"The Scent of Blood" is a fascinating novel about the investigations of the St. Petersburg police detective Rodion Vanzarov and his criminalist friend Apollo Lebedev. These two are inseparable — like the famous Sherlock and Watson. Vanzarov is young and hot, Lebedev is an experienced cynic who is always ready to help his young colleague in the most difficult and dangerous situations... A beauty contest — especially in St. Petersburg at the end of the XIX century — is not just a competition among the most irresistible fashionistas, but a tough struggle for power and money. Having tragically died, the father of the family leaves his daughters and his wife a huge fortune — industrial enterprises, famous throughout Russia for their creams, lipsticks, perfumes. Having inherited untold wealth, women begin a dangerous game, the stake in which is eternal youth and youth. What price is Vanzarov willing to pay for interrupting a series of brutal deaths?"Death to husbands." Murder and fashion sometimes go hand in hand. Indomitable collegiate secretary Rodion Vanzarov and his ironic older friend and fellow criminologist Apollo Lebedev investigate a series of mysterious crimes in the northern capital: victims are stabbed to death ... with hat pins! It would seem an elegant decoration, who could have guessed to use it as a cold weapon of retribution?