Alexandra Marinina is a famous Russian writer, author of detective novels. Her most famous character is the intelligent and thinking detective Anastasia Kamenskaya, whose adventures were repeatedly filmed. From other detective authors, the heroine of our article compares favorably with the absence of ideal heroes in her books, with subtle psychologism. It is interesting that, as a rule, the capture of the criminal does not become the center of the novel, the writer is much more interested in exploring human relations. Currently, her works are translated in forty countries of the world into 28 languages.
Childhood and youth
Alexandra Marinina was born in Lviv in the territory of modern Ukraine in 1957. We note right away that the name by which we know it is a literary pseudonym. In fact, her name is Marina A. Alekseeva.
The biography of Alexandra Marinina is directly related to the service in law enforcement. Her grandfather and dad, who was an employee of the criminal investigation department, worked there. In particular, the father of the heroine of our article specialized in the disclosure of museum and apartment thefts. The mother of the writer was also not far from jurisprudence, since she taught her at the university.
Alexandra Marinina's childhood passed in Leningrad, after her father was transferred to the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department.
Education
The future writer graduated from a special school with in-depth study of the English language, at the same time she learned to play musical instruments. It is interesting that in childhood Alexandra Marinina wanted to become a film expert, but the legal environment played a decisive role.
In 1979, she became a student at the Law Faculty of Moscow State University. Having successfully graduated from a university, it falls into the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in distribution. There she goes the way from an ordinary laboratory assistant to a senior researcher, even defends her thesis.
In the mid-90s, the heroine of our article works on the basis of the Moscow Law Institute, which has now received the status of an academy. In 1998, she officially retired with the rank of police lieutenant colonel. Moreover, she never worked “in the fields”, but was engaged in analytics, criminology, forecasting, and studied the identities of criminals.
Creative debut
The heroine of our article began to engage in literary work during her vacation in 1991. Over time, she became so successful that the circulation of her works broke all conceivable records.
Her creative debut was a story entitled "Six-winged Seraphim", which was published in the specialized magazine "Police", which was published by the Ministry of the Interior.
Soon this was followed by the first novel of the writer, “Confluence of circumstances”, in which she spoke about the current state of law enforcement agencies, and talked about further ways of developing the system.
Her next work was called "The Stolen Dream." However, the magazine refused to print it, as the author exceeded the established volume. Perhaps Marinina’s enthusiasm would have come to naught if the very first issue of the magazine had not fallen into the hands of a large and respected publisher. They invited the writer to print her first book. As a result, her former boss became a literary agent, and the writer set up her own website on the Internet to communicate directly with fans.
Features of the works
Readers and critics note that in her books, Alexander Marinina never describes cases from her own practice, does not use specific and often secret official information.
At the same time, she admits that she is openly flattered when prosecutors or judges note how accurately and professionally her characters act, in this regard she manages to achieve maximum realism.
In fact, which really had a place to be, only one detective novel of the writer, entitled "The Illusion of Sin," is based. And even then this is not a case from her practice, but a story described in detail by journalists in the newspaper.
Anastasia Kamenskaya
The main character of most of Marinina’s works is police colonel, analyst and operations officer Anastasia Kamenskaya. According to the author, she has a lot of her personal features, almost 90 percent Kamenskaya was written off from herself.
This heroine over the years has been loved by many millions of readers. Especially after Marinina’s novels were filmed. On the TV screen, the image of the detective was brought to life by the national artist of Russia Elena Yakovleva.
For the first time Kamenskaya appears in the novel "Confluence of circumstances". She then becomes the key characters in a series of books that have been filmed. This is the "Black List", "Involuntarily Assassin", "Requiem", "Do not disturb the executioner." The series was constantly replenished with new works.
Many of Marinina’s texts attracted the attention of specialists. So, the novel "Involuntarily Killing" was used in studies on the development and trends in modern Russian prose, and for the book "Death for the sake of death" she received an award from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The book was dedicated to mysterious murders at a research institute.
District Doroshin
At the beginning of 2000, the district police officer Doroshin replaced Kamenskaya. According to Marinina herself, she just got bored.
Doroshin becomes the protagonist of a series of books entitled Crimes of a Right Life. These include the novels "Everything is Wrong", "Sense of Ice", "Replacing the Object." By the way, because of the last book on this list, Marinina even had a conflict with the metropolitan administration of internal affairs, as professional law enforcement agencies saw official misconduct in Doroshin’s actions and presented reasonable claims to the author.
The novel "Sense of Ice" tells the story of two brothers who are trying to shield each other after a perfect murder. Literary critics noted that with this book the author tried not only to talk about the crime, but also to speak about the stereotypical thinking that is often found in the modern world.
"A look from eternity"
In 2000, the heroine of our article became a well-known writer, photos of Alexandra Marinina are constantly published in the media. In 2009-2010, she released a new series of works "A look from eternity." It includes three detective novels, which are strikingly different from all her previous works.
The final part of this Hell trilogy even receives the Electronic Letter Award as the best Russian prose work of the year.
The Dialogue "Personal Motives" receives the second prize of the same competition as the best bestseller and detective in 2011. Marinina herself is recognized as the leader in sales in the country among all writers.
It should be noted that she finally decided not to give up the image of Kamenskaya, from time to time returning to her. However, in the detective "Life after Life" sends the heroine to retire with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The book “The Battle of the Tigers in the Valley” becomes a real bestseller of 2012, and a year later the novel “Last Dawn” is released, which becomes an original combination of philosophical thoughts and fascinating intrigue. A new central character appears here - Anton Stashis.
In 2014, Marinina returns Kamenskaya in the works “Execution without malicious intent” and “Angels on ice do not survive.” In them, she appears already in the role of a private investigator.
In 2016, the reverse force trilogy appears on the shelves of bookstores. In it, the writer describes several generations of the life of one family. This time, Marinina, instead of a detective, offers to readers a psychological saga with reflection on life values. The novel caused mixed and conflicting reviews.
Quest
In 2018, the heroine of our article writes one of her most unusual novels. Called him Alexander Marinin "Bitter Quest." Volume 1 was released on August 25th. In preparation for writing this work, she specially gathered focus groups, which included young people who had never lived in the Soviet Union. She sought to know what they would do if they were in the USSR in the 70s of the last century.
According to the plot of the book, several girls and guys are selected for travel in the 1970s. They fall during developed socialism, read Gorky's plays.
Since the release of the first part, fans have been waiting for the continuation of the novel "Gorky Quest" from Alexandra Marinina. Volume 2 has recently appeared in print.
A family
It is known that in the biography of Alexandra Marinina, personal life plays a big role. Her first husband was a detective, about whom almost nothing is known, except that they worked together.
Her current wife’s name is Sergey Zatochny, he is an assistant professor at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, a police colonel. When they met, he had his own family, as soon as his son was 18 years old, he divorced his wife and went to the writer.
At home, couples live a Persian cat and two St. Bernard. The writer collects bells. Interestingly, her favorite detective works are novels by the writers Camilla Lackberg, Henning Mankell and Yu Nesbe.
A. Marinina and Sergey Zatochny never had their own children.
Such is the biography and personal life of Alexandra Marinina, the heroine of our article.