"Special Assignments:
Jack of Spades" by Boris Akunin, summary Automatic translate

This ironic detective story was published in 1999. It’s written in the classic picaresque genre. A witty criminal masterfully confronts a brilliant detective, and both sides eagerly exchange cunning blows. The book is part of the popular detective series "The Adventures of Erast Fandorin." It is the fifth installment in the renowned series, which includes the novels "Azazel," "The Turkish Gambit," "Leviathan," "The Death of Achilles," and other works.

Tulip Courier gets a chance

The life of twenty-year-old gendarmerie courier Anisy Tyulpanov is full of bitter hardships. This lowly official has protruding ears, suffers from hopeless poverty, and cares for his feeble-minded sister, Sonya. Anisy was previously suspended from operational duties for being too lenient. One morning, the messenger is tasked with delivering a package of classified documents to Erast Petrovich Fandorin. This special assignment official lives in an outbuilding of Baron von Evert-Kolokoltsev’s estate. His life is brightened by his devoted Japanese valet, Masa, and the bored beauty, Ariadna Opraksina. Anisy has long had a timid admiration for the famous detective.

Fandorin is unexpectedly summoned urgently by the Moscow Governor-General, Prince Dolgoruky. Erast Petrovich takes the courier with him to the palace. The monstrous audacity of the swindlers is revealed. The English Lord Pittsbrook purchased the governor’s mansion for one hundred thousand rubles from the charming invalid Speyer. The invalid fraudulently obtained Dolgoruky’s signature under the guise of a charitable address, and the deed was certified by the false notary Moebius. Instead of a signature, the fraudster left a mocking inscription on the paper: "Jack of Spades." The governor is furious at the prospect of ending up in the poorhouse and orders Fandorin to find the criminals without the slightest publicity. Erast Petrovich appoints Anisy as his temporary assistant.

The inventive swindler Momus

The criminal turns out to be the brilliant con man Mitya Savvin, calling himself Momus, after the ancient Greek mocker. A master of disguise, he has a completely ordinary appearance, but brilliantly disguises his voice, gait, and mannerisms. Momus understood the power of applied psychology during his service as a cornet, when he deceived his greedy neighbor, the landowner Kandelaki. The con man knows how to listen to his interlocutor, becoming an empty vessel that absorbs his partner’s qualities. He is assisted by his young accomplice, Mimi, a former variety show actress who played an Ethiopian dancer. Momus disdains brute force, preferring elegant calculations. The con men enjoy a life of luxury, easily spend vast sums, and prepare to leave Moscow after a series of daring deeds.

Fandorin and Anisy begin a lengthy search for clues. The detective simultaneously wins a large sum at chess against grandmaster Chigorin, demonstrating his phenomenal luck at the game. Tyulpanov checks newspaper ads and discovers a flash charity lottery, allegedly organized by the European evangelical society "Tears of Jesus." The prizes are multi-story villas in Paris and estates in Bohemia. Fandorin personally attends the lottery at the Board of Trustees building, buys a pink ticket for fifty rubles, and immediately recognizes the fraud. He orders the organizers’ arrest. Mimi, disguised as a modest novice with pince-nez, deftly leaps out the mezzanine window. Fandorin rushes to the policeman on duty, but finds only his abandoned uniform cap and a playing card. Momus has once again outwitted the detective, leaving behind a fake chairman-actor.

Mutual blows and cunning traps

Momus decides to take revenge on Fandorin for ruining the lottery and losing the proceeds. The con man bribes Slyunkov, the clerk in the governor’s office, and gathers secret information about the detective’s personal life. After waiting for Erast Petrovich to leave, Momus arrives at the outbuilding in a chamberlain’s uniform. He poses as Privy Councilor Opraksin, the deceived husband of Ariadna Arkadyevna. The con man stages a loud scene of despair in front of Anisy and Masa, brandishing his sword, threatening suicide, and then dramatically pardoning the unfaithful woman. The Japanese man sincerely admires the husband’s nobility. Having loaded all the Countess’s jewelry and clothes into the carriage, Momus calmly departs. Fandorin is furious at such unheard-of impudence and the loss of the jade rosary.

The detective thoroughly analyzes the Knave’s psychology before Prince Dolgoruky, noting the criminal’s vanity, and develops a plan to capture him. Erast Petrovich spreads a rumor through the press about the arrival in Moscow of the Bengal prince Ahmad Khan with the gigantic "Shah Sultan" emerald, supposedly belonging to Alexander the Great. A faceted beryl from the university collection is used instead of the stone. Fandorin disguises himself as the rajah, Anisia disguises herself as the bald eunuch Tarik Bey, and dresses the disgruntled Masa as the elderly wet nurse Zukhra. They attend a high-society ball and stroll along the walls of the Novodevichy Convent. Momus and Mimi spot the false prince. Mimi, disguised as a Georgian princess, meets the eunuch, teaches him to skate, and arranges a nighttime rendezvous with him at the governor’s country villa.

That night, Momus sneaks into the prince’s bedroom. He places a playing card on the sleeping prince’s stomach and reaches for the emerald, but Masa grabs his hand tightly. Fandorin triumphs, anticipating the immediate arrest of the Jack of Spades. Momus distracts the detectives with conversation, pointing out the weakness of the old lock. Mimi deftly pries open the simple door with a hairpin. The swindlers escape, beating up the gendarmes on duty along the way. Fandorin bursts into silent laughter, appreciating his adversary’s astonishing dexterity.

The latest large-scale scam

Momus decides to perform a major operation before leaving abroad. He chooses the perfect victim: the cruel, fabulously wealthy, and superstitious slum owner Samson Yeropkin. Momus learns from the alcoholic bathhouse attendant Tishkin details about Yeropkin’s kidney disease, his severed wart, and his habit of keeping cash in a burlap sack under his bed.

Mimi disguises herself as the blessed youth Paisius. She appears at the Smolensk market, predicts Yeropkin’s grave illness, and performs a miracle with the trained raven, Belshazzar. The raven brings a gold ring. Momus, in the guise of the impoverished widow Zyuzina and a mysterious underground voice, forces Yeropkin to dig up a false treasure of six hundred and sixty-six gold coins from the reigns of Catherine the Great and Anna the Great. The superstitious rich man finally believes his money is tainted with a grave sin. The youth directs Yeropkin to the abandoned Varsonofievskaya Chapel to see the holy hermit.

That night, Yeropkin arrives at the chapel with a sack of money and his henchmen. Momus, dressed in a hermit’s robe, sits before an old edition of Gulliver and demands the sack for mystical purification. The con man plans to blind the bandits with a magnesium flare and escape on a pre-arranged sleigh. Suddenly, the German flare misfires. Yeropkin’s mute servant, Kuzma, catches Momus with a merciless lasso. The bandits hang the con man upside down from the ceiling and begin to methodically beat him with a whip.

Law or justice

Fandorin and Anisy are keeping tabs on Yeropkin, following recent police reports about the miraculous youth Paisios. The detectives surround the chapel with undercover agents and decisively intervene during the torture. Fandorin disarms the mute servant, seizes the money bag containing two hundred and eighty-three thousand rubles, and orders Yeropkin’s immediate arrest for outrage.

Erast Petrovich offers the Jack of Spades a stark choice between the harsh law and personal justice. Momus instantly chooses the law. The detective releases the con man, as he has returned Countess Opraksina’s belongings and has no formal charges against him from Yeropkin. Mimi remains under arrest for proven fraud involving a charity lottery. Momus promises to send the best St. Petersburg lawyer and quickly flees.

At the end of April, Mimi’s trial takes place. Anisy is present in the courtroom, sincerely sympathizing with the girl and contemplating his trip to Siberia to fetch her. The prosecutor demands a long prison sentence. The defense is an unattractive, stooped lawyer with a long nose. The attorney makes no pompous speeches. He shows the judge and the prosecutor incriminating photographs and promissory notes. The judge turns pale and immediately dismisses the case. Acquitted, Mimi easily climbs into a carriage. The lawyer irritably waves off the reporters: "Oh, you’re boring me!" The attorney turns to Anisy, makes a funny face, and sticks out his familiar red tongue. The Jack of Spades has once again eluded justice. Anisy is promoted to collegiate registrar, given a spacious government apartment, and becomes Erast Fandorin’s official personal assistant.