Criminal investigation officer Valery Shtukin is being introduced into the structure of the former criminal authority, and now a major businessman, Yungerov. He, in turn, sends Yegor Yakushev, a guy whom he raised like a son, to work in the police. From this moment on, the destinies of the two young people begin to tighten into a tight knot, which is almost impossible to untie... For Shtukin, the Yunger system is gradually becoming more his own than his native police system... Yegor Yakushev successfully serves in the criminal investigation department. However, a conflict breaks out between the young people... * * *" A decade and a half has passed since the writing of the novel “Friend - Alien”. Over the years, a lot has changed - both in the country, and in the world, and in ourselves. Nevertheless, this novel cannot be called outdated. Of course, Time itself, in which the events unfold, can already be attributed to a bygone nature, but it was not the first derivative of the creative plan. These novels are, first of all, about people, about human relationships and moral choices. “Own - Alien” is a story about how the story of “Gangster Petersburg” ends. This is the time of dying of a short (and thank God!) era, when the leaders of the organized criminal group and those police officers who were not much different from these leaders ruled the roost. This is a story about the clash of two ideologies, about how difficult it is sometimes to distinguish “us” from “strangers”, about the fact that in our national mentality, friend or foe is sometimes more important than truth or falsehood. And “Friend - Alien” is a sad novel about incredible, “Arctic” loneliness.”

Andrey Konstantinov