Out and About

New Detective Novel from Eva Lanska

On May 20, Russian TV personality Eva Lanska not only released her debut literary effort, Wampum, but invited guests to walk right into the plot of the detective novel. Visitors arriving at Moscow’s The Apartment restaurant were greeted by police cars and ambulances blocking the entrance and soon found themselves crossing into a crime scene. It took the appearance of the author, dressed in a police uniform, to calm the crowd and reassure them that it was all part of the planned event. As part of the spectacle, each guest was given a flashlight and led to a display of photographs of “suspects” before viewing the “corpse” of the “victim,” Russian MTV VJ Archie, allegedly strangled by his own tie. The mock gruesome tenor of the event changed, however, as a press conference about the book and entertainment provided by various singers, including Lanska herself, began. There are plans to release French and English translations, but at the moment the book is available at local bookstores only in Russian.