injure Tucha’s arm. After being released, Shapovalov sends the boys to the library to work off their offense.

There, Dan notices old books with bookplates from the estate’s previous owners: some depict Count Andrei Shapovalov’s boar, others Count Ignat Shapovalov’s wolf. Lydia lets slip that the camp director, Anton Venediktovich, considers himself the last count and is collecting property deeds. Due to Tucha’s clumsiness, a stool breaks, a bookcase wobbles, and a secret compartment is revealed at the end of a massive shelf. Tucha secretly takes from it Count Andrei Shapovalov’s antique leather diary from 1908.

The boys head to the backwater, where Tucha, using his inexplicable sense of "special things," finds a silver key in the shape of a trefoil, lost by Ksanka, at the river bottom. On the way back, the boars encounter Leshak again, who furiously demands they leave, calling them "marked ones." That evening, on the lawn, Dan begins reading his journal.

The records reveal that brothers Andrei and Ignat Shapovalov were complete opposites. Their mother was dying painfully of illness, and before her death, a healer nicknamed Leshak — her childhood friend — brought her a potion to ease her suffering. His mother exacted a terrible oath from her husband, pledging to protect the rights of her youngest son, Andrei. Brothers Andrei and Ignat set out at night, where the groom Stepan told them of a beautiful witch with a trefoil symbol on her lower back, whom jealous village women had drowned in a backwater, after which they themselves perished. Ignat persuaded Andrei to take a night swim in the witch’s backwater, where some force nearly pulled his younger brother to the bottom.

Uncovering the crimes of the past

While Suvorov, the handler, teaches the boars the basics of hand-to-hand combat, Galyano unsuccessfully attempts to woo the nurse Elena. While strolling by the river, Matvey and Galyano meet Alexander Kuzmich, nicknamed Tourist, a former soldier living on an old landing stage. Suvorov joins them, and Tourist tells the teenagers that in 1943, a secret German detachment of the Ahnenerbe organization was quartered on the estate, searching for something in the forest. The Nazis were poisoned at a laid table, their soldiers were burned in the stables, and the German commander, von Witte, was found hanged in the Chudova fire. Local traitor Yefim Solovyov was suspected of being the perpetrator.

Tucha secretly returns the silver key to Ksanka, and she smiles genuinely for the first time. Dan continues reading Count Andrei’s diary. It reveals that Ignat Shapovalov secretly poisoned their mother for the inheritance and later dueled Andrei for his love for Zoya Bogolyubova. Their father stopped the duel and banished Ignat. Later, Ignat returned and gave Zoya the very same witch’s trefoil key before their wedding, which completely subjugated her will. Andrei went to the Chudova gor’, where he found his brother controlling the wolves. Ignat confessed that he was a bastard, the son of a drowned witch and their father, Count Vladimir, and that he bore the trefoil mark on his body. Ignat offered to kill his brother with the witch’s knife, but Andrei refused and drove away the werewolf.

At the camp, Izmailov and the Golikovs ambush Ksanka near the outbuildings and beat her. Dan intervenes, awakening his inner "demon" of rage, and brutally maims the twins. Ksanka, defending herself, demonstrates a paranormal gift — she creates a tornado. She confesses to Dan that as a child, she used her mind to melt the ice beneath her dog’s killers, and later stabbed her father who beat her. Her parents think she’s crazy. A deep connection blossoms between Dan and Ksanka.

The fatal denouement of the darkest night

Almost the entire boar squad, along with Suvorov, is taken to the hospital due to mass poisoning from cucumbers bought from the old woman. Dan, Matvey, and Galyano remain behind. Shapovalov learns of the secret forays through the gate and, as punishment, locks the three boys and the returning Tucha in solitary confinement for the entire night. Tucha announces that the fateful darkest night has arrived. Suddenly, the teenagers realize that Suvorov (or someone else) has sealed the ventilation window shut with a wooden beam, trapping them alive. Oxygen is rapidly running out.

The final chapters of Andrei Shapovalov’s diary reveal that Zoya gave birth to a son, Sashenka, with the trefoil mark on his wrist. Count Vladimir died at the fangs of Ignat’s wolves, and Andrei burned down the witch’s hut.

In the cellar, Tucha, using his gift, finds a secret door in an antique clock leading to an underground passage. The boys venture into the forest and split up: Dan and Galyano run to the Chudova fire pit to look for Ksanka, while Matvey and Tucha head to a forest clearing. Matvey and Tucha discover a freshly dug grave in which Suvorov lies unconscious with a fractured skull. Tucha hoists the leader onto his shoulders, but sees Leshak carrying Ksanka to the backwater. Styopka runs to intercept him, throwing a witch’s knife at the old man, but Leshak uses his mind to topple a century-old pine tree onto the boy, breaking his leg. Matvey frees Tucha and runs to the river for help.

At the fire site, Dan and Galliano witness a mystical ritual: Ksanka is floating in the air amidst fiery tornadoes, and an ancient coffin rises from the ground. Dan pulls the girl out, but is himself engulfed by the fire. Galliano, unaffected by the mysticism, uses a lighter to ignite the snake-like roots emerging from the ground and carries Ksanka and Dan, one after the other, out of the enchanted circle. However, while Galliano rescues Dan, Ksanka disappears.

At the backwater, Dan and Galliano find Tourist holding a pistol over the body of the executed Leshak. Alexander Kuzmich reports that the old man held Ksanka underwater and was unable to save her. Dan desperately dives into the water, but Tourist and Matvey, who has arrived, pull him ashore. The girl’s body is carried away by the current. Later, unnamed diary inserts reveal the perpetrator’s true motive: a certain man (presumably Tourist) unearthed von Witte’s coffin at Chudovaya Gari, filled with gold and jewels, which disappears underground every thirteen years. For this treasure, he sacrificed, walled up the boys in the cellar, and framed Suvorov. In the final pages, it is revealed that Ksanka is alive: Tourist secretly hid the bound and gagged girl in the hold of his landing stage. Three months later, investigator Vasyutin closes the case, blaming Leshak’s insanity, and Suvorov awakens from his coma, completely amnesiac. The teenagers depart, taking with them the terrible secrets of the Shapovalov estate.