"Detective meditation" by Yana Vagner

Yana Wagner's novel "Ready or not: the story of one company" is "a thriller where everyone is afraid of themselves only. A detective story, but doesn't really matter who the criminal is. A psychological drama that exposed all the old grievances".

However, there is not much "detective" in this story.

But there is still a mystery. Nine friends come to rest in a hotel, which is placed at the top of the mountain. They are successful, happy and ready to have fun. But in the morning it turns out that freezing rain left the hotel without communication with the world, and not far from the entrance lies one of them, pierced by a ski pole. But the real mystery are the people themselves – and it is their motivation that the author focuses on. The unshakable truth " still waters run deep" hangs like a black shadow over all the participants in the drama. They haven’t been strangers to each other for a long time. But is it really so?

The atmosphere of the book is unusual for a detective novel. In relation to the characters, the reader takes not the judge or detective position, but rather a psychologist one: they sympathize and empathize with them. Even trying on the role of a detective, they study not the scenery and motives for the murder, but the living characters and the nature of their friendship.

The author asks important questions: can killing be a good deed, is it possible to recognize another person as oneself and to maintain friendship against all odds. And while Yana Wagner pulls invisible strings with the skill of a virtuoso musician, endless freezing rain pours down on the ground and dresses the hotel in glaze. And the long, long blind snow equalizes everything, reconciling us with our worries and sorrows, with our own loved ones and all that they’ll bring to us.

Text A. D. Kulikova, fiction lending library