"The Devil’s Manuscript" by Elena Mikhalkova, summary Automatic translate

This book is a detective novel published in 2010. The action unfolds in two parallel eras. The plot transports the characters to mystical sixteenth-century Prague and returns to modern-day Moscow. Events of the past and present are tightly bound together by the mystery of the ancient, undeciphered Voynich manuscript. The novel vividly demonstrates the price of human greed through the intertwined destinies of people from different centuries.

The novel is part of the popular "Investigations of Makar Ilyushin and Sergey Babkin" series. It is the tenth book in this detective series.

The Adventures of Edward Kelly

The historical part is written from the perspective of English adventurer Edward Kelley. He flees Lancaster after a fiasco involving a dead man. The adventurer arrives in London. Kelley deceives the famous alchemist John Dee. Edward takes a magic crystal and convinces the scientist that he communicates with angels. He stays in John’s house. Kelley receives a generous salary and becomes his equal partner. The adventurer brazenly takes advantage of the old man’s trust, even forcing Dee’s wife to sleep with him under the will of a higher power.

Over time, Kelly begins to dream of fame. He longs to emerge from the shadow of his patron. He travels to Prague to the court of Emperor Rudolf II. This monarch is known for his insane passion for alchemy. In Prague, Edward quickly disposes of his rivals. He publicly exposes the red-bearded monk Rosencrantz. This con artist performed a magic trick for the monarch: he dropped an empty stick filled with gold dust into boiling mercury. The monk is hanged in the city square.

Kelly immediately becomes the emperor’s favorite. Soon, Molly Cyrus, the maid, confides in the Englishman about a one-eyed hermit named Jacob. This old man lives in the ruins of the Lame Hoof house. He never leaves. Jacob supposedly knows how to make gold from ordinary stones. To do this, he reads a mysterious book. Kelly plots to take the manuscript.

The adventurer makes his way to Jacob disguised as the humble carpenter Josef. The old man acts like a true madman. But Kelly notices traces of chemical reagents on the tables. Fragments of gold glitter on the floor. The hermit eventually agrees to sell the book for six thousand pounds. Edward quickly sells his belongings. That night, he brings the old man the money. Jacob suddenly cancels the deal. He accuses his guest of deception and lunges at the buyer with a stick.

In self-defense, Kelly pierces the old man’s chest with a sword. The maid, Molly, helps cover their tracks. They take the body in an old wheelbarrow to Elk Grove and bury it. Taking the manuscript, the killer gives it to Rudolf II. The emperor’s best scholars are unable to decipher the text. Rudolf is furious. He orders Kelly imprisoned for deception. Investigators verify the Englishman’s story. Jacob’s grave turns out to be empty. Neighbors claim the hermit is missing. The house has long been abandoned.

Payback for deception

A maid visits Edward in his cell. She speaks in a smooth, accentless voice. She reveals her real name: Elizabeth Crawford. Years ago, Kelly had driven her family into ruin for money. Elizabeth conspired with a local priest for cruel revenge. They invented a mad alchemist named Jacob. The priest wore a vial of pig’s blood under his shirt to fake a fatal wound. Elizabeth planted fake gold in the basement. They drew the book itself from scratch.

The Avengers filled the sheets with a meaningless jumble of symbols. They skillfully played on Edward’s insatiable greed. Kelly realizes his fatal mistake. He fell into a trap because of his belief in his own impunity. The convicted man remains to serve out his life sentence in Gnevin Castle. There, the Englishman relives his shame every night and feels utterly helpless. He writes on scraps of paper to maintain his sanity.

The Disappearance of Natalia Kulikova

The modern story begins with detectives Makar Ilyushin and Sergei Babkin visiting Arkady Kulikov. He lives in an old Moscow neighborhood. His twenty-three-year-old daughter, Natalya, disappeared under strange circumstances. The walls of her room are covered with copies of pages from the Voynich manuscript. She spent a long time trying to decipher these notes. During a phone conversation with her father, Natasha mentioned visitors. The neighbors’ children witnessed a strange scene: two men forced the girl into a dark blue car.

Detectives Ilyushin and Babkin learn about two of Natasha’s childhood friends. Their names are Maxim Arefyev and Alexey Barentsev. Maxim is an avid treasure hunter. He recently traveled to the village of Shabolino to retrieve Olga Provordina’s treasure. This young woman was the mistress of a wealthy merchant. She wore a unique emerald necklace belonging to her English ancestors, the Crawfords. After the Revolution, she fled on horseback. However, the jewel was lost.

Treasure hunt and attack

Maxim meticulously studied the archive papers. The treasure hunter questioned local historian Nikolai Onishchev. He examined the old objects in the old man’s house and guessed the emeralds’ location. Maxim concealed his thought in a short note. For years, he maintained a tradition of encrypting messages to himself before any discovery. That same evening, three visitors broke into his hut. Barentsev had secretly sent them. The guests plied Maxim with vodka. They rudely demanded that he hand over the note.

Arefyev instantly sobered up. He guessed their intentions and ran toward the river at night. The bandits caught up with him at the edge of a steep cliff. They brutally beat him and snatched the paper. Maxim received a powerful blow and fell into the icy black water. The criminals were unable to read the note. They kidnapped Natalya and locked her in a cramped room. The kidnappers knew of the girl’s mathematical talents. Guards Garik and Senya gave their captive one day to translate the text.

The girl realized her impending death. She understood her captors’ intentions. They would dispose of her immediately after solving the problem. But before the abduction, she managed to leave a hidden clue. Natasha drew a blue dandelion among the pages of a manuscript on the wall of her apartment. The girl was counting on the observant people close to her.

Solving the cipher and rescuing the captive

Makar Ilyushin studies photographs from the missing woman’s apartment. Sergey Babkin suggests using computer decoding programs. But Ilyushin guesses the true meaning of the drawn flower. The blue dandelion serves as a classic Cardano lattice. The sharp spines on the leaves act as numbers, pointing to the correct letters in the square next to the flower. The detectives write down the symbols and obtain a hidden message. The text reads: "They’re taking me to a boarding school." Makar’s guess proves Natalia’s composure in the face of mortal danger.

Suspicion falls on Alexey Barentsev. He sells sports nutrition and rents a warehouse in a boarding school for troubled teenagers. The director of this institution is Alexander Arefyev, Maxim’s uncle. Barentsev wanted to take the historical treasure to expand his business. He was jealous of the success of his childhood friends. The young man acted cold-bloodedly, ruthlessly eliminating those close to him for the sake of money. Alexey’s greed turned him into a true monster.

A surprising detail comes to light. Maxim Arefyev survived. A local fisherman pulled him ashore just in time. The victim was taken to a military hospital with a severe head injury. His stepfather, Boris Osipovich, kept vigil by his hospital bed for days. Surgeons had to perform a complex craniotomy and remove a dangerous hematoma. Boris Osipovich placed a gold coin of Nicholas II in Maxim’s palm. His stepson always carried it for good luck. Arefyev woke up to the cold touch of the metal. He came to. The boy immediately asked for a phone and alerted the police to Natasha’s impending danger.

The end of the story

Barentsev realizes the end is near. He arrives at the warehouse to kill Natalia with a pistol fitted with a silencer. Security guard Garik refuses to take the blame and flees in fear. Natalia braces herself for her inevitable death. But special forces soldiers and private investigators burst into the room. They arrest Alexei and free the terrified captive. Maxim, who escaped from the hospital, bursts in after her. The young man, his head bandaged, embraces his girlfriend. The young people confess their feelings for each other. The tension eases.

Investigators arrest Uncle Maxim. Alexander Arefyev had set up an underground workshop in the boarding school. The teenagers were packaging counterfeit chicory coffee there. Barentsev knew about this illegal business, so the frightened director allowed him to occupy any warehouses he wanted. A few days later, the friends gather at Natalya’s apartment. They bring a cardboard box. Inside lies a necklace, blackened by time, containing twelve pure emeralds.

Maxim explains the mystery. Olga Provordina hid the jewel inside an old horse saddle. A hundred years later, the saddle ended up in the collection of local historian Onishchev. The friends ripped open the thick leather and removed the stones. The emeralds are given to the museum staff. And the mystery of the fictitious devil’s manuscript is forever a thing of the past.