Vladimir Torin’s "Sabrina’s Silence," a summary

This book is a dark, atmospheric fantasy with steampunk elements. Published in 2023, the story’s most significant element is its masterful blend of grotesque theatrical aesthetics with the brutal realities of the gangster underground. From the very first pages, the reader is deeply immersed in the dank atmosphere of dirty alleys. The city is shrouded in acrid, thick smog and perpetual autumn dampness. These dark alleys conceal deadly dangers at every turn.

This book is part of the "…from Gabin" series. The series details mysterious incidents and the harsh everyday life of the inhabitants of a fictional metropolis. The series harmoniously unites numerous gripping stories. Previously published were the novels "And the Light Goes Out," "My Post-Imago," "Of Noses and Locks," and "The Mystery of 12 Rue Florette." Literary critics consistently praise the dark narrative style and the unique, dense atmosphere of the industrial city. "Sabrina’s Silence" seamlessly complements the overall complex chronology.

The beginning of the story

The tragic story begins with a monologue by the puppeteer Goodwin. The old master hides his face behind a white mask and records an audio message on a phonograph cylinder. The creator is disillusioned with his life, the people around him, and is mortally tired of his oppressive loneliness. The master decides to bring his own wooden puppets to life and assign them terrifying, destructive roles in an upcoming theatrical drama. The play is to begin with his own cold-blooded murder. The puppeteer promises to always follow his creations invisibly.

An empty toy shop

The colleagues head to Fair Alley. This abandoned place is eerily quiet. They are tasked with collecting an old debt from the puppeteer Goodwin. As they approach the shop, the jesters discover a four-armed hanged man swinging from a rope. Guffin stubbornly insists that the figure swinging from the noose is merely a wooden replica. Inside, the shop is thick with dust and utter desolation. The owner has disappeared. A lifeless wooden girl in a green velvet dress sits on a chair. The puppet’s face is covered in scratches. Guffin suggests cynically stealing the puppet to pay off the debt. The buttons on her dress are very expensive. Fortt notices a pool of fresh blood behind the massive cash register. A frightened Fortt agrees to leave the creepy shop as quickly as possible. Guffin unceremoniously stuffs the doll into a dirty cloth bag.

Sabrina’s Awakening

Leaving the alley, the kidnappers push through the crowd and board a tram. The wooden girl comes to within the dark confines. With horror, she recalls her name — Sabrina. The creature realizes the truth of her own treacherous abduction. The doll hides a mysterious clockwork mechanism in a secret door on her chest. Sabrina doesn’t know the purpose of this thing, but she guards it desperately.

In a dimly lit carriage, a mysterious gentleman in a black suit and a tall top hat eavesdrops on the jesters’ conversation. The old tram’s route is suddenly altered due to a fictitious breakdown of the Rusty Paperclip Bridge. Passengers disembark at a stop in Elms Park. The area is shrouded in thick fog. Sabrina tries to scream for help from the constable on duty. The policeman turns out to be fake. In response to her cries, Guffin brutally beats the sack with a heavy umbrella. The wooden girl suffers painful injuries. Fortt forcibly stops his friend’s abuse and vows to protect the unfortunate puppet.

Flight over the canals

To cross the canal, the jesters find the hideout of a street balloon vendor. On the top floor of a tall building, Mr. Balloonie keeps a genuine smuggler’s hot air balloon. In the center of the room, beneath a wide opening in the roof, a balloon with a wicker basket stands at the ready. Mr. Balloonie’s occupant turns out to be a living wooden soldier doll. During a night flight over the smoke-shrouded Flea Fortt district, he whispers a cunning escape plan to Sabrina. The kindly jester wants to take her to his relative, Hamish. For the first time, the doll begins to believe in a lucky escape.

The brief idyll doesn’t last long. Guffin suddenly reveals his true, dark motives. The evil clown knows about Fortt’s long-standing espionage. Guffin calmly admits his personal involvement in the mysterious disappearance of the puppeteer Goodwin. Without warning, Guffin hits Fortt hard with his umbrella. The unfortunate Jacob tumbles over the side and falls from the basket straight into the filthy waters of the Brilli Moe Canal. The poor fellow’s bowler hat is left floating forlornly on the black waves. Sabrina loses her only kind protector forever.

Swamps and monsters

Guffin and Sabrina land safely in the Slush, a murky, boggy swamp on the outskirts of a gangster slum. The Jester brutally wrests the doll’s hidden clockwork mechanism from her. The crossing of the putrid swamp is completely under the control of the cruel Grimmson brothers. Teddy Grimmson carries Guffin in a creaky cable car. Suddenly, the ferrymen are attacked by the bloodthirsty Blutagel. It is a huge, chthonic leech, dressed in a dirty coat and a dented top hat. The monstrous monster sucks the blood of both brothers, leaving no trace.

Guffin is miraculously saved by the sudden appearance of armed bandits from the Svor gang. The criminals hide their faces behind terrifying leather dog masks. The bandits blind the giant leech with powerful flashes of red light and deafen it with a brass siren. After quickly defeating the monster, they treacherously stun Guffin with a blow from behind. The unconscious jester and his sack are loaded into a small boat and hastily taken to the dock of the Mokritsa tavern.

Deals and intrigues

In the dingy backyard of the inn, Guffin slowly comes to his senses. The stern innkeeper, Noseless Karl, is trying to force the captive jester to reveal valuable smuggler secrets. The innkeeper’s nephew, Piglet, amuses himself by lighting Guffin’s green firecracker. This bright firework serves as a signal for the hidden gang. Guffin is saved from imminent torture by the timely armed intervention of the very same bandits, the Pack. The jester and his silent guards, brothers John and Dick Derrick, set off for the main lair of the dog gang.

Inside an abandoned pneumatic tube station, scandalous details of a criminal conspiracy are revealed. Guffin cynically blackmails the Derrick brothers with their personal secret. The gang, by prior secret agreement, helped the jester safely navigate the deadly swamps. Guffin carefully conceals his true goal. Now the bandits reluctantly lead Guffin to their formidable leader, nicknamed "Gloomy." Sabrina listens intently to the kidnappers’ conversations and clearly understands the terrifying scale of the criminal network. The doll acutely feels the utter hopelessness of her pitiful situation.

Lair of the Pack

The group arrives at a high-rise building with the frightening name of "The Kennel." The bandit, Ugryumy, is a gigantic figure, nearly three meters tall. The leader of the dog gang wears a formal business suit and carefully watches the night sky through a heavy brass telescope. The brute orders his armed men to immediately shoot down the lone flyer. Sabrina timidly peers through the telescope. She instantly recognizes the mysterious gentleman from the evening tram. The stranger bravely flies over the city using a portable propeller umbrella. A burst of machine gun fire from the Pack’s combat airship, the "Old Woman," mercilessly shoots down the propeller-driven craft. The man plummets onto the rooftops of the Flea District.

Sabrina is left completely unsupervised in a spacious room. She overhears a girl named Bizzy, chained to a rusty pipe, telling children a terrifying fairy tale in the next room. This grim tale of a baby dog born with a dog’s head who cruelly takes revenge on his parents paralyzes a wooden doll. Nevertheless, the wooden girl desperately decides to throw herself out of an open window, falling several dozen meters. The escapee is stopped at the last moment by Pretty Dit. A tall woman in a dog mask takes the doll’s lifesaving umbrella. Dit categorically refuses to give Sabrina her personal mechanism. Pretty Dit forcibly returns the captive to the sack and tightly sews the rough fabric shut, sincerely advising the doll to pretend to be submissive and obedient.

New actress of the farce

Guffin picks up the sewn-up sack again and returns to the ruined alley. A disgruntled showman, Tully Breckenbock, is drinking cheap wine right in the ashes of his theater. The city police have carried out an unexpected and brutal raid. Constables have arrested or shot almost all of the troupe’s street performers. The theater’s leading star, Margot Trepple, has lost her front teeth forever and is being sent to hard labor. Breckenbock loudly blames his archrival, Fenwick Smokeymirrorbrim, for the raid.

Guffin proudly shows the battered and filthy Sabrina to the drunken owner. The appearance of the wooden puppet instantly inspires the distraught director. Tully Breckenbock quickly sobers up and confidently leaps onto his long stage stilts. The booth owner loudly proclaims, "We’ll do the impossible! We’ll stage this damned play!" He appoints the tortured wooden puppet as the new leading actress in the upcoming theatrical production. Sabrina will be forced to work hard on stage for the sake of an elaborate theatrical revenge.