Alexandra Marinina russian: Алекса́ндра Мари́нина (born June 16, 1957, real name Marina Anatolyevna Alekseyeva russian: Мари́на Анато́льевна Алексе́ева) is a Russian writer of

detective stories A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

Biography

Marinina was born in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

to a family of lawyers. She lived in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

until 1971 and has lived in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

since then. She received a degree in law from the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1979. From 1979 to 1998 she worked in research and education units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). She studied the personality of criminals with anomalies of mentality and criminals who have committed repeated violent crimes, earning a Ph.D. (

Kandidat Candidate of Sciences (russian: кандидат наук, translit=kandidat nauk) is the first of two doctoral level scientific degrees in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is formally classified as UNESCO's ISCED level 8, "do ...

of Law degree) in 1986. She resigned from the police ''

militsiya ''Militsiya'' ( rus, милиция, , mʲɪˈlʲitsɨjə) was the name of the police forces in the Soviet Union (until 1991) and in several Eastern Bloc countries (1945–1992), as well as in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia (1945–1992). The ...

'' system (a semi-formal term for the set of MVD organizations) in February, 1998 to become a full-time writer. Before her resignation, she had the rank of the

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

in the police. Marinina started writing in 1991, when, together with her colleague Alexander Gorkin, she wrote a detective story that was published in magazine ''

Militsiya ''Militsiya'' ( rus, милиция, , mʲɪˈlʲitsɨjə) was the name of the police forces in the Soviet Union (until 1991) and in several Eastern Bloc countries (1945–1992), as well as in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia (1945–1992). The ...

''. In December 1992, she finished her first novel ''Confluence of Circumstances'', which was also published in ''Militsiya'' magazine, in 1993. She has written over 50 novels, published in over 17 million copies and translated into over 20 languages. Most of her novels have a common central character Anastasia (Nastya) Kamenskaya. The

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

'' Kamenskaya'', based on eight of Marinina's novels, was shown on national Russian TV, and also in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, Ukraine, Poland, Germany and France. Marinina has received several awards. In 1995 Marinina received the prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the best book about the work of the Russian militsiya, for the books ''Death for the Sake of Death'' and ''Away Game''. She was recognized as "The Writer of Year" by the 1998 Moscow International Book Fair, based on the sales of the books in 1997, and received an award from ''

Ogonyok ''Ogoniok'' ( rus, Огонёк, t=Spark, p=ɐɡɐˈnʲɵk, a=Ru-огонёк.ogg; pre-reform orthography: ''Огонекъ'') was one of the oldest weekly illustrated magazines in Russia. History and profile ''Ogoniok'' has issued since . I ...

'' magazine for "Success of the Year" in 1998.

References

External links

Official siteAlexandra Marinina at the Forbes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marinina, Alexandra 1957 births Living people Writers from Saint Petersburg Russian women novelists Russian crime fiction writers Moscow State University alumni Women mystery writers