A visit to the Minotaur

... The famous musician, People"s Artist of the USSR Polyakov stole a unique violin of the work of Stradivari. This is the tie of the novel “Visit to the Minotaur” (1971), the impetus for the writing of which was the real story of the robbery of the apartment of the outstanding Soviet violinist David Ostrakh.
Classic detective? Not really. The novel captures and holds in tension, as it should be for the detective, but at the same time multi -layered and combines two time layers. In parallel with the story of the investigation, which is conducted by senior inspector Mura Tikhonov, we learn about the great Master Stradivari and his teacher of Amati, who created in the XVII - XVIII centuries in a crescent. The history of the disclosure of a loud crime becomes a reason for thinking about “salreianism”, the nature of talent, human vices and passions, about the minotaur that lives in each of us.
A skillfully built composition, bright genre sketches, living dialogs, a dynamic change of episodes and general cinematography ... No wonder the novel formed the basis of a popular television film (1987)