From Russia With Love

Hi, Djenet Mallani here.  I'm pleased to announce that my Little Black Dress titles have been published in Russian and I had lots of fun working out which was which--unsuccessfully, as it turns out. You can see all three of them here in their old school glory on amazon.

I can read the cyrillic alphabet but if you can't, this is called Prekrasnaya vodova. What I can't do is speak any Russian, other than hello, goodbye, thank you, cup of tea, please. All I need to know in any language, really. This, I believe, since one of the blurbs referred to ledi Elmherst and Nikolasa Kongrivansa has to be A Most Lamentable Comedy. The man and woman are pretty good other than floating in an odd almost heart-shaped bubble, but what is that item behind them? A rolltop desk? A primitive computer? A beehive? You tell me.

So that one was pretty straightforward. Now onto mystery book #1, Schastlivoe nedorazumenie. I believe this is Improper Relations since it has characters called Sharlotta Heiden and vikontom Shadderli. He looks like some sort of eurotrash lounge lizard, she looks like his aunty, and I can't figure out where they are. They seem to be outside but they're on the wrong side of what I assume to be a balcony railing. They're teetering on the outer ledge. Possibly he's threatening to push her off if she doesn't tell him where the drugs are.

But it's this one, Skandalnaia sviaz, which really confuses me. Since it stars the aforementioned Sharlotta Heiden and vikontom Shadderli it seems to be another version of Improper Relations. Why does he have a small woman emerging from his butt?--or is it a disembodied head impaled on the wrought iron thing he's sitting on? It certainly seems to be floating her boat. Is that a lampshade to the left or are they in the fabled Amber Room of the Catharine Palace near St. Petersburg? Thoughts?

So naturally I did a search on the title and came up with this gem:

Eurovision Song Contest participant from Ukraine admitted to sexual relations with a soloist of the group VIA Gra.

Okay.

Also a link to google books and Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading.

I'm confused. Can anyone out there speak Russian? Help?

And I'm guest blogging at Lady Scribes today, talking about the new Dedication and giving away a free download, so please come on over and chat!