A Vengeful Longing: A Novel (St. Petersburg Mysteries)

A Vengeful Longing confirms what RN Morris' previous novel, A Gentle Axe , suggested - that here is major talent in the increasingly overcrowded historical crime field. On the evidence here, Morris is writing novels that rival the very best in the genre in terms of atmosphere, plausible historical detail and exemplary plotting. Two people - a mother and son -- are murdered; a box of chocolates delivered by woman's husband contains an agonising poison. The detectives investigating the killing (in which the doctor husband is, of course, the prime suspect - and seems to telegraph his guilt when interviewed) are the novice Virginsky and the experienced Porfiry Petrovich - the later, of course, the protagonist in Morris' previous books -- And the policeman in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment , no less. Morris audaciously utilised Petrovich in his previous novel. That gamble (cheeky though it was) has paid off handsomely there - and does so once again in A Vengeful Longing . 19th-century Russia is once again evoked with total authority, and the murder investigation has the compulsiveness of modern crime fiction - with the added frisson of a brilliantly conjured period setting. The continuation of characters created by other authors is nothing new, but few have the chutzpah of RN Morris - or the skill to pull off (not once, but twice - and more, we are told) this daring trick. -- Barry Forshaw Edit : e Genre : Historical Thriller Formats : EPUB, MOBI It’s the middle of a hot, dusty St. Petersburg summer in the late 1860s. A doctor brings home a fancy box of chocolates for his wife and son—a strange gift on a scorching Saturday afternoon. Within an hour, both mother and child die an excruciating death, and the doctor is immediately arrested, suspected of poisoning. As investigator Porfiry Petrovich concedes, in such cases the obvious solution often turns out to be the correct solution. And in the city’s sweltering, oppressive atmosphere, even he lacks the energy to delve any deeper. But when additional, apparently unconnected, murders occur on the other side of town, a subtle and surprising pattern starts to emerge. Porfiry is forced to reassess his assumptions and follow a tenuous, uncertain trail that takes him into the hidden, squalid heart of the city and brings him face to face with incomprehensible horror and cruelty. The acclaimed author of The Gentle Axe returns with another atmospheric thriller starring investigator Porfiry Petrovich Hailed with glowing reviews, R. N. Morris's The Gentle Axe borrowed Porfiry Petrovich of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment to create a wholly new, hauntingly authentic novel of suspense. A Vengeful Longing, Petrovich's next outing, is even more engrossing. As the laconic investigator follows a trail that begins innocently with a box of chocolates, he is drawn deep into St. Petersburg's squalid heart. Aided by Morris's effortless prose, readers are immersed in the stifling world of nineteenth-century tsarist Russia and treated to an unforgettable rendering of a brutal time and place that will ensnare every fan of sophisticated historical fiction. Set in St. Petersburg in 1868, Morris's second novel to feature Porfiry Petrovich puts the detective on the trail of a series of vile murders. When the wife and son of a doctor die after consuming a box of chocolates at their dacha, the obvious suspect is the morphine-addicted doctor. Then a shooting and a stabbing lead Petrovich elsewhere-to an elegant confectioner's full of pastries and possible revolutionaries as well as to the city's underworld Nineteenth-century Russian investigator Porfiry Petrovich doubts an initial conclusion that a St. Petersburg doctor is responsible for his wife's and son's poisoning deaths when the case is tied to another murder across town.