Original mysteryNo. 1751 hr 13 minHercule Poirot
London, a raw February morning. The Belgian Detective receives an anonymous letter on thick, foreign, violet-scented paper: if he values life, honour, and the prevention of scandal, he must come that night to the house of an exiled Russian princess, where a duel is being arranged — and a poet will die unless the truth is found first. Inside a drawing room of icons, lacquer boxes, and silver samovars, he and his loyal companion meet a celebrated émigré poet, his dazzling wife Natalya, and the dangerous young admirer whose attentions have set society talking. Anonymous letters have mocked a husband as a cuckold. Pride has been wounded. Pistols have been spoken of. And the old aristocratic code of honour is sharpening, quietly, toward blood. The Russian Scandal is an original Golden Age-style mystery about jealousy, gossip, and the lethal theatre of honour — and the discovery that the most dangerous weapon in a room full of exiles is not a pistol, but a rumour.
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