List of works by Alexandra Marinina. Alexandra Marinina - biography, information, personal life

Alexandra Marinina

All wrong

They say there are people who like to go to funerals. I’m not one of them, maybe I’m not yet at the right age to like such events, or maybe my character is not suitable for this business. And in general, I am not sure of the veracity of the information about the existence of such people. Personally, I don’t find anything good or even interesting in funerals, and yet, despite my relative youth, I have seen off many people on their last journey: few young athletes manage to make sport their profession for many happy years, but there are countless of those who gives his pumped up muscles and skills acquired in sections to security services for good money or to crime for even more money. So we bury it.

But today's funeral, to which I showed up, as expected, in black jeans and a black turtleneck, holding an armful of fluffy multi-colored asters in my hands, was different. Solid, calm, crowded. And what is most curious is that there was not a single hysterical cry, no one who would break into sobs, clutch his heart or lose consciousness, as often happens when someone suddenly dies, whose death no one thought about and whose unexpected departure plunges loved ones into shock . No, I didn’t observe the slightest sign of shock. And it was strange.

However, no, I won’t lie. Just two days ago, I was interrogated for a long time and tediously by an investigator, because the results of the autopsy showed absolutely unambiguously: death was the result of poisoning, or rather, cardiac arrest caused by a huge dose of a cardiac drug prescribed to one of the family members. And not even to the one who eventually died. You can mistakenly take the wrong pill, but one, and not a couple of dozen, moreover, dissolved in a large mug of tea. These are the pies...

I was one of the first to arrive at the ritual hall and sat in the car, watching those arriving. About five minutes after me, a sparkling car, fresh from the car wash, appeared, from which, to my great amazement, Igor, the district police officer who served the microdistrict in which the Rudenko family lived, got out. I met Igor a long time ago, when I had just started working for Rudenko, I liked him, and we even drank beer a couple of times at a nearby eatery and chatted about all sorts of nonsense, and I, of course, noticed that his outfit was discreet, but signature, however, it never occurred to me that he drove such a car. However, perhaps the car was not his, he just took it from someone to get to the ritual hall, located quite far from the center.

Igor noticed me, came up and sat down next to me in the front seat.

“Great,” I nodded, “came to show respect and express condolences?”

“The investigator told me to be there,” he answered gloomily. - Observe. Well, you understand, death is criminal. Opera will also catch up now. Pasha, do you know the order?

I nodded again. I remember how many of these funerals there were...

– You will go with the first group, with your loved ones.

I looked at the district police officer in surprise. At the farewell ceremony, first the closest ones are invited to the hall where the coffin is installed, in other words, family members, they are given the opportunity to be alone with the deceased, to cry, and only then, ten to fifteen minutes later, when the first wave of hysterics has passed, they let everyone else in , after which the actual civil memorial service or funeral begins, it depends on who it is. I am not a member of the Rudenko family, and if it is possible to classify me as close, it is a very big stretch. Who am I to them? Hired employee.

“Inconvenient,” I said doubtfully.

“I understand,” there was unexpected softness in Igor’s voice, “I understand everything, Pasha, but I’m asking you. Please. It’s not at all safe for me or the wanted officers to go with my loved ones, but there should be prying eyes. Necessarily. The killer is one of those who will go with the first group, with their relatives. And it is very important to know who stood where, how they behaved, how they looked, who was talking to whom, who was crying, and who was just pretending to grieve. Well, Pash?

I was silent, staring at the dashboard.

“You understand,” Igor continued insistently, “the first moment when they see the open coffin is the most poignant, it always happens.” Most of them only saw a person alive and well, then he is taken away by an ambulance, then they report that he has died, and then they see him already dead in a coffin. This is an incredible shock. At this moment people have poor self-control, do not think well, and very often something comes out that they would like to hide. Well? Can you help?

In general, he persuaded me.

And here I am standing in a small beautiful hall, in the center of which stands an open coffin, and watching those present, hiding my eyes behind dark glasses. Everyone here is wearing glasses, every single one of them, except for the youngest, six-year-old Kostya, and you know, either the person is covering his eyelids that are red and swollen from tears, or he wants to hide a dry, indifferent or full of gloating look.

Which one is the killer? Who? But it’s definitely one of them, because there’s no one else.

Could I have known two years ago, when I came to work for Rudenko, that everything would end like this?

When I was still a boy, my mother constantly insisted that I needed to be smarter, more cunning, more careful, that with my battering ram straightforwardness, which I naively considered honesty, I would only suffer, but it would still be of no use. Apparently, Mom was right, but to appreciate this, I needed to live for almost thirty years, get bruises and bumps, win some prizes and medals, coupled with the title of international master of sports, teeter on the brink of disability and, in the end, to be left without work and without housing. Or rather, there was still housing, but very conditional, but there was no work at all. No. The condition of my shelter was that, gritting my teeth, I was allowed to live in it for free, but for a very short time.

Like many young people, I made, more than once, a typical mistake: I believed that “it will always be like this.” There will always be youth, strength, health, physical condition, sports success, there will always be work and money, and love will always be there too. Moreover, the objects of love itself change periodically, but still, every time there is a firm conviction that it will never end.

I was a fool, and I paid for it. No, not a fool - an idiot, and a fantastic one at that. Probably, I was just lucky in that area called personal life, and each subsequent passion arose on my way at a time when I had not yet parted with the previous one, so the problem of housing somehow did not hang over me: I simply moved with one apartment belonging to the lady of my heart, to another, the owner of which became my new lover. And why the hell did I think it would always be like this?

Date of Birth: 16.06.1957

Alexandra Marinina (real name - Alekseeva Marina Anatolyevna) was born in Lvov, spent her childhood (until 1971) in Leningrad, and since 1971 she has lived and worked in Moscow. She studied at an English special school (in Leningrad - N 183, in Moscow - NN 17 and 9), then at the Leningrad Music School named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1974, Marina entered the Faculty of Law at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. After graduating from university, she went to work as a laboratory assistant at the Academy of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1980, she was appointed to the position of research assistant and received the rank of police lieutenant. At the Academy she studied the personality of a criminal with mental anomalies, as well as a criminal who committed repeated violent crimes. Marina is a candidate of legal sciences; in 1986 she defended her dissertation on the topic: “The personality of a person convicted of violent crimes and the prevention of special recidivism.” Since 1987, she has been involved in crime analysis and forecasting and is the author of more than 30 scientific papers.

In 1991, in collaboration with her colleague Alexander Gorkin, Marina wrote the detective story “The Six-Winged Seraph”, which was published in the magazine “Police”. At the same time, the pseudonym “Alexandra Marinina” appeared, made up of the names of co-authors. The next book was written by Marina independently and in 1993 was published in the same magazine. It was in the story “Coincidence of Circumstances” that the central heroine of Alexandra Marinina’s books first appeared - detective of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department Anastasia Kamenskaya. The writer’s books quickly gained popularity and in 1995 Marinina was approached by the EKSMO publishing house with a proposal to publish her works in the “Black Cat” series. In 1998, Alexandra Marinina became the laureate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs award for the best work about the work of the Russian police (for the books “Death for the sake of death” and “Playing on someone else’s field”). At the Moscow International Book Fair, A. Marinina was recognized as “Writer of the Year” as the author whose books sold the largest number of copies in 1997. In the same 1998, A. Marinina became a laureate of the Ogonyok magazine award in the “Success of the Year” category. After this, the writer retired with the rank of police lieutenant colonel and devoted herself entirely to writing. In 1999, Marinina’s works were first filmed (the TV series “Kamenskaya”), this film adaptation marked the beginning of a whole series of television series based on the writer’s works. Alexandra Marinina collects bells and enjoys flamenco dancing and clay pigeon shooting. From music he prefers operas by Verdi, and from cinema - melodramas and psychological detective stories.

The magazine “Cult of Personalities” (No. 1, 1998) named Marina Alekseeva among the 25 most influential people in the country, noting that “huge editions of detective stories by Alexandra Marinina (M.A. Alekseeva) are sold out instantly - which actually makes her ruler of millions of minds. And she unobtrusively introduces into them the ideas of democracy, moderate feminism and corruption of power.”

In 2003, Marina Alekseeva officially registered her literary pseudonym as a trademark, along with the trademarks “Kamenskaya” and “Nastya Kamenskaya”. According to Marinina, this was not done with the goal of releasing any goods under these brands, but quite the opposite - to prevent such use of invented characters.

Writer's Awards

Prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the best work about the work of the Russian police (1998) for the books “Death for the sake of death” and “Game on a foreign field”
Prize of the Moscow International Book Fair in the category “Writer of the Year” (1998)
Ogonyok magazine award in the “Success of the Year” category (1998)
National Award for Public Recognition "Olympia" (2005)
Writer of the Decade Award (2006)
in the category “Best Prose Work” (2010) for the book “Hell”

Bibliography

Series "Kamenskaya"
(1993)
(1994)
(1995)
(1995)
(1995)
(1995)
(1995)
(1995)
(1996)
(1996)
(1996)
(1996)
(1996)
(1997)
(1997)
(1997)
(1997)
(1998)
(1998)
(1999)
(2000)
(2002)
(2003)
(2004)
(2004)
(2006) (Kamenskaya and Doroshin)

Alexandra Marinina is a popular Russian author of works in the detective genre. Readers often associate her with her heroine. Perhaps because, in chronological order, Marinina’s books cover an impressive period in the biography of Anastasia Kamenskaya, the main character in the work of this author.

The beginning of creativity

Marinina's books first appeared on bookstore shelves in the nineties. Even a person who is not familiar with the work of this author knows some facts from her biography. Alexandra Marinina is a former police officer. She wrote many books. Most of them were filmed. But in chronological order, Marinina’s books begin with a story that is not known to many.

This work is called “The Six-Winged Seraphim.” The book appeared, as often happens, completely by accident. Police officer Maria Alekseeva (that is the actual name of the heroine of this article) in collaboration with her colleague was supposed to write on the topic of drug trafficking. The work of fiction seemed much more interesting to the future writer. And as a result, a story was born, which could not be published separately in the early nineties. "The Six-Winged Seraph" was published in the magazine "Police". Alekseeva signed her story with a pseudonym, which is now known throughout the country.

Anastasia Kamenskaya

This heroine became for Marinina what it was for Agatha Christie. Although the author herself believes that such a comparison is inappropriate. After all, the little Belgian remained in the same age category throughout the entire creative career of the English writer. In chronological order, Marinina's books, starting in 1995, are a biography of Anastasia Kamenskaya. The blonde, who has an analytical mind and speaks several foreign languages, became so popular among readers and then among television viewers that even Elena Yakovleva, who played the main role in the series based on the works of Marinina, is associated by many primarily with the famous film character. But this actress has played many other wonderful roles.

Biography of Kamenskaya

Listing Marinina’s books in chronological order, we should name the author’s second work. “Coincidence of Circumstances” - this is exactly the name given to Alekseeva’s first separate publication. Major Kamenskaya appeared in this book. On the pages of Marinina's early works she is depicted at the age of thirty-two. But it is the book “Coincidence of Circumstances” that opens the “Kamenskaya” series. In recent publications, the heroine is much older. The main character of the author of the most popular detective genre is about fifty.

Anastasia Kamenskaya was born and lives in Moscow. She is married. The prototype of her husband is the writer’s husband. As a child, Kamenskaya graduated from school with a mathematical focus. But she preferred a legal education to the exact sciences, and then the work of an investigator. Marinina's heroine is an extremely educated lady, she speaks five Romance languages, which allows her to engage in literary translation in her free time.

Sometimes, which happens, however, quite rarely, she spends her vacation in a sanatorium near Moscow. During one of these health trips, a murder occurred at a preventive center, which Kamenskaya, of course, immediately began to investigate. “Game on a foreign field” is the name of book number three in the list of “Books by Alexandra Marinina in chronological order.”

"Stolen Dream"

This book tells the story of how a girl once heard an interesting story on the radio. And most importantly - familiar. The story captured the heroine's attention. She was sure that she was directly related to the plot of the radio play. Therefore, I shared my impressions with one of my friends. A few days later the girl died...

It is worth saying that not all of Alexandra Marinina’s books, the list of which is presented in this article, are devoted to the investigation of murders. And not all of them feature Anastasia Kamenskaya as the main character. But “The Stolen Dream” is the fourth work from the list of “Marinina’s Books in Chronological Order.” The “Queen of Detective” series includes other creations of this writer, in which the main character invariably is Anastasia Kamenskaya.

"The Reluctant Killer"

Continuing to outline the biography of the famous heroine, it should be said that she has a half-brother with whom she has a special relationship. His name is Alexey. He makes good money, but is extremely cold and pragmatic. One day Alexey turns to his sister for help. Kamenskaya promises to help, after which events occur that the author narrates in the work “Reluctant Murder.”

It should be said that almost all of Alexandra Marinina’s books, the list of which is quite extensive, have similar plot lines and have common characters. Dasha is Alexei's wife. Subsequently, this girl will appear more than once in the writer’s works. Not only Kamenskaya’s biography, but also events from the lives of other characters are presented in Alexandra Marinina’s books in chronological order.

The list can be continued with a work that talks about immoral and anti-human experiences.

"Death for Death's Sake"

At one of the research institutes, experiments were carried out on the human psyche. The victims of these studies had no idea that they were “guinea pigs.” And only Anastasia Pavlovna noticed that in one of the districts of the city crimes were becoming more frequent on certain days. The police major exposed the attackers. However, the investigation of this case was not without victims.

Continuing to list all of Alexandra Marinina’s books in chronological order, we will not outline the contents of each of them, but we will name the following several works:

• "Sixes die first";
• "Death and a Little Love";
• "Black list";
• "Posthumous image";
• “You have to pay for everything”;
• "Alien Mask";
• “Don’t disturb the executioner”;
• "Stylist";
• "The Illusion of Sin";
• "The Bright Face of Death";
• “The name of the victim is Nobody”;
• "Men's Games";
• "I died yesterday";
• "Requiem";
• "The Phantom of Music";
• "The Seventh Victim";
• "When the Gods Laugh";
• "Unlocked door."

Features of Marinina's prose

If you read all of Alexandra Marinina’s books in chronological order (the list in this article will be presented in full), you will notice features that become more and more obvious with each subsequent work. This author pays a lot of attention to the psychological analysis of the hero. There are often digressions that have a somewhat philosophical overtone. Perhaps this is why among Marinina’s later works there are books that do not belong to the detective genre. But before we begin to describe them, we should complete the list from the “Kamenskaya” series. So, the list of “Marinina’s Books in chronological order”:

• "The Law of Three Negations";
• "Co-authors";
• "Howling Dogs of Loneliness";
• "Life after life";
• "Personal motives";
• "Angels cannot survive on ice";
• "Execution without malice."

"Every man for himself"

In this work, the reader will not meet Anastasia Kamenskaya and other familiar characters. The book talks about a woman who was forced to leave her hometown and come to Moscow. In the capital, she ended up as a nurse in the house of an elderly general. Needless to say, it was this general’s family that was involved in the crime? But the center of this book is not a murder, but the fate of a woman who was left alone in a strange big city as a result of the betrayal of her only loved one.

"He who knows"

This book is the first of those that do not belong to any series and differ significantly from previous works. The novel “He Who Knows” seemed to open a new period in Marinina’s work. This book is about the fate of a woman who survived the death of her little daughter, raised someone else’s, became one of the best documentary directors, and at the same time kept a heavy, burning secret in her soul for many years.

"Feeling of Ice"

Marinina’s later works include works that can hardly be called detective stories. Events in the novel “The Sense of Ice” begin to develop in the seventies. The work covers a significant period in the life of the main characters - about thirty years.

Marinina’s books contain not only a twisted plot. They are also interesting to read because this author knows how to create a picture in which the destinies of different people are intertwined in a bizarre way. The latest books, perhaps, are not devoid of elements of the epic genre.

"All wrong"

This book is a continuation of the work described above. The storyline here is loosely intertwined with the events discussed in the novel “The Sense of Ice.” But on the pages of the book “Everything is Wrong” the reader encounters characters familiar from the previous work.

One day, a young athlete is offered a job, which he is ready to refuse, almost without thinking. The main character of this book must cope with a difficult task - he must make sure that the employer’s daughter gets rid of extra pounds. An ambitious athlete, who has many prizes and awards under his belt, is prevented from refusing such work only by financial difficulties. But six months later, he realizes that the efforts he has made in recent months are incomparable to any sporting achievements. Besides, this book is not without crime...

"View from Eternity"

It’s impossible to say for sure which of Alexandra Marinina’s books is the best. At the very least, any point of view will be subjective. But the trilogy “View from Eternity” is perhaps the most profound work of this author. As in the two previous cases, the reader experiences a considerable period of time together with the characters. At the beginning of the novel, the main character is in her teens. At the end, the last hours of her life are described. During her life she experiences many small sorrows and joys. And one huge grief is the death of his son. She does not share this pain with her family, but experiences it alone.

Reading the book “A View from Eternity,” you feel the fleeting nature of life. A person comes into this world with nothing. And he leaves, despite the storm of feelings, experiences, emotions and suffering, completely alone. Only memory remains.

Marinina Alexandra (Alekseeva Marina Anatolyevna)- born on June 16, 1957 in Lvov, lived in Leningrad until 1971, and since 1971 in Moscow. She studied at an English special school (in Leningrad - N 183, in Moscow - NN 17 and 9), at the Leningrad Music School named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov.
In 1979, she graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and was assigned to the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. She began her career as a laboratory assistant, in 1980 she was appointed to the position of research assistant, and received the rank of police lieutenant. She studied the personality of a criminal with mental anomalies, as well as a criminal who committed repeated violent crimes. In 1986 she defended her thesis on the topic: “The personality of a person convicted of violent crimes and the prevention of special recidivism.”
Since 1987, she has been involved in crime analysis and forecasting. He has more than 30 scientific works, including the monograph “Crime and Crime Prevention in Moscow”, published by the UN Rome Interregional Institute on Crime and Justice (UNICRI).
In February 1998, she retired with the rank of police lieutenant colonel. In 1991, A. Marinina’s literary activity began.
Since 1992, A. Marinina created a series of detective novels, the main character of which was the detective of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, Anastasia Kamenskaya. In addition, she wrote numerous prose works in different genres, the most significant of which (for the author) is the family saga “He Who Knows,” as well as several plays. Since 1998, A. Marinina’s works have been translated and published in more than 25 countries around the world.
In 1995, Marinina was awarded the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs prize for the best work about the work of the Russian police (for the books “Death for Death’s Sake” and “Playing on a Foreign Field”). In 1998, at the Moscow International Book Fair, A. Marinina was recognized as “Writer of the Year” as the author whose books sold the largest number of copies in 1997. In 2006 she was awarded the Writer of the Decade award. In 1998, A. Marinina became a laureate of the Ogonyok magazine award in the “Success of the Year” category.
The magazine “Cult of Personalities” (No. 1, 1998) named Marina Alekseeva among the 25 most influential people in the country, noting that “huge editions of detective stories by Alexandra Marinina (M.A. Alekseeva) are sold out instantly - which actually makes her ruler of millions of minds. And she unobtrusively introduces into them the ideas of democracy, moderate feminism and corruption of power.” Among numerous awards and prizes, A. Marinina was awarded the Olympia national prize of public recognition in 2005, as a woman whose literary work has become a striking event in Russian culture.
Hobbies and passions
Hobbies: A. Marinina collects bells and enjoys flamenco dancing and clay pigeon shooting.
Music: operas by Verdi.
Cinema: melodramas and psychological detective stories.
In his free time: playing solitaire on the computer, putting together puzzles.