The review analyzes a monograph “Criminal plot in the Russian literature” (Moscow: Prospekt, 2021, 640 p.), written by Anatoly V. Naumov, a lawyer and outstanding researcher in the field of criminal law. In the reviewed book the scientist makes an attempt to explain the phenomenon of “criminal” through the disclosure of related criminal, criminological, philosophical and other basic problems, through the prism of a detailed study of a huge number of criminal plots contained in the works of the great Russian literature. In the context of such a study, the author refers to the works of more than 80 writers of Russian Empire, Soviet Union and of the contemporary Russia.