Mystical thriller
Psychological drama
Detective
Modern Moscow
A series of murders
Occultism
Tarot
Sect
Love
Artist
Eleonora Pakhomova graduated from the journalism department of Moscow State University and wrote for leading Russian media outlets. The author's first novel "Rose and Cross" became one of the most read on the RuNet in 2015. The author has prepared a detailed synopsis of the series for episodes 8 and 12.
REFERENCES
"Mindhunter", created by Joe Penhall, 2017
True Detective, created by Nic Pizzolatto, directed by Cary Fukunaga, 2014
SHORT SYNOPSIS
Police Major Ivan Zamyatin (a Denis Shvedov type) arrives at a crime scene and discovers that a psychiatry professor, who conducted private psychotherapy sessions for the Moscow elite, has been murdered in his own office in a very unusual way: his throat has been slit, his tongue has been cut out, a pentagram has been carved into his chest, and his legs have been folded into the shape of the number 4. Zamyatin realizes that an expert on the occult must be involved in the investigation, and turns to Miroslav Pogodin (a type somewhere between Alexander Molochnikov and Yuri Chursin).
Miroslav is a rich kid (the son of an oligarch) who, as a result of childhood trauma, embarked on a path of studying the manifestations of evil. He works as a philosophy professor at Moscow State University and drives a Maserati. Pogodin agrees to help the major and soon comes to the conclusion that the symbolism on the professor's corpse refers to the Thoth Tarot cards, a deck invented by Aleister Crowley, the founder of Satanism. And the murderer believes the murdered professor is none other than the Hierophant (one of the major arcana of the Tarot, symbolizing the high priest, a spiritual mentor). Miroslav shares his guess with the major. The major first asks how many court cards there are in the deck. Miroslav replies that there are twenty-two such cards.
Meanwhile, a strange client approaches the fashionable Moscow artist Frida Voloshina (a type of Irina Apeksimova in her youth; Paulina Andreeva would have been a stretch to say the same). An elderly, imposing man, introducing himself as David, asks her to depict twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana of the Thoth Tarot on canvas, offering her a huge amount of money. "Why me?" the artist asks. "Because you are Frida!" replies the client. The first card Frida undertakes to depict is the Hierophant.
According to the plot, the stories of the investigators and the artist initially run parallel. After Frida, at David's direction, draws another court card on canvas, a corpse with the corresponding symbolism is found in Moscow. The investigators are unaware of Frida's existence, and she has no idea that corpses are being found in the capital after her paintings.
As the investigation progresses, Miroslav Pogodin and Ivan Zamyatin uncover more and more details about the activities of secret societies, Satanic sects, and other followers of Aleister Crowley in Moscow. And the artist Frida delves deeper into her own inner world, where selfhood, obsessive love, and emotional pain from the past reign.
Ultimately, the paths of the investigators and the artist cross. The plot twists like a tailspin, and the viewer guesses until the very end who is behind the series of brutal, bloody murders.
FRAGMENTS
"... in the killer's head there are no gnomes and elves, but "Thelema," which means "will." And the cult of sacrifice is quite fitting in his rhetoric. The killer, therefore, does his will, while trying to set some kind of magical mechanism in motion.
We put one and one together: the Hanged Man, that is, the victim, and the Hierophant. The Hierophant was sacrificed? And what is the purpose of the sacrifice? Probably to strengthen the ritual. It seems that a sabbath is planned in Moscow - the major is unlucky."
"For the first time, she felt the scent of his skin, mingling with the tart notes of a barely perceptible perfume, her gaze caught the velvety texture of its texture, ran up his tanned neck, stumbling over the tubercle of his Adam's apple, discerned the stubble appearing on his chin and - eyes, eyes, eyes ... Impossibly beautiful, smiling, glowing. So close that she felt his heart beating. Her gaze lost focus, it seemed to her that she was about to flow down the door to his feet, turning into a hot scarlet puddle."
“A person must believe in something... Something that allows him to feel part of a whole, and not a molecule rushing about in meaningless, chaotic motion. Something that connects him to a community of other people, freeing him from the feeling of rootlessness and helplessness. Something that gives life some higher meaning. Otherwise, what is the point of all this?”
“Frida learned that this was the Grail from the books David gave her during their last meeting, when she gave him the painting with the Hierophant. ... studying the “Lust” card at home, Frida caught herself wanting to know its meaning. “Pacify the Energy with Love; but let Love consume all that exists,” read the first line of the epigraph to the card. In traditional decks, this Arcana is called “Strength” - a woman strokes a roaring lion, demonstrating the predominance of inner strength over outer. But by Crowley's will, "Power" became "Lust."
Esoteric detective. AST, 2018
Nominated for the Livelib Readers' Choice Award
Psychological drama
Detective
Modern Moscow
A series of murders
Occultism
Tarot
Sect
Love
Artist
Eleonora Pakhomova graduated from the journalism department of Moscow State University and wrote for leading Russian media outlets. The author's first novel "Rose and Cross" became one of the most read on the RuNet in 2015. The author has prepared a detailed synopsis of the series for episodes 8 and 12.
REFERENCES
"Mindhunter", created by Joe Penhall, 2017
True Detective, created by Nic Pizzolatto, directed by Cary Fukunaga, 2014
SHORT SYNOPSIS
Police Major Ivan Zamyatin (a Denis Shvedov type) arrives at a crime scene and discovers that a psychiatry professor, who conducted private psychotherapy sessions for the Moscow elite, has been murdered in his own office in a very unusual way: his throat has been slit, his tongue has been cut out, a pentagram has been carved into his chest, and his legs have been folded into the shape of the number 4. Zamyatin realizes that an expert on the occult must be involved in the investigation, and turns to Miroslav Pogodin (a type somewhere between Alexander Molochnikov and Yuri Chursin).
Miroslav is a rich kid (the son of an oligarch) who, as a result of childhood trauma, embarked on a path of studying the manifestations of evil. He works as a philosophy professor at Moscow State University and drives a Maserati. Pogodin agrees to help the major and soon comes to the conclusion that the symbolism on the professor's corpse refers to the Thoth Tarot cards, a deck invented by Aleister Crowley, the founder of Satanism. And the murderer believes the murdered professor is none other than the Hierophant (one of the major arcana of the Tarot, symbolizing the high priest, a spiritual mentor). Miroslav shares his guess with the major. The major first asks how many court cards there are in the deck. Miroslav replies that there are twenty-two such cards.
Meanwhile, a strange client approaches the fashionable Moscow artist Frida Voloshina (a type of Irina Apeksimova in her youth; Paulina Andreeva would have been a stretch to say the same). An elderly, imposing man, introducing himself as David, asks her to depict twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana of the Thoth Tarot on canvas, offering her a huge amount of money. "Why me?" the artist asks. "Because you are Frida!" replies the client. The first card Frida undertakes to depict is the Hierophant.
According to the plot, the stories of the investigators and the artist initially run parallel. After Frida, at David's direction, draws another court card on canvas, a corpse with the corresponding symbolism is found in Moscow. The investigators are unaware of Frida's existence, and she has no idea that corpses are being found in the capital after her paintings.
As the investigation progresses, Miroslav Pogodin and Ivan Zamyatin uncover more and more details about the activities of secret societies, Satanic sects, and other followers of Aleister Crowley in Moscow. And the artist Frida delves deeper into her own inner world, where selfhood, obsessive love, and emotional pain from the past reign.
Ultimately, the paths of the investigators and the artist cross. The plot twists like a tailspin, and the viewer guesses until the very end who is behind the series of brutal, bloody murders.
FRAGMENTS
"... in the killer's head there are no gnomes and elves, but "Thelema," which means "will." And the cult of sacrifice is quite fitting in his rhetoric. The killer, therefore, does his will, while trying to set some kind of magical mechanism in motion.
We put one and one together: the Hanged Man, that is, the victim, and the Hierophant. The Hierophant was sacrificed? And what is the purpose of the sacrifice? Probably to strengthen the ritual. It seems that a sabbath is planned in Moscow - the major is unlucky."
"For the first time, she felt the scent of his skin, mingling with the tart notes of a barely perceptible perfume, her gaze caught the velvety texture of its texture, ran up his tanned neck, stumbling over the tubercle of his Adam's apple, discerned the stubble appearing on his chin and - eyes, eyes, eyes ... Impossibly beautiful, smiling, glowing. So close that she felt his heart beating. Her gaze lost focus, it seemed to her that she was about to flow down the door to his feet, turning into a hot scarlet puddle."
“A person must believe in something... Something that allows him to feel part of a whole, and not a molecule rushing about in meaningless, chaotic motion. Something that connects him to a community of other people, freeing him from the feeling of rootlessness and helplessness. Something that gives life some higher meaning. Otherwise, what is the point of all this?”
“Frida learned that this was the Grail from the books David gave her during their last meeting, when she gave him the painting with the Hierophant. ... studying the “Lust” card at home, Frida caught herself wanting to know its meaning. “Pacify the Energy with Love; but let Love consume all that exists,” read the first line of the epigraph to the card. In traditional decks, this Arcana is called “Strength” - a woman strokes a roaring lion, demonstrating the predominance of inner strength over outer. But by Crowley's will, "Power" became "Lust."
Esoteric detective. AST, 2018
Nominated for the Livelib Readers' Choice Award