The Guardian has an excellent profile on Russian novelist Boris Akunin.  I’ve read read several of Akunin’s Erast Fandorin detective novels and they are wonderfully entertaining.  Check out this post that I wrote about his book The Turkish Gambit and the series thus far.  Then go read some Boris Akunin novels.  They’re good fun.

Meanwhile, over at Maud Newton’s blog, Kevin Kinsella interviews Russo-American first-time novelist Anya Ulinich about her new novel Petropolis.  Be forewarned (and Maud does warn you) that you will feel the need to sprint out the door to pick up her novel.