The Alibi of St. Petersburg – A Novel by Olga Sverchkova
Some cases end only on paper.
Twenty-two years ago, defence lawyer Olga Vorontsova helped a man avoid conviction for murder. She had long since stopped thinking about the case. Then one message arrived: “You saved a murderer.” And suddenly, the old case was no longer in the past.
The Alibi of St. Petersburg is a literary thriller about a lawyer who returns to a twenty-two-year-old murder case and discovers that the testimony, the timeline, the evidence and people’s memories no longer quite fit together.
What Is The Alibi of St. Petersburg About?
An old case. One man who walked free. And a question nobody asked for twenty-two years.
In 2004, Marina Lebedeva was found murdered in St. Petersburg. The investigators had a suspect, evidence and a theory of what had happened.
His lawyer, Olga Vorontsova, had doubts.
She did her job. The case ended. Twenty-two years passed.
Then a message sends Olga back to the old files, where she begins to see what everyone missed the first time. The timeline does not quite work. Memories have changed. Details once dismissed as insignificant suddenly matter.
And gradually, the question changes.
It is no longer simply:
Who killed Marina Lebedeva?
It is:
What really happened that night, and why did someone need everyone to believe a different version for twenty-two years?
Read The Alibi of St. Petersburg for Free
The first three chapters are available now. No registration required.
Chapter One. The Last Day
On the last day of her legal career, one old case refuses to stay in the past.
Chapter Two. Marina
Two coffee cups, a missing blue folder, and a crime scene that was not quite what it seemed.
Chapter Three. Gromov
Twenty-two years later, the man she once defended has only one thing to say: she is late.
“You Saved a Murderer.”
You can win a case and still be wrong.
You can remember something from twenty-two years ago with absolute certainty and remember it incorrectly.
A criminal case can be closed.
The past is under no obligation to stay that way.
And This Is Only the Beginning
New chapters will be published here as the novel is completed.
The old case is open again. The questions are multiplying, and details that seemed insignificant twenty-two years ago are beginning to suggest a very different version of what happened.
Novel Details
What You’ll Find Inside
A case in which every new detail changes the meaning of the one before it.
An old blue case file.
Two cups where there should have been one.
Cigarettes in the flat of a woman who did not smoke.
A witness whose memories sound slightly different twenty-two years later.
An investigator who knows more than the official file reveals.
A photograph that may contain something nobody noticed in 2004.
And a few minutes between 9:47 and 9:53 p.m. that may change everything.
About the Author
The Lawyer Behind The Alibi of St. Petersburg
My name is Olga Sverchkova. I am a writer and lawyer, and I spent more than twenty years practising law in St. Petersburg. Working as a lawyer taught me that what is written in a case file and what actually happened are not always quite the same thing. It also taught me to pay attention to the details people dismiss too quickly: a change in a statement, an unnecessary explanation, a time that does not quite fit the timeline, or something apparently insignificant that changes the meaning of everything around it. The Alibi of St. Petersburg is fiction. Its characters and events are invented. But the professional world behind the story – the case files, interviews, expert evidence, courtroom strategy and that particular moment when one small detail forces a lawyer to reconsider an entire case – is grounded in more than twenty years of legal practice. I am also the author of Nobody Told Me About Tbilisi and a recipient of the Golden Pen of Russia award for my legal writing.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the novel, the three free chapters and the story behind the case.
The Alibi of St. Petersburg by Olga Sverchkova is a literary thriller about a defence lawyer who returns to a twenty-two-year-old murder case after receiving a message: “You saved a murderer.”
No. The characters and plot are fictional. The professional legal world of the novel, however, draws on Olga Sverchkova’s more than twenty years of experience practising law.
The novel is set primarily in St. Petersburg and connects a murder case from 2004 with events in 2026.
Yes. The first three chapters are available to read for free on this website, with no registration required.
Not yet. The novel is a work in progress. The first three chapters are already available to read on this website.
Contact the Author
Questions about the book, reviews, interviews, or collaborations? You can reach me directly.