Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk is the second book translated to English in Boris Akunin's series about a young nun who is incredibly adept at gymnastics and solving crimes. I read the first book in the series, Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog, just over a year ago and really enjoyed it. This book had many of the same features that attracted me to the first novel.

The setting of this series of mysteries is rural Russia, I believe in the early 1900s because this second book (which takes place directly after the first) references the work of Madame Curie which was first published in 1898. The mysteries in both of these books are very well formed and not at all predictable. In this current novel, a spectral "black monk" is appearing at a hermitage in their district, provoking hysteria and even death. After unsucessful investigations by three other people, Sister Pelagia eventually takes it on herself to travel to this monastery and solve the mystery. She is quite amusing in that, in both books, she takes on the persona of a Muscovite widow and dresses in the latest fashions, pretending to be a layperson. In this one she also adds a second disguise -- a young male monk.

Some of the more interesting parts of these books are not in the narratives at all but in the religious discussions between Sister Pelagia and her mentor, Bishop Mitrofanii. It is very intriguing to get a glimpse of Russian Orthodoxy about 100 years ago. More in the first book than this second one, there is quite a bit of information about rural political structure in Russia which is also interesting. These books are fantastic as both historical studies and mysteries. I again must complement Akunin's English translator, Andrew Bromfield, as I have ready many a poor translation from Russian.

http://webereading.com/2009/03/square-onto-which-windows-of-district.html ( )

I just finished reading Boris Akunin's latest mystery featuring Sister Pelagia. I don't think that it is necessary to read "Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog" before reading this one, but it certainly gives a bit of background, and enriches Pelagia's character if you do.

This was an eerie, exciting and slightly disturbing read. I love the sense of history you get from Akunin's work, and this book is no exception.

If you enjoyed reading Micheal Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," you will certainly enjoy "Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk." ( )

On retrouve avec plaisir soeur Pélagie, même si elle n'entre en scène qu'assez tard dans le récit. Une intrigue originale avec des rebondissement jusqu'à la fin, toujours de personnages interessants et attachants et cet art russe de la description pittorsque. Encore! ( )

Boris Akunin first made a name for himself in the West with his Erast Fandorin series of detective novels set in 19th century Russia. He has shelved Fandorin for Sister Pelagia, a young nun stationed in a provincial Russia capital who serves the Bishop Mitrofanii.

The Black Monk picks up, literally, where Akunin's first Sister Pelagia book ended. Thus, first things first, no one should read this book without having read Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog: A Mystery.

A frightened monk roars into town proclaiming that Saint Basilisk has returned to a provincial religious retreat and is haunting the town. The religious retreat consists of two islands: on the smaller island is St. Basilisk's Hermitage now inhabited only by three hermits; on the larger island, an ambitious abbot (archimandrite) has turned the monastery into a thriving spiritual tourist attraction. Mitrofanii dispatches one investigator after another, but each meets with some ill turn or another. Inevitably, Pelagia goes to the island in her disguise as a Muscovite lady.

With The Black Monk, Akunin has moved beyond the realm of genre or pulp fiction and into literature on a plane with Umberto Eco (one of his influences). But don't worry! Akunin still sets us a good mystery - or two or three - and combines that with compelling psychological studies of his characters' motivations and compulsions and a clash of mysticism with science - not to mention some funny if implicit commentary on commercialism in modern Russia.

Akunin works under the spell of Dostoevsky and Chekov to name only two. Indeed, the book's title comes from a Chekov short story of the same name (See Chekhov, The Selected Stories of). One of Akunin's characters is reading Dostoevsky's The Possessed (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) (also known as The Devils) and lends it another character, an actor who fully absorbs himself into his roles and who also happens to be an inmate at the open air psychiatric clinic on the island! What could possibly go wrong?

Highest recommendation. ( )

The story's very convoluted, but she's a kick. ( )