History Literature / TsarGorokhsDetectiveAgency

* AnachronismStew: The series doesn't appear to try to stick to any historical time period, instead going for a generic "Medieval Russia" feel with some magic thrown in for good measure.

''Tsar Gorokh's Detective Agency'' (''Тайный сыск царя Гороха'', Tainyi sysk tsarya Gorokha) is a series of novels by the Russian fantasy author Creator/AndreiBelyanin. Like all his other works, the series is full of deliberate anachronisms, magic, and humor. The protagonist of the series, Mladshiy Leytenant (Third Lieutenant) Nikita Ivashov, is a modern-day Russian fresh-out-of-the-academy [[UsefulNotes/SpellOurNameWithAPo policeman]]. One day, during field training in an abandoned village, he enters a hut's basement, which someone immediately shuts on him. After getting out, he finds himself in a [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Medieval Russian city called Lukoshkino]] ruled by the strict but just Tsar Gorokh. After explaining who he is to the Tsar, Nikita is asked to head the first Russian detective agency using modern investigative techniques (technically, the wording used for the agency better translates as SecretPolice, but Nikita's job description is exactly what you would expect a police detective to do). Setting up his office in the home of BabaYaga, whom he recruits as an expert on forensics and all things magical (thanks to her criminal past), he is also given a simple-minded village boy named Dmitriy "Mitka" Lobov, as a "junior associate". Being a clear example of both DumbMuscle and MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong (apparently, he bends horseshoes with his bare hands for fun), Mitka frequently creates more problems than he solves. In later books, he is also given a company of Tsar's streltsy (guards) under Sotnik (commander of 100) Foma Yeremeyev to add manpower to the agency.

* WickedWitch: Baba Yaga claims to have killed quite a few heroes in her younger days. Now, she is reformed and lives in the city, after moving out of her traditional "house on chicken legs" home in the woods. In the seventh novel, though, she admits that not all rumors about her are true. Specifically, the ones about her eating children.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Savva Novichkov is a talented painter, who normally works as an iconographer for the church. However, his tastes are a little too avant-garde for the Medieval Russian folk. For example, when he gifts a religious painting to Baba Yaga, she is shocked to see anatomically-correct [[Literature/TheBible Adam and Eve]] portrayed in the nude. When asked to paint portraits of most wanted criminals to be displayed on the gates of the agency, he first paints them as if they were saints. The second attempt results in people running away screaming that the end is nigh, as he paints them as bloodthirsty monsters.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Savva Novichkov is a talented painter, who normally works as an iconographer for the church. However, his tastes are a little too avant-garde for the Medieval Russian folk. For example, when he gifts a religious painting to Baba Yaga, she is shocked to see anatomically-correct [[Literature/TheBible Adam and Eve]] portrayed in the nude. When asked to paint portraits of most wanted criminals to be displayed on the gates of the agency, he first paints them as if they were saints. The second attempt results in people running away screaming, as he paints them as bloodthirsty monsters.

** Mitka gets this in later novels, especially when he's asking for something or apologizing. Nikita notes that he should be receiving Oscars.

* GratuitousGerman: Knut Spizrutenberg and Lidia Karpoffhausen's speech is peppered with German words, although less so in the first case. Being the German ambassador to Russia, Spizrutenberg commands excellent Russian.

** Then there's Baba Yaga's rooster, whose adversarial relationship with Nikita is legendary, stemming from the damn bird calling out every sunrise right under Nikita's window. After a few thrown objects, the rooster has grown to be adept at dodging them and will sometimes jump on the windowsill to scream in Nikita's ear just for kicks. However, it does save Nikita and Baba Yaga's lives in one novel by scaring away Koschei.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Savva Novichkov is a talented painter, who normally works as an iconographer for the church. However, his tastes are a little too avant-garde for the Medieval Russian folk. For example, when he gifts a religious painting to Baba Yaga, she is shocked to see anatomically-correct [[TheBible Adam and Eve]] portrayed in the nude. When asked to paint portraits of most wanted criminals to be displayed on the gates of the agency, he first paints them as if they were saints. The second attempt results in people running away screaming, as he paints them as bloodthirsty monsters.

# ''To Marry and Neutralize'' (2007)

1. ''Tsar Gorokh's Detective Agency'' (1999)

2. ''The Plot of the Black Mass'' (1999)

3. ''The Flying Ship'' (2000)

4. ''Bride Elimination'' (2002)

5. ''The Case of the Sober Buffoons'' (2004)

6. ''Detectives on Vacation'' (2006)

7. ''To Marry and Neutralize'' (2007)

* EyesBeams: In the second novel, Baba Yaga demonstrates that she can do that with deadly preciion.

''Tsar Gorokh's Detective Agency'' is a series of novels by the Russian fantasy author Creator/AndreiBelyanin. Like all his other works, the series is full of deliberate anachronisms, magic, and humor. The protagonist of the series, Mladshiy Leytenant (Third Lieutenant) Nikita Ivashov, is a modern-day Russian fresh-out-of-the-academy [[UsefulNotes/SpellOurNameWithAPo policeman]]. One day, during field training in an abandoned village, he enters a hut's basement, which someone immediately shuts on him. After getting out, he finds himself in a [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Medieval Russian city called Lukoshkino]] ruled by the strict but just Tsar Gorokh. After explaining who he is to the Tsar, Nikita is asked to head the first Russian detective agency using modern investigative techniques (technically, the wording used for the agency better translates as SecretPolice, but Nikita's job description is exactly what you would expect a police detective to do). Setting up his office in the home of BabaYaga, whom he recruits as an expert on forensics and all things magical (thanks to her criminal past), he is also given a simple-minded village boy named Dmitriy "Mitka" Lobov, as a "junior associate". Being a clear example of both DumbMuscle and MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong (apparently, he bends horseshoes with his bare hands for fun), Mitka frequently creates more problems than he solves. In later books, he is also given a company of Tsar's streltsy (guards) under Sotnik (commander of 100) Foma Yeremeyev to add manpower to the agency.

* [[BaseOnWheels House on Legs]]: In the fifth novel, Nikita finds Baba Yaga's old house in the woods. As in the fairy tales it has chicken legs and follows commands. The heroes manage to turn it into a tank of sorts, by loading one of the city wall cannons into it, filling the cannon with salt, and rolling it out when Koschei shows up.