A Vengeful Longing

A Vengeful Longing by R.N. Morris. Investigator Porfiry Petrovich, the chain-smoking, somewhat dour character created by Fyodor Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment, returns in the second book of this series based in St. Petersburg in the late 1860s. It’s a hot, humid summer in the city and the stench from the poorly maintaining sewers and waterways is putting everyone on edge, including our hero. A case involving a doctor suspected of poisoning his wife and son allows Porfiry to introduce his new assistant, Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky, to the world of criminal detection: the stupefying tediousness of searching through countless records for evidence and the use of psychology to gain an understanding of the criminal mind, especially during show more the interrogation process. However, when two more murders occur, each with an obvious suspect claiming his innocence, Porfiry begins to suspect that a central unknown figure is manipulating events behind the scenes and sets off to discover this nemesis. Morris does an excellent job of portraying the brutal conditions of the city’s poorer inhabitants in the sweltering Russian heat, an interesting contrast to the bitter winter of the prior book, A Gentle Axe. Despite a criminal that throws out numerous red herrings, this title suffers due to a rather unoriginal resolution to the case that sharp readers will figure out well before reaching the end. Still, the interplay between the two central characters will keep readers entertained throughout.
For other historical mysteries set in Imperial Russia, I recommend Boris Akunin’s series of books featuring Erast Fandorin. The Winter Queen, set in 1876, is the first in the series and the latest I’ve enjoyed is Special Assignments, a pair of novellas. Akunin has a second historical mystery series featuring Sister Pelagia, an orthodox nun in the late-19th century who teaches gymnastics and literature and solves mysteries for her bishop. Another worthwhile tale is The White Russian by Tom Bradby, set in the winter months prior to the start of the 1917 Russian Revolution

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Porfiry Petrovich, Raskolnikov’s nemesis in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, is the hero detective in Morris’s gripping St Petersburg mystery series: the first, A Gentle Axe, was set in the winter – but now we visit the city in the summer of 1868.

Porfiry is joined by Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky, the young upper-class social rebel he arrested in the first book, who has decided to become an investigator himself ‘for the benefit of society as a whole’.

Together they set out to examine a series of murders in which the perpetrators seem glaringly obvious: the neglected wife of a doctor of toxicology is poisoned, a seducer is shot dead while alone with the father of the girl he has ruined…

But Porfiry becomes aware of a pattern show more behind these and other slayings: he is convinced a master manipulator is at work, that the murders are related and carefully planned, and many of the answers lie in the past.

Although one of the most beautiful, modern and sophisticated cities in Europe, St Petersburg has aspects that were distinctly third world, even by the standards of 1868, and Morris shows the sordid side of the glamour.

Animal dung was a fact of life in an age reliant on horse drawn transport: St Petersburg was also awash in human excrement which was dropped into ditches and flowed into the river – from which many people drew their drinking water.

In the heat of summer the stench must have been indescribable: Morris tries to give us a sense of the noisome atmosphere, the flies everywhere, and the cholera. Sanitary inspectors from the overburdened Ministry of Public Health were ubiquitous, checking the quality of the water supply but seldom willing or able to take action.

After several mistaken arrests, and red herrings galore, Porfiry arrives at the truth – but not before taking the reader on a fascinating journey in and around St Petersburg from the Ministry of the Interior to a sinister lunatic asylum. Morris does Dostoevsky proud! show less

The detective is Porfiry Petrovich, an investigator transplanted from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. He is a seasoned veteran and is known for his original methods, including the use of a rudimentary version of criminal psychology. He is joined in this story by a protege, a young man named Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky, whom we met in the first story when he was the suspect in a murder. In this story we follow a series of seemingly unrelated murders and we also witness the initiation of Pavel Pavlovich into his new profession. As in Morris' first book -- which thankfully didn't have any of the failings of other authors' first books -- the descriptions of Czarist Russia are vivid and inviting, sometimes in a revolting sort of way. It is show more no surprise that Porfiry must follow leads into some of the seamiest areas of St. Petersburg and, as we journey with him, one can almost smell the foul odors, see the crumbling buildings and witness the sad, vacant looks of those who have given up expecting anything from life.

This is a great mystery that offers some clues along the way so that the reader can participate in the investigation. Of course, Porfiry is methodical and still brilliant so most of the pleasure of the book is in reading how he chooses to go about the solving of the crimes.

http://webereading.com/2008/11/raisa-ivanovna-meyer-was-sitting-on.html show less

This is a historical crime novel to be savored slowly. I enjoyed the lush descriptions, the leisurely character development, and the strong sense of both place and time throughout the book.

It was also fascinating to watch the "magistrate" (detective, in our time) work with the primitive investigative tools of the time. No special effects-laden, CSI-take-off here; just good hard police work and a great deal of reason, logic, and observation.

The hero is the detective from 'Crime and Punishment.' The scenes are clearly drawn, but the murderer isn't very interesting and there are several accidental changes of POV.