"Planet Water" by Boris Akunin, summary Automatic translate

This book is a collection of three detective stories about the adventures of detective Erast Fandorin at the beginning of the twentieth century. Written in 2015, the work marks the first time the author has divided the narrative into three independent novellas, each with its own genre subtitle: technocratic, nostalgic, and idiotic. The collection covers the period from 1903 to 1912. The protagonist encounters new types of criminals, from fanatics obsessed with world domination to cynical robbers.

This work is part of the "New Detective" series about the adventures of Erast Fandorin. It is the fifteenth installment in the cycle, which includes such well-known novels as "Azazel," "The Turkish Gambit," and "The Death of Achilles."

Technocratic detective

In 1903, Erast Fandorin is searching for a sunken Spanish galleon off the coast of Aruba. He uses the submarine "Limón 2." The crew consists of his loyal servant, Masa, and the grumpy American engineer, Pete Bull. Their peaceful life is interrupted by a visit from Scotland Yard Inspector Thornton. The Englishman asks Fandorin to find the serial killer Gottlieb Krank. The professor was murdering underage girls, draining their blood.

The police believed Krank drowned in the Atlantic Ocean near the private island of Saint-Constantine. Thornton suspects a stunt. Fandorin agrees to help and arrives in Tenerife. That night, a German intelligence detachment led by Major Schoenberg attacks the detective and his companions on the pier. The Germans murder Pit Bull in cold blood. Fandorin and Masa eliminate the attackers. The detective decides to exact righteous revenge for his comrade’s death in accordance with the Japanese tradition of katakiuchi.

Erast Petrovich, posing as an engineer, infiltrates Saint-Constantine. The island belongs to the chemical concern "Oceania." On the surface are factories and a sanatorium for girls with tuberculosis. Fandorin soon discovers the base’s true purpose: hidden beneath the volcano is the gigantic high-tech city of Atlantis.

Underwater Empire

The city is ruled by Napoleon IV. Bonaparte’s descendant plans to conquer Earth. He is building a massive submarine fleet equipped with a super-powerful explosive called "crankite." The munition was invented by a maniac named Crank, who was rescued by Napoleon. To stimulate the mad scientist’s creative energy, the ruler of Atlantis supplies him with girls from a sanatorium. Fandorin meets one of the potential victims, the courageous twelve-year-old Bellinda Jenkins.

During a night reconnaissance mission, Fandorin’s submarine is torpedoed. Masa goes missing. Erast Petrovich decides to thwart Napoleon’s sinister plans. With the help of a reconverted English agent, Finch, he sabotages a shipment of explosives. The detective discovers Krank’s hidden laboratory and kills the maniac with a blow to the neck. Napoleon arrests Fandorin, planning to execute him. Bellinda, enchanted by the underwater lord, refuses to help the detective.

At the last moment, the surviving Masa appears. He entered the city through the sewer drain and now frees the master. Fandorin activates the mechanism that sinks Atlantis. Napoleon remains in the crumbling city to rebuild it.

Nostalgic detective

The events shift to 1906. Fandorin is living in Paris. The morning newspaper brings terrible news. In the remote Trans-Volga region, the abbess of the Soothe-My-Sorrows Monastery has been brutally murdered. The murdered woman is the detective’s former lover, with whom he had separated seventeen years earlier. Fandorin immediately sets off for Russia.

The investigator arrives in the provincial town of Temnolessk. Power here lies with the despotic head of the local penal colony, Savrasov. Fandorin neutralizes the corrupt satrap with a targeted paralyzing blow. The local deputy prosecutor, Klochkov, a morphine addict, agrees to assist the investigation. They sail to the crime scene by boat.

The monastery is located on a high cliff in the middle of a river. The abbess was tortured with fine needles. A gold crucifix, heavily encrusted with diamonds, disappeared from her cell. Klochkov suspects the fugitive terrorist Olshevsky or the local bounty hunter Shugai.

Visiting the hospital on the shore, Fandorin uncovers some curious details. Doctor Lyudmila Annushkina is hiding Olshevsky in a glacier. The detective interrogates the fugitive. He claims that the murder was committed by one of the nuns at the monastery.

Retribution in the Monastery

Fandorin interrogates the nuns: the stern Evvula, the blind, hundred-year-old Veveya, the novice Iya, and the mentally retarded Manetha. None of them fit the role of the calculating killer. The investigator cures Klochkov of his morphine withdrawal by transmitting Qi energy. Together, they search the forest for Shugai. The hunter shoots the detective with a blowpipe. Erast Petrovich wounds the attacker, but he escapes into the thicket.

Soon, Fandorin finds Olshevsky’s body. The terrorist has been shot. Klochkov allegedly spots Shugai on a boat. The prosecutor shoots the hunter, who falls into the river. Fandorin unravels the intricate setup. Klochkov killed Olshevsky and tried to eliminate Shugai. The prosecutor’s colleague wanted to take possession of the diamond cross. Drug-induced courage drove the quiet official to commit a brutal crime.

At night, Fandorin finds Klochkov on the island. The killer is trying to open the abbess’s hiding place. The detective stuns the criminal with a thrown revolver, leaving the killer paralyzed among aggressive vipers. In the hiding place, Fandorin finds thousands of notes. The abbess had prayed for his health every day for seventeen years. She had long ago anonymously sold the precious cross to build a hospital.

Idiotic detective

On the last day of 1912, Fandorin is traveling by train through Poland. Another train blocks the route. It turns out the mail car has been robbed. Six gendarmes and two officials are killed with phenomenal precision. A wounded witness claims there were two attackers, one of whom spoke with a Caucasian accent. The detective examines the crime scene and finds a gray suede glove.

Fandorin employs a method of psychological reconstruction, which he calls "the swan-golem." The detective deduces the identity of the criminal. It is Boleslav Różewicz, nicknamed Tsukierchek, an escaped convict and a brilliant marksman. The killer is obsessively clean and works alone. He simply created the second attacker as a distraction.

The detective and a local gendarme officer pursue the criminal to the border station. They catch up with Zukerchek in the station cafeteria. Ruzhevich kills a local broker, uses a little girl as cover, and escapes. A shootout ensues on the platform. The bandit throws the child under a passing freight train. Fandorin manages to save the girl, but loses the killer.

Erast Petrovich continues his search in Krakow. He finds Zukerchek in an expensive hotel. The criminal is disarmed, but manages to escape again. He pushes a wheelchair containing a plump woman down a high staircase. Fandorin is forced to hold the wheelchair as it falls. The bandit escapes again.

The investigator knows the time and place where the stolen money will be handed over. It’s the "Noah’s Ark" restaurant on the banks of the Vistula River. At midnight, Zuckerchek meets with the leaders of the Radical Socialist Party. Fandorin identifies the party functionaries. Having taken the money, the killer escapes by boat. The detective gives chase, leaving the astonished politicians to discuss the revolutionary fate of the world.