This book follows the detective Porfiry Petrovich as he trys to find who killed the dwarf and the peasant found hanging and with an axe wound in St. Petersburg.

The year is 1866 and is the time when Russian policing is trying to become more "for the people". A case is not an official case until the Prokurer says so. And an autopsy is frowned upon as unnecessary - so much so that the doctor needs to bring his tools to the body on a trolley.

So when two bodies are found in the middle of the city it is not just a matter to find the murderer but also to prove there is a crime to investigate. All of which leads Petrovich to learn a darker side of himself he is not comfortable with as he tries to find clues and the murderer in the lower classes of the city. As well as learn that being the smartest person is not always what is needed to show he is right.

A good book and well worth the read. Though there were times in this where you could have cut out a large part of text and still get to the same point as was reached. And with a lot less discomfort. ( )

For readers that have been yearning for a book that speaks with an older, wiser voice, written in a long forgotten style, with a classic fluidity that can only be penned by a select few…Here ya’ go! R. N. Morris has delivered a novel that embraces the historic elements of a true masterpiece, indulges the nostalgic desires of the quintessential reader and satisfies even the most discerning contemporary suspense-thriller lover!

Fyodor Dostoevsky first introduced readers to criminal investigator Porfiry Petrovich, in the 1866 novel Crime & Punishment. The book is centered around the murder of a pawnbroker and her half-sister by a deranged, impoverished student, named Raskolnikov. It is a year after this mind-numbing case that Morris picks up the story and takes the reader deep into the investigator’s life and of course, a brand new murder mystery.

Searching for firewood in St. Petersburg’s Petrovsky Park, a woman stumbles upon a dead body hanging from a tree. Nearby, a second body, that of a dwarf, is found in a suitcase. A laundry list of items were initially left at the scene, however, by the time investigator Petrovich is alerted, via an anonymous tip, anything of value is missing, thus complicating an already difficult case.
The search for answers will take the rotund detective through many facets of Russian society, from the dark, dank squalid apartments of the slums to the elegant, sprawling homes of the sophisticated elite. As the Park investigation continues, other, seemingly unrelated murders occur, forcing the investigation in a surprisingly new direction. To solve the Park case, Petrovich will have to think outside the box…connecting the dots of this disturbing case will prove to be even more difficult than the case that had defined him.

Morris unravels the layers of St. Petersburg and its residents, slowly, like a delicious, blooming onion, allowing the reader to savor the flavor and enjoy each and every bite. There are strong, no-non-sense characters and those that bring a lighter, at times, humorous element to the story, thus eliciting a myriad of emotions from the reader. Gentle Axe is not littered with red herrings and preemptive spoilers, instead it is based on a clever plot, written with artistic flair. The characters are drawn with the kind of intimate detail one ascertains from a photograph and the settings are constructed with the artistic eye of a painter.

The author took a significant, yet calculated risk- borrowing the lead character, setting and back story from the famous work of a beloved writer, which could easily garner a host of negativity. However, creating a sequel that feels Dostoevsky-like, that reads like a Morris novel is a note-worthy accomplishment, indeed!

A spell-binding novel that will definitely keep you up late…reading! And you’ll want to share this one with friends and coworkers –it’s really that good! ( )

Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Porfiry Petrovich, fills out his character and sets him loose on another crime. Petrovich is a sympathetic and complex character. He gets emotionally caught up in this mystery, but he’s also got a sly sense of humor. The mystery begins when the body of a dwarf is found in a suitcase next to the hanged body of a local yard-keeper. The book is rich with historic atmosphere of 1866 St. Petersburg and with appropriate turns of phrase. Book publishers may be pornographers, prostitutes may be wealthy, princes may go missing, and monks might evade the truth. Porfiry Petrovich does a wonderful job of slinking through the inefficient maze of the local department of ministry to solve this most puzzling crime. ( )

http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2008... ( )

IT HAS taken me 30 years to reach this point, but I can finally stand up and say: “The Russian novel is not for me.” Russian music, poetry, dance and art are all sublime, but their novels, and plays too for that matter, suck.

Even against stiff competition from the likes of Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky wins the prize for being the most depressing writer, and his Crime and Punishment takes the cake as the darkest, most “feel-bad” book I have ever read.

I am aware that mine is a minority opinion, and certainly not shared by RN Morris, who was inspired to create a detective story set in St Petersburg featuring one of the central characters from Crime and Punishment.

Investigating magistrate Porfiry Petrovich is an insightful and humble character with sympathy for his fellow man. In 1866, after solving the case of axe murderer Raskolnikov, Petrovich becomes embroiled in another investigation which appears to be a case of murder followed by suicide.

However, he is not convinced this was the case. His intuition and circumstantial evidence suggest it was a double murder, and the pathologist later confirms his suspicions, but his superior, Prokurer Liputin, closes the case.

Petrovich is unhappy, but there's nothing he can do about it — until he receives a visit from Prince Bykov, whose lover disappeared under circumstances with proven links to the double murder. While in Imperial Russia the title of “prince” was not impressive, it denoted minor nobility, and Petrovich asks Liputin to be allowed to resume the investigation.

“It is the testimony of a prince,” he says. “Our law makes clear the rank of a witness has bearing on the reliability of his testimony. The testimony of a prince cannot be discounted." And therein lies the rub: even after the Russian legal reforms of the 1850s, this was an empire which only recently freed the serfs and where the tsar was regarded by many as God's representative on earth.

Thoroughly modern in so many ways, the Russians were alien in their concept of morality, society and justice. Petrovich is up against not just a clever killer, but the closed ranks of the middle classes, reluctant witnesses and the narrow-minded prejudices of his superiors.

MORRIS spells out those alien social structures Dostoevsky took for granted his readers knew: he brings the St Petersburg of 150 years ago to life, allowing the reader to experience the life of the average person. A world of great spirituality and refinement, where sellers of religious icons had more customers than the purveyors of pornography. A world of regulated sexuality, where prostitution was legal if the whore had a “yellow card” and where male homosexuality was punished by exile.

Central to Imperial Russia, to the mystery and to the crime was the atavistic hold religion — and especially the idea of the soul — had on atheists. Petrovich understands the motivations that cause both believers and atheists to act as they do, and he knows that one set of superstitions rules both their behaviour.

If ever a silver lining were to come out of a dark cloud, it would be RN Morris; there is no escaping the sympathetic brilliance, humanity and solid research which has gone into this debut novel. ( )