The paper discusses the importance of retrodetective prose in gaining cultural knowledge, and focuses on the problem of the nature of the retro component which may be represented by various realities, like gourmet dishes, elements of clothing, personal names, place names, holidays, etc. Structurally, the article falls into three main parts, each of which focuses on a certain aspect of the problem in the question, namely: 1) brings to the surface the importance of cross-genre studies, and reveals the specificity of the detective genre; 2) describes the retro component as an element that penetrates the whole kind of semiotic spaces, and is conspicuous for being multidimensional and capable of uniting different genres; 3) considers examples of how the urban code of 19 th century Moscow serves to create the retro component. All in all, the article thoroughly considers the advantages of retro-detective prose as a special kind of writing that not only gives pleasure, excites intellect and provides cultural information but links different semiotic.