Always Serve Cold

Saint Petersburg, June 1809 - a city of bureaucratic intrigues, balls, and sultry embankments. Russia is licking its wounds after the wars, while the capital of the empire is living its restless life. Young Count Andrei Izvolsky, a recent hero of naval battles, is forced to leave the fleet due to injury and takes a position in the Bureau of Piety. His first assignment is the investigation of the mysterious murder of the hussar Mikhail Valevich. No signs of robbery, no weapon, only the strange word “gun” spoken before death. The detective gradually reconstructs the chain of events and discovers that Valevich and seven others once served time in the Peter and Paul Fortress and were later released. And now, several years later, someone is beginning to kill these seven in order. Count Izvolsky finds out that the murders are connected to long-ago events that even the participants would prefer to forget, as the traces lead to the highest echelons of power - the imperial family.