José Carlos Somoza is one of the most popular Spanish writers, winner of the Golden Dagger Award and many other literary awards (Silver Dagger Awards and Gold Dagger Awards, Cervantes Theater Prize, Café Gijon Prize). In Somoza’s new novel “A Study in "in black" it all begins in June 1882, when nurse Anne McCurry, middle-aged, ugly, unmarried, arrives in Portsmouth, where she has received a place at the prestigious Clarendon House mental hospital. She is assigned to take care of a mysterious gentleman. This strange patient calls himself Mr. X, he cannot stand daylight, but he is endowed with extraordinary insight, for him there is nothing secret in the actions of people, and he can investigate crimes without leaving his chair. This duo is joined by London doctor Conan Doyle, who has just opened his practice. Meanwhile, in the vicinity of the clinic, under mysterious circumstances, several murders occur with strange frequency. The police reach a dead end, and it seems the only one capable of solving the case is Mr. X, supported only by Nurse Anne and Doyle. For the first time in Russian!