An atmospheric mystery set in St Petersburg in the winter of 1867 sees detective Porfiry Petrovich taking his first murder case since Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. When two frozen bodies are found in a park, he begins to suspect that the truth may be more complex than others wish him to believe, as his investigations lead him to a shocking discovery which reveals the city's darkest secrets. A Gentle Axe is utterly absorbing and tense from its dramatic opening through to its shocking climax.
A Gentle Axe: St Petersburg Mystery (St. Petersburg Mystery)
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"'Vivid and convincing... keeps the reader guessing until the end.' Independent"
Book Description
A riveting, richly-textured historical crime novel inspired by Dostoievsky's classic Crime and Punishment.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are going to steal, steal from the best. And so Morris lifts his detective from no less a novelist than Dostoyevsky, extending the career of Porfiry Petrovich, the investigator from Crime and Punishment (for the less high brow among us, Porfiry also served as the original model for TV's Columbo).
Naturally Crime and Punishment casts a large shadow over Morris's belated sequel, and not just because it takes place after the events in Dostoyevsky's masterpiece. There is an impoverished student reminiscent of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, a resemblance which does not go unnoticed or unremarked by Porfiry. Dour Russian minds are preoccupied by matters of morality, mortality and immortality, or absence thereof, characters living in close proximity are separated by gulfs of class and the intellectual appetites of Imperial Russia allow Orthodox believers to happily publish atheist philosophy
Morris does allow 21st century permissiveness to take him further than even Fyodor would have dared with prostitution and child pornography given more graphic treatment than any Victorian era author would have dared, while the crime Porfiry investigates is more grotesque than the simple bashing of a couple of old women to death with an axe as the body of a murdered dwarf is found packed in a suitcase close to where a burly peasant is hanging from a tree. An obvious case of murder and suicide, Porfiry's bosses decide, and not worth investigating. Porfiry naturally sees more to it than that, but it is only when a minor prince reports the disappearance of an actor friend that he finds another angle from which to pursue his investigation.
Sure, it is never going to join its 140- year old prequel as a cornerstone of world literature, but this is pretty impressive achievement which succeeds on its own terms as a well written literary thriller with loads of chilly Russian atmosphere and even plays fair as a murder mystery.
Porfiry, a cigarette-smoking humane and incisive investigator, will certainly be welcomed back on the bookshelves as a slightly more serious counterpart to Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin. But if we are giving an extended life to detectives who pop up in classic Victorian novels, who come nobody seems to be looking at the daddy of them all, Inspector Bucket from Bleak House? Or is Dickens an even harder act to follow than Dostoyevsky?
credited: Calum Macleod
Naturally Crime and Punishment casts a large shadow over Morris's belated sequel, and not just because it takes place after the events in Dostoyevsky's masterpiece. There is an impoverished student reminiscent of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, a resemblance which does not go unnoticed or unremarked by Porfiry. Dour Russian minds are preoccupied by matters of morality, mortality and immortality, or absence thereof, characters living in close proximity are separated by gulfs of class and the intellectual appetites of Imperial Russia allow Orthodox believers to happily publish atheist philosophy
Morris does allow 21st century permissiveness to take him further than even Fyodor would have dared with prostitution and child pornography given more graphic treatment than any Victorian era author would have dared, while the crime Porfiry investigates is more grotesque than the simple bashing of a couple of old women to death with an axe as the body of a murdered dwarf is found packed in a suitcase close to where a burly peasant is hanging from a tree. An obvious case of murder and suicide, Porfiry's bosses decide, and not worth investigating. Porfiry naturally sees more to it than that, but it is only when a minor prince reports the disappearance of an actor friend that he finds another angle from which to pursue his investigation.
Sure, it is never going to join its 140- year old prequel as a cornerstone of world literature, but this is pretty impressive achievement which succeeds on its own terms as a well written literary thriller with loads of chilly Russian atmosphere and even plays fair as a murder mystery.
Porfiry, a cigarette-smoking humane and incisive investigator, will certainly be welcomed back on the bookshelves as a slightly more serious counterpart to Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin. But if we are giving an extended life to detectives who pop up in classic Victorian novels, who come nobody seems to be looking at the daddy of them all, Inspector Bucket from Bleak House? Or is Dickens an even harder act to follow than Dostoyevsky?
credited: Calum Macleod
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
St. Petersburg 1866. Part buried in a local park is the snow covered body of a dwarf; nearby in a birch tree hangs another body, large and bearded, possibly the criminal perpetrator. On the first body are found a set of obscene playing cards, on the other the axe of the title.
From the outset the examining magistrate Porfiry Petrovich is suspicious of the murder/suicide theory. This character has been "borrowed" from Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT one year earlier and THE GENTLE AXE offers echoes of that Russian classic. Also Porfiry is a fan of the work of Gogol, an actor recites from Gogol's THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR and souls seem to be available for barter (cf. Gorky's DEAD SOULS).
It is the exploration of the atmosphere and life of urban Russia in the C19 that most distinguishes this historical crime novel. Morris moves Porfiry easily and confidently through the various levels of society, as he encounters women of the night, actors, street urchins, publishers, impoverished students, policemen, local officials and even a prince .
The result is a novel that draws on old and new generic features. It is a police procedural describing Porfiry's relationship with superiors and with "junior" colleagues, as well as the medical examiner. But it has a high body count and does not flinch from the blood and gore of crime scenes. Morris writes with flair and precision. This highly successful novel augurs well for the series.
From the outset the examining magistrate Porfiry Petrovich is suspicious of the murder/suicide theory. This character has been "borrowed" from Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT one year earlier and THE GENTLE AXE offers echoes of that Russian classic. Also Porfiry is a fan of the work of Gogol, an actor recites from Gogol's THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR and souls seem to be available for barter (cf. Gorky's DEAD SOULS).
It is the exploration of the atmosphere and life of urban Russia in the C19 that most distinguishes this historical crime novel. Morris moves Porfiry easily and confidently through the various levels of society, as he encounters women of the night, actors, street urchins, publishers, impoverished students, policemen, local officials and even a prince .
The result is a novel that draws on old and new generic features. It is a police procedural describing Porfiry's relationship with superiors and with "junior" colleagues, as well as the medical examiner. But it has a high body count and does not flinch from the blood and gore of crime scenes. Morris writes with flair and precision. This highly successful novel augurs well for the series.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Reader 11
Format:Paperback
I wasn't at all gripped by this story. While the author did a fine job in transporting the reader to 19th century St Petersburg, a great setting wonderfully described can only go so far. I wanted to be involved in the characters' lives, and I wanted to be turning the pages, eager to know what happened next.
There were just too many characters in the murder case, each on stage for too little time (or not at all), to allow the reader to get to know them. I didn't care whodunnit. Even the main character of Porfidy was rather flat - I didn't care about him either.
As for the plot, it plodded on, with clues appearing occasionally, some other anonymous person (yawn) being murdered... And the scene at the end where everything was explained was unintentionally funny, as if it was a comedy sketch - how many ridiculous motives for (and methods of) murder can you think of?
On the plus side, the writing was good, I thought, although in a few places words were used incorrectly, as if the author had misunderstood their meaning - but maybe this was done deliberately, to give an 'in translation' feel.
There were just too many characters in the murder case, each on stage for too little time (or not at all), to allow the reader to get to know them. I didn't care whodunnit. Even the main character of Porfidy was rather flat - I didn't care about him either.
As for the plot, it plodded on, with clues appearing occasionally, some other anonymous person (yawn) being murdered... And the scene at the end where everything was explained was unintentionally funny, as if it was a comedy sketch - how many ridiculous motives for (and methods of) murder can you think of?
On the plus side, the writing was good, I thought, although in a few places words were used incorrectly, as if the author had misunderstood their meaning - but maybe this was done deliberately, to give an 'in translation' feel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wordy
This is a cleverly plotted book but unfortunately I didn't enjoy it. I found the writing opaque and a bit convoluted so I never felt that I got to know any of the characters. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Elaine Byrne
4.0 out of 5 stars
Punishing Crimes
This does a very good job in capturing the flavour of Crime and Punishment.
It did seem authentically Russian and of its time. Read more
It did seem authentically Russian and of its time. Read more
Published 6 months ago by The Emperor
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much shorter than Crime and Punishment and considerably easier to read
It is December 1866, and two bodies have been discovered in St Petersburg's Petrovsky Park. It looks as though a dwarf has been killed with an axe and stuffed in a suitcase, and... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Virginia Rounding
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gentle Axe
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel...both the setting and a story well told. I'm looking for further work by this author.
Published on 29 Oct 2010 by Ruth Wynne
5.0 out of 5 stars
Petersburg Mystery
I met Roger Morris only because of the Russo-British current crisis. It is this tension between UK and Russia that prevented my Chekhov project from going ahead due to directors... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2008 by Victoria
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
This book will grab your attention on the first page and not let you go, even after you are done.
This is first class storytelling from a man who deserves to take his place as... Read more
This is first class storytelling from a man who deserves to take his place as... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2008 by T. Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gentle Axe - a huge relief!
One of the things they never tell you about becoming a writer, is that you're going to have to deal with the books and stories of other writers. Read more
Published on 19 May 2007 by Kay Sexton
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