Akunin’s new series

Boris Akunin’s Erast Fandorin novels are incredibly popular in his native Russia, and this popularity has spread to a whole host of other countries. Next year will see publication of TURKISH GAMBIT, the third book to be published in North America (after THE WINTER QUEEN and MURDER ON THE LEVIATHAN.) The books are doing well enough now to justify the appearance of another series:

Boris Akunin’s The Sister Pelagia Mysteries, comprising PELAGIA AND THE WHITE BULLDOG, PELAGIA AND THE BLACK MONK, and PELAGIA AND THE RED COCKEREL, set in 19th-century Russia, chronicling the adventures of a young nun, Pelagia (a blend of Father Brown, Miss Marple and Russian romantic heroine), bespectacled, freckled, red-haired and a voracious knitter, who teaches gymnastics and literature, and in her spare time solves crimes, to Helen Garnons-Williams at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, in a good deal, by Linda Michaels in association with the Italian publisher, Frassinelli, translated by Andrew Bromfield (UK/Commonwealth).

I have no doubt a US deal is forthcoming. And that once the books are available, that they will be most easily compared to Alexander McCall Smith’s new Isabel Dalhousie series, which also features a red-haired, somewhat intellectual middle-aged protagonist who solves crimes in her spare time.