"The Right of the Predator" by Anna Starobinets, summary Automatic translate

"The Right of the Predator" is the second book in the "Beastly Detective" series, published in 2019. It’s a detective story for children and adults, where animals live by laws almost painfully similar to those of humans: with their own police officers, prejudices, propaganda, and bureaucracy. The story revolves around the eternal question of who has the right to eat whom — and who is responsible for it.

Attack in the hole

At the very beginning, a barely alive chicken is discovered in Fox’s den. Doctor Rook performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and saves the victim. It turns out that Fox grabbed the chicken and nearly strangled it, but she attributes this to her weak jaws — she’s been on a plant-based diet for a long time. Badger Senior, the Chief of Police of the Far Forest, declares this an attack on a farm animal, which, according to the laws of Okhotki village, carries the penalty of "tearing to pieces" and a Great Hunt for the entire Far Forest.

An inconvenient detail immediately comes to light: Badger, a young police officer, had previously given Fox permission to "lightly strangle just one village chicken" in exchange for testimony. Badger Senior is shocked: now the entire Far Forest police force is under attack, and along with it, all its inhabitants.

The Chicken That Has No Name

At the station, the hen calls herself Kura-Four — in Okhotki, birds have numbers instead of names. She shamelessly devours all the pine nuts intended for Starling and insists that Nina Palna is a "bright person" who takes the best chickens home on Fridays and puts them in bed with her. Badger and Badger Senior explain the truth to her: on Fridays, Nina Palna makes chicken soup, and Mukhtar and the other guard dogs get bones for it.

Overwhelmed by shock, Kura-Four finally decides to return to Okhotki — not to escape, but to warn her fellow laying hens. Badger Senior tries to dissuade her, but the hen responds by singing a verse from the henhouse anthem and leaving. Before leaving, she gives the police an egg "as a souvenir."

Mukhtar and Polkan

Okhotok’s security chief, Mukhtar — a dog of an indeterminate, vicious breed — and veteran hunter Polkan are heading to the Far Forest to demand the extradition of Lisa. On the way, Polkan complains that his owner, Nina Palna, has already acquired a replacement — a purebred puppy named Graf. Polkan is discouraged, but he refuses to give up the hunt.

During the negotiations, Badgercat presents Hen-four, who declares she left the coop voluntarily. Mukhtar, enraged, attacks Badgercat and crushes his head in his teeth. Polkan saves the kitten’s life by ordering Mukhtar to release his jaws. The dogs leave, refusing to take the hen as a "traitor to the coop." Badgercat escapes with a scar.

Murder in the Chicken Coop

Hen-four runs into her home coop at night and wakes the hens with a cry of "We’ve been betrayed!" Petunia and the hens chant in unison, "Stop the broth!" but suddenly a black shadow with a fanged mouth looms over Hen-four. The predatory jaws close around her neck — Hen-five, whom everyone mistakes for Hen-four in the darkness, has been killed. The hens shout, "A fox is in the coop!"

Mukhtar comes to Badger again, demanding that he hand over Lisa. It turns out she disappeared the day before — she was last seen at the "Suchok" bar, where she fled without paying for three mujitos. Mukhtar declares the Big Hunt.

Starling under cover

While the threat of persecution looms over the Forest, Badger Senior sends Starling, a scout with a unique talent for mimicking voices, to hunt. Donning a chicken camouflage suit, the bird must discover what Nina Palna most desires and fears, and also interview witnesses to the murder.

In the henhouse, Starling encounters a living Hen-Four and realizes the victim was another hen — Hen-Five. From Hen-Four’s words, he learns a strange detail: the killer had a "completely motionless face." Petyunya exposes Starling, and the puppy Count drags him to Nina Palna.

Chaos erupts in the kitchen: Starling breaks free, cuts the string of mushrooms, and they spill onto the floor. Nina Palna, in a panic, screams about her "beloved porcini mushrooms" — and blurts out that she loves them more than anything in the world, and that she’s most afraid of the gray wolf, "who’ll bite her on the side." Marquise’s cat, jealous and offended, scratches her mistress, who knocks over a sideboard full of dishes. Starling escapes.

The ending: who is the killer?

Badger Senior, Badgercat, Vulture Vulture, Starling, and the lame Veteran Ferret approach the hunting pack, which is about to begin the hunt. Badger demands a truce and announces that the hen’s killer is a dog in a fox mask. The witness is Piglet, a mini-pig who didn’t sleep that night. Starling recounts his testimony: the killer was wearing a fox mask, acted during a chicken riot, and didn’t carry off the body — in other words, he wasn’t hunting for food.

At first, suspicion falls on Mukhtar. But Badger Senior refutes this theory and names the real culprit: Polkan. It was he, fearing he would be written off as useless after the birth of the Count puppy, who incited the Fox to attack the hen. When she survived, he himself dressed up as a fox and killed the hen to provoke the Great Hunt and once again prove his indispensability. The clue is the distinctive mark of a broken right fang, familiar to Ferret from the previous Forest Hunt. Vulture confirms the match between the teeth marks. Polkan flees without waiting for the forensic examination.

Nina Palna and the letter

The finale unfolds in the Okhotki yard. Hen-four, riding on Piglet the mini-pig, races across the yard, singing the chicken song, and Nina Palna, carrying an axe, chases after her. Badger Senior and Wolf greet her with a "lullaby" about a little gray wolf. Nina Palna, mortally afraid of wolves, freezes and drops her axe.

Badger offers protection from the Wolf in exchange for Nina Palna reading an open letter from the residents of the Far Forest — an offer she can’t refuse. Under these conditions, a peace treaty is negotiated between the Far Forest and the Okhotki: the forest predators help Nina Palna gather mushrooms — her greatest passion — and in exchange, she stops making chicken soup. Kura-Four and her friends survive, and the Great Hunt is canceled.