The average chapter of this book reads: "I hate all the strange foreigners on this boat, but the Russian guy (despite being Russian) seems alright. Here is a story about him, told by me in the style of a third-person narrator. Now let me explain something that people in the 19th century would already understand, but readers in the 21st century wouldn't. No one must ever discover my dreadful secret (which I will explain, but not until the final third of the book)."

I thought the first Fandorin book (Winter Queen/Azazel) was the best so far, and I think it's largely to do with the narration actually following Fandorin and not regarding him tangentially from some other less interesting character(s). All in all, this book had a nice little mystery, very much in homage to Christie.