Pharaoh’s Gem

Samoikhin had an apartment on Ostozhenka and a neoclassical pile somewhere near Peredelkino, but Seleznev knew that he would be at the dacha in Barvika for the next week, and that this was where the gem was kept. The idea of stealing the gem, referred to as the Pharaoh’s Gem because Samoikhin had a fetish

White on White

Russia has always had an uneasy relationship with white. Like any absolute thing – and if Russia is anything, it is a nation of absolutists – it is without hue and cannot be broken down any further than it already is. You can take this any way you like: either Russia came about already broken,

Finch Nest

Finch was set up in a small apartment in Marylebone directly opposite Salnikov. It became known as Finch’s Nest, and was such a badly-kept secret that at one point Salnikov himself turned up, smelling of spirits and asking coyly for a cup of sugar. This brazen approach wrongfooted everyone; it in the end it was