"The Prize" by Polina Dashkova, summary

This action-packed novel was written in 2003 and published in 2004. It’s a psychological detective story in which the political systems of the early 2000s, criminal intrigues, and neo-Nazi cults are intertwined with the historical memory of World War II crimes through the platinum ring of an SS doctor. It’s part of the author’s third series about Masha Grigorieva (Mary Grig), an employee of the analytical department, and General Vsevolod Kumarin, continuing the events of the novels "Air Time" (2000) and "A Sense of Reality" (2002).

Tragedy on the Kubr River

At the end of the hot and dry summer of 2002, the Moscow region is shrouded in a pungent peat smog. That night, a truck carrying a group of militants pulls up to the abandoned Mayak pioneer camp on the banks of the Kubr River. They are led by the popular actor and TV presenter Vladimir Priz, nicknamed Shaman. Along with his accomplices — senior police lieutenant Nikolai Melnikov (Lezviy) and athletes Mikha and Seryi — Priz is transporting a shipment of illegal military weapons to the dacha of his late uncle, Air Force General Georgy Kolpakov. To load the crates, the bandits use three homeless men, whom Seryi cold-bloodedly shoots as they attempt to escape.

Before leaving, Shaman decides to take a swim in the river and accidentally drops his talisman — a platinum signet ring — on the sandy beach. At that moment, a group of teenagers are spending the night in the camp ruins: medical student Grigory Korolev, lovers Olga Menshikova and Sergei Katkov, and seventeen-year-old Vasilisa Gracheva. Grisha stumbles upon a murdered homeless man and recognizes Shaman. The bandits kill the witness on the spot. The bandits then shoot Olya and Seryozha while they sleep in the far building and set fire to the wooden structures.

Vasilisa manages to hide in the wild raspberry bushes along the coast. On the deserted beach, she finds the lost ring and puts it on her finger. Overwhelmed by terror, Vasilisa runs through the burning forest. The shock and carbon monoxide poisoning cause her to suffer aphonia — a complete loss of voice. On the brink of life and death, she begins to see terrifying images of the past through the eyes of the ring’s former owner — Nazi doctor Otto Strauss, who conducted inhumane experiments on concentration camp prisoners.

An exhausted Vasilisa reaches the village cemetery near the village of Kislovka. Local paramedic Anastasia Ignatyevna Kuzina finds a burned, mute girl at the grave of her dead son and takes her home. Upon learning of the girl’s discovery, Lieutenant Melnikov attempts to secretly kill her, but the arrival of the village police officer, Polikarpych, thwarts his plan. Vasilisa is rushed to a Moscow hospital.

Investigations in Moscow and Frankfurt

CIA Analytical Officer Mary Grig (Masha Grigorieva) arrives in Moscow from the United States. Her official assignment is to assess the mental state of Yevgeny Ryazantsev, the leader of the opposition faction "Freedom of Choice." The aging politician has fallen into a deep apathy amid the rapid rise of Vladimir Priz. The actor has become the party’s spokesperson, positioning himself as the people’s savior of the fatherland. Masha studies the Priz phenomenon and suspects that behind his open smile lurks a dangerous sociopath with fascist views.

At the same time, police Major Alexander Arsenyev is investigating the murder of writer Lev Drakonov, who was found with a blow to the head in the entryway of his own building. The only suspect is a drug addict named Kunyaev, nicknamed "Bulka." It turns out that before his death, Drakonov was collecting material for General Kolpakov’s memoirs and negotiating their publication with German literary agent Heinrich Reich. Soon after, a neighbor from the same building contacts Arsenyev to report the disappearance of her son, Grisha Korolev, and his friends.

Masha’s father, former Foreign Intelligence Colonel Andrei Grigoriev, travels to Frankfurt am Main. He’s carrying out a sensitive assignment from his superiors: investigating Heinrich Reich’s involvement in the leak of archival photographs compromising American intelligence veterans’ ties to Middle Eastern extremists. In Frankfurt, Grigoriev unexpectedly encounters his secret handler, General Vsevolod Kumarin, head of the Deep Immersion Directorate.

Reich introduces Grigoriev to his young lover, Richard Moltke (Ricky). In private conversations, Reich shares the story of his origins in the Nazi Lebensborn incubator and recounts how, after the war, he received Strauss’s ring from a man who introduced himself as Professor Medisen. Reich reveals that he recently sold the ring to Vladimir Priz, who immediately placed the relic on his finger.

The hunt for a witness and secret diplomacy

Vladimir Priz watches a television report from a clinical hospital where an unnamed, mute patient with burns is being treated. In the same studio, Vasilisa’s grandfather, the famous film director Sergei Pavlovich Dmitriev, recognizes his granddaughter. Priz realizes that the witness survived and that she has his ring. The grandfather takes Vasilisa home, and Masha Grigorieva helps them get there in her car.

Realizing Melnikov missed his chance to eliminate the witness in Kislovka, Priz recruits Seryi. His accomplice, posing as a photographer, arrives at the director’s apartment with journalist Marina, who has been tasked with interviewing Dmitriev. Seryi photographs Vasilisa and confirms that the ring is still on the girl’s hand. Priz then sends his accomplice Nadya, posing as a nurse, to the apartment, supplying her with a lethal dose of ketamine. Dmitriev exposes the fake nurse in time and throws her out of the house.

Meanwhile, in France, Kumarin and Grigoriev organize surveillance of Ricky, who has left for Nice. It turns out that the young man is a member of the neo-Nazi secret society "Vril" and is negotiating with representatives of radical Islamists. Ricky asks for substantial funding for the Prize in exchange for advancing their interests in Russia. Cornered on the terrace of a seaside restaurant, Ricky throws himself off a cliff to his death. Upon learning of his lover’s death, Reich suffers a heart attack and confesses to Grigoriev that he himself sent compromising photographs to American officials in protest against the hypocrisy of world politics.

Arsenyev and Masha Grigorieva travel to the site of the fire at the Mayak camp. In the charred ruins, the detectives discover the bodies of Grisha Korolev, Olga Menshikova, Sergei Katkov, and three homeless men with gunshot wounds. Meanwhile, at Butyrka prison, Bulka’s suicide is staged to thwart the investigation into Drakonov’s case.

The Fall of an Idol

Priz instructs the athlete Mikha to break into Dmitriev’s apartment at night and kill the director and his granddaughter. Armed with a pistol with a silencer and lock picks, Mikha picks the lock. Masha and Arsenyev, who has returned from the fire, are in the apartment at the time. The bandit takes Masha hostage, but the psychologist coolly distracts the criminal with a conversation about the symptoms of a skin disease. Arsenyev knocks the gun away and subdues the attacker.

During interrogation, Mikha admits to acting on direct orders from Vladimir Priz. At that very moment, Masha manages to remove the ring, red-hot from the mystical heat, from Vasilisa’s swollen hand. The ring instantly cools, the hands of the clock in the room resume their movement, and the girl regains her speech. Vasilisa describes in detail the events of that bloody night on the Kubr River. She recounts visions of the death of Dr. Strauss, shot in Berlin on April 30, 1945, by Soviet Lieutenant Pavel Kuzmin.

The next day, a major press conference is held in Moscow, dedicated to uniting the opposition and nominating a single presidential candidate. In the midst of Priz’s triumphant speeches, investigator Likhovtseva, Major Arsenyev, Masha, and Vasilisa enter the hall. The girl approaches the presidium table and silently hands the actor a platinum ring.

Upon seeing the evidence and the witness, Priz loses control. In front of journalists and live TV cameras, the idol of millions erupts into a fit of rage, shouting threats and obscenities into microphones. He is placed in a straitjacket and taken to the Gannushkin Psychiatric Clinic.

At Priz’s dacha, police officers discover a cache of illegal military weapons and the documents of the murdered teenagers. They detain Lieutenant Melnikov and shut down the "Viking" militant base. The identity of the fake politician is finally destroyed. Arsenyev and Masha remain together in Moscow, while Andrei Grigoriev and General Kumarin conclude their French mission.