For the first time in Russian! How often does a small, seemingly innocent thing become an instrument of fate! Cheap toy. Chocolate candy. Variegated Christmas cracker. A note with several lines scribbled on it. And each is the key to a mysterious murder...Phyllis Dorothy James went down in the history of the British detective as a master of major literary forms and, above all, as the creator of a magnificent series of novels, well known to Russian readers, about the adventures of an intellectual from Scotland Yard, the brilliant detective Adam Dalgliesh. However, now she appears before the reader as the author of wonderful detective stories - deeply psychological, full of humor, laconic, with thoughtful intrigue and a spectacular, unexpected ending.