Detective in a Chicken Skin

Detective in a Chicken Skin is a science fiction detective novella by the Russian writer Kir Bulychev (also translated as Kir Bulychov), originally published in Russian as V kurinoy shkure in 1994 and belonging to his Galactic Police Cora series. The protagonist, Cora Orvat, is a female detective of the interstellar criminal police organization, assigned to the little-known asteroid Kirli to investigate the murder of Professor Galieni, an archaeologist from the planet Kossero. But as soon as Cora arrives, the space station is violently blown up; when she wakes from unconsciousness, she finds her body destroyed in the accident and her consciousness temporarily housed in an alien body shaped like a giant hen. So this female agent, accustomed to chasing criminals with a gun, must continue the investigation in a chicken skin, amid others' surprise and contempt: the clues point to the professor's research, the local archaeological site, and undercurrents around a development plan; the killer seems to be right beside her, and the hen's appearance both brings trouble and becomes the best disguise. The work blends space opera, locked-room mystery, and absurd humor, using identity dislocation to create both comedy and suspense. The Chinese translation is included in The Case of the Missing Flying Dragon (Galactic Police Science Fiction Detective Series, volume 3), published by China Workers Publishing House in 2001, bound together with The Time Killer and The Case of the Missing Flying Dragon; it is one of the earlier systematic translations of Bulychev's work in the Chinese-speaking world.