A Razor Wrapped in Silk
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Book Description
The most assured and gripping novel yet in R. N. Morris's acclaimed series featuring the investigator from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
Product Description
St Petersburg. 1870. A child factory worker is mysteriously abducted. A society beauty is sensationally murdered. Two very different crimes show up the deep fissures in Russian society of the late tsarist period. The first is barely noticed by the authorities. The latter draws the full investigative might of St Petersburg's finest, led by magistrate Porfiry Petrovich. The dead woman had powerful friends - including at least one member of the Romanov family - so when the tsar's notorious secret police becomes involved, it seems that both crimes may have a political - not to say revolutionary - aspect. A trail of missing children leads to a shocking discovery that takes Porfiry inside the Winter Palace for a confrontation with the Tsar himself. The usually incisive magistrate grows increasingly unsure what to believe, who to trust and how to proceed. His very life appears to be in danger, though from whom he can't be sure ...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Pleasant Surprise,
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This review is from: A Razor Wrapped in Silk (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
With his main on character (Porfiry Petrovich) the magistrate featured in Tolstoy's Crime and Punishment, Morris takes us into two very different Russias of 1870. One being the world of the aristocracy and Royal Family with all its privilage, power and seeming imunity from the law. The other being the povety, ignorance and exploitation experienced by the children of the country's underclass. Porfiry Petrovich and his assistant investigate two seemingly unconnected murders. One from each of these diverse ends of Russia's cultral mix. Hindered by both the secret police and the burgoning revolutionary movement Porfiry gradually begins to realise the two crimes are a matter of cause and effect. While some of the plotting is predictable Morris's description of late nineteenth century Russia and its cultural split held me as a reader. Now I haven't read Crime and Punishment but I found the detective, or magistrate to use Porfiry's correct title, a fascinating character. Something of a cross between Sherlock Holmes, Morse and Columbo. A thinking detective with a sense of his own talent and importantce. Overall a wothwhile read though not a classic.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sometimes Hard Going,
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This review is from: A Razor Wrapped in Silk (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Porfiry Petrovich is character taken from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and given new life in this series of books. It is evident that R N Morris has a great love for Dostoevsky and Imperial St Petersburg.
Though this is the third book in the series it does not matter if you have missed the previous two. There are allusions to the previous events in his relationship with his assistant, Pavel Pavelovich, but there is nothing that gets in the way of the story for a new reader. Events centre around the abduction and murder of workers from an evening school and that of a society women who has links to many men in high society, including the Tsar himself. I found this a little difficult to get into but it did absorb me as I read on. However I think that a little editing could have increased the pace and tension. There were also a few plot lines that never seemed to be tied up; maybe this will be done in the future. The greatest disappointment is that I never really engaged with the characters. I seemed to guess the plot twists and solution and felt a little let down by this. I never knew whether this was supposed to be a crime novel or a novel of imperial Russia. It seemed to fall between both stools. I will give the two earleier books a read and hope that this will help fill in some of the gaps.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Russian Poirot,
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This review is from: A Razor Wrapped in Silk (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Magistrate Porfiry Petrovich is a character created by Fyodor Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment and R N Morris has taken the character and imagined him solving crimes in Tsarist Russia, with the aid of his trusty sidekick,Virginsky. Together they investigate two seemingly unrelated murders, the murder of society heiress Yelena Filippovna and that of orphaned factory worker, Mitka.
The action proceeds at a fairly leaden pace, leaving the reader to wonder whether they could have solved it for him in the time he takes. However, the characters are likeable, the historical background is interesting and the ending is fine, if a little predictable. Rather Agatha Christie for my taste but satisfyingly Russian with some great description of life in St Petersburg at the turn of the 19th century - especially factory life.
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