Book description
'Lush, and exceptionally compelling, but take your time . . . The
Gentle Axe has a vast depth of Russian soul; mysterious,
compassionate, and utterly irresistible.' Alan Furst, author of The
Polish Officer St Petersburg. The winter of 1866. Two frozen bodies
are found in Petrovsky Park - a dwarf neatly packed in a suitcase, and
a burly peasant hanging from a tree. Police Detective Porfiry
Petrovich begins his investigation in the city's squalid brothels and
drinking dens but is soon led into an altogether more genteel stratum
of society - and to a shocking discovery which reveals the city's
darkest secrets. 'Vivid and convincing . . . Morris keeps the reader
guessing until the end.' Virginia Rounding, Independent 'Tense,
atmospheric and bristles with . . . intelligence.' Tom
Boncza-Tomaszewski, Independent on Sunday
Born in Manchester in 1960, R. N. Morris now lives in North
London with his wife and two young children. 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 at the Purcell Room
in London's South Bank. Another, Revenants, was published as a comic book.
