Evgeny Podgorny

'A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa' unfolds during an interesting era in the history of Eastern Europe when Russia, under Peter the Great, and Sweden, under King Charles XII, struggled for power; the Ukraine was the pawn in the middle. In 1709, Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire, signed a pact with the Swedish king promising to support Sweden in its war against Russia provided that the Ukraine was given its independence.

After avenging the murder of her husband, Polina flees to Odessa where she hopes to hide from her merciless enemies. There she meets a young and charming Gleb and their sympathy begins to grow into something more ... but the mafia’s influence spreads very far, and the criminal group comes to the city to deal with her ‘for good’. Thus, Polina becomes a reason for fights for the territories. To stop this endless criminal saga, Polina is forced to turn from a victim into a hunter which draws her new and, as it turns out, mysterious friends into this dangerous game ...

Boris Krylov is a top-class criminologist. In his work, he uses paradoxical and non-obvious methods that help him unravel even the most complex crimes, for which his colleagues call him a modern Sherlock Holmes. Due to a divorce from his wife, a brilliant detective leaves the police and makes a living as a consultant on the set of detective series. But when his father, a famous surgeon, dies in a car accident, and he himself is seriously injured, Krylov begins his own investigation. My instinct tells me that the accident was planned: before his death, his father tried to tell him something. So Boris returns to his profession and gets a job as an expert in the investigative department, which is headed by Major Anna Voskresenskaya. Anna was once a student of Krylov. Now Krylov and Voskresenskaya will have to work together. While solving crimes, the heroes deal with their past and feelings for each other.