"They Are Not People:
Book One" by Viktor Dashkevich, summary

This book is a mystical detective story set in 2022, set in an alternate twentieth-century Russian Empire. Powerful demons from the Wasteland live alongside humans, summoned and subjugated by sorcerers for protection and service. In 2025, the novel won the All-Russian Reader’s Prize. Yandex Production Center acquired the film rights to the work.

The disappearance of a teenager and the appearance of a demon

Private investigator Hermes Averin takes on the investigation into the disappearance of Count Daniil Sinitsyn. The missing man’s mother reports that the young man went into an outbuilding and vanished without a trace. After inspecting the premises, Averin discovers a horrific scene: the workshop serves as a torture chamber, where the boy killed animals and stuffed them. On the floor, the detective finds ashes from a magic spell and a Polaroid of a snarling oriental cat. The sorcerer concludes that the cruel teenager was destroyed by an unknown, powerful deva.

Meanwhile, police officer Viktor Smirnov asks Averin for help. A huge spotted beast is prowling the Petrogradskaya Embankment. The monster is terrifying passersby, and the police officers are howling in terror at the creature. Averin and Smirnov are questioning witnesses. The detective notices an interesting detail: the monster only attacks people who have previously harmed street animals. It threatens a student for kicking a dog, and a boy for shooting a bird with a slingshot.

Averin suspects Baroness Anastasia Perova of harboring the monster. The detective pays a visit to the renowned animal rights activist, whose mansion is home to numerous rescued animals. The sorcerer’s pendulum is overloaded with magic. Averin realizes that most of the pets are weak divas. Anastasia herself conceals a secret: she is a familiar, an ancient diva. The real baroness died in a car accident, and Anastasia assumed her form to protect her owner’s crippled son, Alyosha. The detective keeps Anastasia’s secret, convinced of her nobility.

The capture of Kuzya and the solving of old crimes

The demon continues to stalk Averyin. The beast enters the detective’s house on Petrogradskaya Storona, breaks a vase, eats a marshmallow, and wreaks havoc in the kitchen. The sorcerer decides to outwit his adversary by exploiting the demon’s feline tendencies. He places an ordinary cardboard box in the backyard, hiding a magical symbol — an alatyr — in the bottom. Unable to overcome its instinct, the demon leaps into the box and becomes firmly stuck to the trap.

Averin names the captured diva Kuzya. The creature possesses astonishing abilities: he can grow to the size of a lion, transform into a jackdaw, and take the form of a colorful teenager. Kuzya confesses to his crimes. He was previously held in illegal slavery by a corrupt official named Somov. The master forced Kuzya to kill his wife’s relatives for the inheritance, disguising the crimes as accidents.

Somov accidentally cut himself while shaving. Sensing blood, Kuzya lost his mind and tore his master apart. Now free, the demon decided to punish evil people. He killed Daniil Sinitsyn while saving the neighbor’s cat from torture. Averin registered Kuzya in his name as a second-class demon. The sorcerer performed a blood ritual, binding the demon with a silver collar.

Averin begins teaching the diva how to write in capital letters in a notebook. Then they head to the training stadium. The detective uses a magical whip to teach Kuzya how to work as a team. There, they meet the state diva Vladimir and his young master, Monchinsky, who Averin teaches a lesson in arena combat. A powerful bond develops between Averin and Kuzya. Kuzya displays devotion and genuine care for his master.

A trip to the family estate and family secrets

Averin receives disturbing news: his grandmother is dying. The detective travels to the family estate of Korkino with Kuzya. Brother Vasilis and his wife Maria greet the guests. The dying countess is being monitored by an ancient familiar, Anonymous. Averin examines his grandmother and, by her scent, recognizes aconite poisoning. The poison was mixed into the grandmother’s favorite cucumbers. The sorcerer uses his powers and the energy of Anonymous, projecting glowing runes onto the old woman’s body. The doctor removes the poison from her system.

Kuzya, disguised as a cat, spies on the inhabitants of the house. He discovers a hidden vial of aconite in the witch’s room and notices the suspicious behavior of Marina, Maria’s sister. Averin puts the pieces together. Maria and Marina are runaway mermaids, born into an Old Believer community and possessing magical powers. The old countess kept them bound by a spell. The grandmother commissioned a magical gold ring to bewitch Hermes toward Marina.

Marina stole the ring, hoping to break the spell. She slipped aconite into the Countess’s food, hoping to gain freedom after the tormentor’s death. Averin takes the ring from Vasilis’s brother, breaks the spell, and takes Marina to the banks of the Neva River. Freed, Marina discards her clothes and disappears into the river’s waves. Vasilis learns the truth about his wife, Maria, forgives her lies, and resolves to keep the family together. Meanwhile, a drunken Major Volobuyev comes to Averin and challenges him to a duel over Marina’s disappearance. Kuzya easily disarms the major by biting off the barrel of his revolver.

Anarchist sect and bloody rituals

A series of brutal crimes occurs in St. Petersburg. In a dacha village, the dead developer Dubkov is found impaled on a long wooden stake. The local police officer, Surkov, attempts to frame the Ustyugov peasants for the murder. Near Nikolaevsky Station, a monster kills a state sorcerer from the Administration and tears his diva to pieces. Policeman Fetisov barely survives. Averin tasks Kuzya with investigating the situation among the city’s youth.

Kuzya, dressed as an anarchist, infiltrates a group near the Kazan Cathedral. The group’s leader is a red-haired girl named Belka. The young people dream of freeing the Divas from the sorcerers’ power. They attempted to perform a summoning ritual using Dubkov as a sacrifice. Students Ivan Ushkov and Nikolai Khmelnitsky accidentally opened a passage for a powerful ninth-level demon. The ritual spiraled out of control.

The monster devoured the ritual’s organizers. Having absorbed their memories, the beast believed itself to be the incarnation of the Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes. The mad demon declared war on all sorcerers in the Russian Empire.

Mortal Kombat with Vlad the Impaler

A demon sets up an ambush in the dead Khmelnitsky’s mansion. The monster ties up the boy’s parents in the basement and prepares a mass sacrifice in the backyard. Kuzya enters the mansion and manages to call Averin from a public phone. The demon attacks Kuzya and impales him with a glowing spear.

Averin arrives at the scene. He engages in an unequal battle with the demon. The sorcerer uses a magical whip and shield, but the odds are too great. The monster pierces the detective’s leg with a silver spear. Averin bleeds to death. The demon prepares to assume its true form and devour the wounded man.

At this moment, the wounded Kuzya regains consciousness. The scent of his master’s blood awakens colossal strength within him. Kuzya crawls toward Averin and licks the blood from the cobblestones. The sorcerer’s energy greatly amplifies the demon. Kuzya refuses to give in to his primal instincts and leaves Averin untouched. He lunges at the demon and plunges the detective’s silver dagger into the monster’s throat. Averin, with the last of his strength, throws fetters around his enemy. Kuzya severs the demon’s head with his enormous claws.

Consequences of victory

The seriously wounded Hermes Averin is hospitalized. Doctors struggle to save the sorcerer’s life, performing several complex surgeries. Kuzya awaits the police at the scene of the battle. Viktor Smirnov sees that Kuzya has absorbed the power of a ninth-level demon and has become incredibly powerful. Smirnov and District Attorney Fetisov conceal the truth to save Averin from arrest for illegal possession of a first-class div.

The police re-issue the documents and conceal the fact that the monster has been consumed. The police department takes Kuzya into temporary custody. Div lives in a government-run dormitory surrounded by silver bars. Kuzya passes all interrogations with flying colors, never revealing the secret of his rapid development.

Two and a half weeks later, Averin regains consciousness. Kuzya visits his master in his ward. The div demonstrates loyalty and refuses to leave the sorcerer. The Directorate’s leadership highly commends Averin’s achievements in eliminating the threat. Prince Bulgakov sends a petition to Omsk to award the detective the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called. This award grants the sorcerer the exclusive right to make Kuzya his personal familiar. The book ends with Averin’s decision to keep the div by his side forever.