A Russian general is murdered in Kiev. Two investigators are put on the case: Viktor Slutsky, a young police lieutenant, and Nik Tsensky, a former military interpreter. We read of the progress of their stumbling researches in parallel as Viktor's adventures take him to Russia and to England; Mik's to Poland, Germany and Luxembourg; and both eventually to France.
On the way they meet Sergey, a larger-than-life hitman and hearse-driving sociopath, who has somehow acquired a deaf and dumb blonde girlfriend and a tortoise to whom he becomes devoted. Eventually it dawns on the two investigators that they are merely pawns in a complicated game in which the KGB are the key players.
As Nik and Viktor gradually close in on a solution to the mysterious case, they find themselves dangerously involved in a battle between the Russian and Ukrainian secret services for stakes far higher than they had imagined.
