Carol Adlam & Val McDermid

Carol Adlam & Val McDermid on The Russian Detective

Selected as The Guardian's March Graphic Novel of the Month, join us this April to enjoy an impeccable blend of detective fiction, Russian literature, and striking illustration in Carol Adlam's accomplished graphic novel The Russian Detective.

We're excited to be joined by none other than Val McDermid, who will be asking Carol some questions on the night and celebrating the allure of classic crime fiction.

They will be accompanied by Dr Claire Whitehead (Reader in Russian, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews), who will talk about the Lost Detectives project from which the book developed.

Carol served as the 2020 writer-in-residence for the University of St Andrews; it will be great to welcome her back to town!

In this stunning reimagining of a nineteenth-century Russian crime thriller from the world of Dostoevsky, Carol Adlam presents Charlie Fox, stunt journalist, magician, liar and thief, who reluctantly returns to her hometown of Nowheregrad to investigate the murder of Elena Ruslanova, daughter of a fabulously wealthy glass manufacturer.

In Nowheregrad Charlie finds herself caught up in a multi-layered story that is told through the richly varied visual devices of the time. With the unwitting assistance of her lover, Netochka, Charlie unravels the mystery of the Bobrov family, only to face the truth about herself.

Exquisitely drawn and compellingly told, Adlam's complex, elegant narrative brings to life the lost legacies of early crime fiction and the first women journalists and detectives.

Carol Adlam holds a PhD in Russian and an MA in Illustration from the Cambridge School of Art. She won a World Illustration Award in 2018, and was shortlisted in both 2016 and 2015. She was a writer-in-residence at the University of St Andrews in 2020 and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge in 2021. Carol lives in Nottingham with her wife.