"The Candle Tower" by Tatyana Korsakova, summary Automatic translate

This mystical detective story was published in 2024. The story revolves around a boarding school for gifted children. Behind the comfortable façade of this prestigious educational institution lie dark secrets of the past, which suddenly take physical form in the form of real threats and human casualties. The book opens the author’s series of the same name. This cycle includes another novel, "Luminaries of Darkness," which logically continues the plot. This work is the first part of a planned duology.

Gorisvetovo Estate

The action takes place on an ancient estate. It houses an elite school founded by the philanthropist Vsevolod Mstislavovich Gorisvetov. Young Miroslava Sergeevna oversees the school’s operations. She works as an administrator and strives to maintain strict control to please her patron’s family. The estate is surrounded by a lush park and rugged terrain, and at its edge rises a gloomy architectural structure — the black Candle Tower. It was designed by the eccentric architect August Berg specifically for Agnia Gorisvetova, the founder of the first orphanage.

The school routine is disrupted by the sudden disappearance of twelve-year-old Vasilisa Sviridova, a student from a local, poor family, who possesses a remarkable talent for painting. Miroslava personally sets out to search for her in a nearby deep ravine. A maverick system administrator calling himself Frost volunteers to assist her. At the bottom of the ravine, Miroslava suddenly loses control. She experiences an attack of inexplicable, primal fear, accompanied by terrifying hallucinations.

During a panic attack, Miroslava’s hair strangely rises, as if subject to static electricity. In her daze, she distinctly hears the soft whisper of a children’s rhyme. Regaining her composure with Frost’s help, she notices an unnatural whirlpool on the river’s surface. The water rotates clockwise, defying the laws of physics. The missing Vasilisa is soon found safely in the village library. It turns out that the girl’s mother, Gala, was simply trying to blackmail the school administration to speed up the payment of her scholarship.

Shadows of a distant summer

The incident stirs up deeply repressed memories for Miroslava. Thirteen years ago, she herself was vacationing here at an organized summer camp. Back then, a brutal serial killer was on the loose in the area. He strangled small children and doused their faces with molten wax. Locals nicknamed him the Candle Man. Miroslava became his final target, experienced clinical death, but miraculously survived thanks to the quick intervention of her groom, Dmitry Leonidovich.

Following the attack, the girl suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. A course of psychotherapy had effectively blocked out the terrifying fragments of her past. Now, the protective barriers of her memory began to crumble under the onslaught of new events. One night, Miroslava, sleepwalking, arrives at the door of the locked tower. Waking up, she returns to her apartment to find her antique bathtub completely stained with wormwood wax. Wet footprints from someone else’s bare feet remain on the hallway floor.

The next morning, another student, the hyperactive Vasily Samsonov, goes missing. Miroslava and Frost descend to the bottom of the ravine again. They find the boy, terrified to the point of speechlessness, near a willow thicket. Vasily admits to having seen something terrifying. Frost inspects the shore and discovers the dead body of a teenage girl. The victim is dressed in casual clothes and is not a student at Gorisvetovskaya School.

The child died from strangulation. The victim’s face is completely hidden under a thick layer of wax, creating a frightening, blind mask. The crime closely mimics the signature style of a serial killer from thirteen years ago. Senior investigator Samokhin arrives at the scene. He thoroughly questions witnesses and surveys the area. The investigator finds a dozen soggy paper boats on the shore of a pond. A tower and a thin female hand reaching out from the darkness are drawn in pencil on the paper.

Samokhin pays close attention to the anomalous whirlpool. Relying on his professional intuition and the stories of his grandfather, a fisherman, he calls rescuers and divers. At the bottom of a deep backwater, specialists find the skeleton of a young man in half-decayed clothing. The investigator suspects the remains belong to restorer Maxim Razumovsky. Thirteen years ago, this young man disappeared without a trace. Police then suspected him of committing a series of child murders.

Secrets of Chernokamensk

Miroslava decides to conduct her own investigation. She drives to the neighboring town of Chernokamensk. In a cozy local coffee shop, Miroslava meets the owner, Emma Lvovna. The two quickly connect over their shared interest in history. It turns out that master craftsman August Berg designed the tower as a metaphorical lighthouse. The mechanism at the very top skillfully simulated the burning of a giant candle.

Emma Lvovna contacts her acquaintance, Ivan, the director of the city archives. Miroslava spends several hours poring over old newspaper clippings and documents. Shortly before his mysterious disappearance, the restorer Razumovsky was actively searching for Berg’s original drawings. He had secretly met with a local jeweler, a descendant of the architect’s friend. Shortly after this meeting, the jeweler was robbed, and the historical records disappeared without a trace.

Then Miroslava visits Isaak Moiseevich, a former school music teacher. The old man treats his guest to coffee, gives her a treasured photo album, and reminds her of a forgotten childhood friend. The boy’s name was Artem Morozov. He showed promise as a brilliant violinist, but after that terrible summer, he abandoned music forever. Miroslava recognizes the familiar features of young Artem in an old portrait sketch. She finally realizes that the gloomy hacker Frost is indeed the gifted violinist, now grown up.

The Return of the Candle Man

Upon returning to Gorisvetovo, Miroslava faces a tense conversation with her immediate supervisor. Vsevolod Mstislavovich is seriously concerned about the school’s declining reputation and the possible loss of investors. The founder’s son, Vyacheslav, is even more aggressive. He sneaks into her bedroom through the window and openly intimidates her. Miroslava clearly recalls how, as a child, Vyacheslav and his friends systematically bullied her and beat up the younger students.

At night, the heroine notices a strange, mystical light at the top of the tower. A local worker, Alexey, confirms her dark fears. He also clearly saw the ghostly flickering. He fearfully calls this mysterious phenomenon "The Candle Mistress." As a child, Alexey was close friends with Miroslava and Artyom. His intellect was irreparably damaged after falling down the tower’s emergency staircase thirteen years ago, when he was left to die in the darkness.

Miroslava and Frost enter the structure. The heavy oak door, despite strict safety regulations, remains open. They slowly ascend to the topmost observation deck. There, they find a frightening metal structure resembling a giant birdcage. The iron bars are heavily stained with soot and old wax. There are no real light fittings inside.

Looking down from the platform, the heroes are horrified to see a body sprawled on the damp ground. It’s Alexey, the worker. He had been pushed from the upper tier just minutes earlier. Miroslava goes into a state of profound shock. She desperately tries to perform CPR on her dead friend. Frost forcibly pulls her away from the cooling corpse. He calls Investigator Samokhin, calmly reporting a new, brazen crime on the grounds of the cursed estate.