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The early chapters are an historical survey of imperial Russia’s drive to the Pacific Ocean and warm-water ports and the conquest, usually by free-booting ‘entrepreneur Cossack bands, of Siberia.

As a pastiche in the ‘great London detective’ genre, the book is witty and clever, with the curmudgeonly and fastidious Sidney Grice as the Gower St detective. His assistant (and ward) is March Middleton, who plays Watson to Grice’s Holmes. The dialogue is well written, almost Jeevesian (there is a nod to that character in the ‘author’s’ introduction by Ms. Middleton) and ‘The Game’ (Laurie R King has called it).