A Razor Wrapped in Silk
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Product Description
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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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I enjoyed this book - the first of Morris's I had read. Set in Tsarist St. Petersburg in 1870, it is effectively a police procedural with Porfiry Petrovich, Dostoyevsky's detective created in Crime and Punishment, as the main protagonist. It is well written with an engaging central character and a fairly interesting rather than utterly gripping narrative. What gives this book its distinctive character is the setting which Morris manages very well. He settles on a style which conveys the manners and mores of the time and this maintains the atmosphere very convincingly. The historical and political background seem well done (although my very scanty knowledge of 19th Century Russia doesn't make me a good judge of this) and it was this aspect I enjoyed most.
The plot itself is, frankly, pretty run-of-the-mill. Many of the familiar elements of the genre are trotted out: Crimes With No Obvious Link To Each Other, The Obvious Suspect, Political Pressure, Detective Under Threat, Not Knowing Whom He Can Trust, Implausible Flashes Of Intuition and, of course, a rather ludicrous Tense Climax. There is an odd, almost irrelevant sub-plot about ownership of a bank which seems to be there just to illustrate some of the prejudices of the time, and some of the aspects of the plot are a bit clunky. However, there is plenty in the book to enjoy
Four stars is a slightly generous rating, but three stars would have been very churlish and I can recommend this book as a diverting read.
The plot itself is, frankly, pretty run-of-the-mill. Many of the familiar elements of the genre are trotted out: Crimes With No Obvious Link To Each Other, The Obvious Suspect, Political Pressure, Detective Under Threat, Not Knowing Whom He Can Trust, Implausible Flashes Of Intuition and, of course, a rather ludicrous Tense Climax. There is an odd, almost irrelevant sub-plot about ownership of a bank which seems to be there just to illustrate some of the prejudices of the time, and some of the aspects of the plot are a bit clunky. However, there is plenty in the book to enjoy
Four stars is a slightly generous rating, but three stars would have been very churlish and I can recommend this book as a diverting read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Just couldn't get into it ...
I tried really hard to get into this novel, but it just didn't grab me at all. In the end it has taken weeks of forcing myself to read it in order to get to the end. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Cee-Gee
a solid continuation of an interesting series
The third in Morris' st Petersburg series displays the wrioters beautifully formed vision of the city. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. M. E. Merritt
Not recommended - unless you've read Dostoevsky
I didn't like this much at all. I found it stolid and plodding and I kept feeling that I should have read Crime and Punishment to get the most out of it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Johnnybluetime
Rusty Razor
This book was fairly easy to get into, it shows the lifestyle of a child labouring in Russia, the introduction of a policeman was boring and to be honest, I gave up reading then.
Published 20 months ago by Mrs. T. Mannell
Best Yet
Porfiry Petrovich's third outing in the Razor Wrapped in Silk is the best to date. R.N. Morris seems totally at home inthe St.Petersburg of the 1870's. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Edward Penny
Convincing authenticity
This is the third in the author's St Petersburg series, based in the latter part of the nineteenth century in that variously-named city. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr Creepy
Not sure
I suppose that if you borrow one of Dostoevsky's characters then you run the risk of people making sneering remarks about your style. And style is a matter of taste, of course. Read more
Published 23 months ago by S. Hill
Almost but not quite
I quite enjoyed this book but was not enthralled by it. Morris does an excellent job of setting the scene of life in tsarist Russia as bleak and gloomy and this sense pervades the... Read more
Published 23 months ago by J Grainger
I'll give it four Tsars - sorry Stars
R. N. Morris is a new author to me. I was lured by the title just to see where it led me. Sometimes picking a book with a pin can come up with unexpected pleasure and sometimes... Read more
Published 23 months ago by uncle barbar
More than Fan fiction
This was my first foray into "fan fiction", that is, a story involving a character or setting from the original work written by a fan of the orginal. Read more
Published 24 months ago by A John
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