Maria Dolon

#chernye_delfiny

#black_dolphins Women's thriller. Eksmo Moscow 2018. 318 pages.

Inga Belova is currently researching fraud in connection with the renovation of historical monuments in Moscow. Under the guise of monument protection, valuable buildings are actually being destroyed – because of the valuable properties in the heart of Moscow. Together with her best friend, the photographer Oleg Stein, Inga collects evidence. But then something terrible happens. Because Oleg doesn‘t answer her calls Inga one morning goes to Stein with the housekeeper they share, and they find him hanged in his photo studio.

The shocked Inga refuses to believe that the cheerful and fun-loving Oleg has killed himself. But evidence seems clear. There is a suicide note written by him. One of his friends claims that Oleg had had a severe depression for several years. When she logs into his profile from his computer, Inga discovers the „Black Dolphins“, a secret group in which Oleg was not only an ordinary member, but also one of the moderators. The group‘s member list is updated regularly, posts sometimes appear on the pinboard stating that the next person has „awakened“ (i.e. committed suicide). But without a name. Whoever joins the group gets a number and a new name – in honor of a celebrity who committed suicide. Oleg, for example, was Robin Williams (matching the way of his suicide – strangulation). Inga enters the group with a fake account and starts chatting with the moderator Charon under her avatar name Dalida. But in real Moscow, she rattles out the relatives of those group members who had „awakened“ before Oleg. She notes with horror that Oleg was apparently involved in the „awakening“ of these people. She learns from the relatives that Stein came to see the victims personally shortly before their suicide. In Oleg‘s camera Inga finds photos of these suicides. Inga also finds out that the organizers of the „Black Dolphins“ act out of self-interest: before the suicide, everyone renounces, on Charon‘s orders, all worldly goods and bequeath his entire possessions to allegedly needy people (but in reality – the organizers of the group).

The version of Stein‘s involvement in the criminal activities becomes obsolete when Inga learns that he had a 20-year-old son who also committed suicide three years earlier. He was the second victim of the „Black Dolphins“. It turned out that Stein had secretly decided to do his own research to bring the criminal machi- nations to light. Only for this purpose he had joined the „Black Dolphins“ and was killed when he came too close to them. Based on notes that Oleg did not accidentally leave to Inga, she can uncover Charon‘s true identity. A face-to-face encounter she almost pays with death – the criminal ties her to a chair and forcibly gives her pills to stage a Dalida-style suicide. Inga can barely be rescued by detective Kirill Arkharov. Only with Inga‘s help can Kirill finally close the case of the „Black Dolphins“. She learned from Charon that there is a boss who has thought all this up. It‘s Chernov, the very first suicide who started it all. But he is alive. Inga finds him under a false name with his family at the Black Sea.

And as in the first crime thriller with Inga Belova, the reader is surprised by another unexpected turn in the finale. Inga finds out that the son of her housekeeper Lyusya, who was also Oleg‘s housekeeper, owed Oleg a very large sum of money borrowed for the purchase of an apartment. While cleaning Lyusya had found the rope as well as Oleg‘s suicide note, both actually only prepared by him for his investigations against the „Black Dolphins“. But Lyusya and her son took advantage of it.

The subject of psychological manipulation via social networks makes „Black Dolphins“ highly up-to-date and even more exciting, humanly dramatic and emotionally touching than Volume 1 „Black Shelf“. The mature and sophisticated dialogues – especially in the chats between Inga and the Charon – also contribute to this, making us credibly comprehend how even a strong-willed woman under the influence of a highly intelligent psychopath can reach the edge of suicide.