A Gentle Axe: St Petersburg Mystery

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

St Petersburg. Winter. 1867. Two frozen bodies are found in an isolated corner of Petrovsky Park. The first - that of a dwarf - has been packed neatly in a suitcase, a deep wound splitting his skull in two. The second body, of a burly peasant, is hanging from a nearby tree, a bloody axe tucked into his belt. The detective Porfiry Petrovich, in his first murder case since Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, suspects the truth may be more complex than others wish him to believe. His investigation leads him from the squalid tenements, brothels and drinking dens of the city's Haymarket district to an altogether more genteel stratum of society. Atmospheric and tense from its dramatic opening to its shocking climax.

Reviews

"'Vivid and convincing... keeps the reader guessing until the end.' Independent"

Author Bio

Born in Manchester in 1960. R.N. Morris now lives in North London with his family. He read Classics at Cambridge University. One of his stories, The Devil's Drum, has been turned into a one-act opera, which was performed recently in London. Another, Revenants, was published as a comic book.