The famous Russian prose writer and playwright Roman Lukich Antropov was known to readers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries under the pseudonym Roman Dobry. The main character of his detective stories is detective Ivan Dmitrievich Putilin, the former head of the St. Petersburg detective police, whom his contemporaries called the Russian Sherlock Holmes. Each story is a true story of a crime. While working on this book, the author relied on the memoirs of Putilin himself. The genius of Russian detectives knew how to unravel the most complex criminal cases. His extraordinary powers of observation and instinct were combined with composure and a brilliant sense of humor. During his investigations, many incidents happened, and the ending was always unpredictable.