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"A brilliant idea, expertly executed... recommended for fans of espionage and suspense." Thomas Waugh
"It moves very fast, and has a similar sense of humour to Herron. It's so well-written it feels effortless... has 'Premier Cru' written all over it. Get it if you can." Jeremy Duns of Spybrary
Things aren't going well for writer Col Newton. It's ten years since he published his only novel, a critically acclaimed commercial flop.
Then out of the blue, he hears from his old university friend, Chris Lazenby. There had always been rumours Lazenby was a spy. Turns out the rumours were true.
Lazenby has a tempting proposal for Col. He'll pay him fifty grand to write a novel. There's just one catch. The book will never be published and Col can't tell anyone he's written it.
It's all part of a cover story Lazenby is constructing for an agent in the field posing as a novelist.
With his literary career in the doldrums, Col agrees. But things quickly spiral out of control when Col witnesses Lazenby use his unarmed combat skills in a shockingly violent outburst.
But when the money starts to flow into his bank account, Col puts his qualms behind him.
He soon finds that without the prospect of publication to distract him he is producing the best thing he has ever written.
He now wants the book for himself, but will Lazenby agree? And when Col finds out what happened to the last writer who helped Lazenby, he realises that, like Scheherazade in A Thousand and One Nights, his life depends on the tale he tells.
R.N. Morris is the author of the Porfiry Petrovich series of historical crime novels, featuring the investigating magistrate from Dostoevsky's masterpiece Crime and Punishment. He has also written six novels set in London in 1914: Summon Up The Blood, The Mannequin House, A Dark Palace, The White Feather Killer, The Music Box Enigma and Fortune's Hand.
Praise for Roger Morris:
"An extraordinary excursion into the past by a master storyteller. I have never read a book quite like it, nor admired a book so much." Michael Gregorio
"Morris' recreation of the seamy side of 19th-century St Petersburg is vivid and convincing... As to who did it, Morris keeps the reader guessing until the end." The Independent
"Morris has created an atmospheric St Petersburg, and a stylish set of intellectual problems, but what makes A Gentle Axe such an effective debut is its fascination with good and evil." Times Literary Supplement
"As fans of Morris's previous A Gentle Axe will know, this author not only has the nerve to lift his lead character from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment but also the skill to bring that distant Russia and its inhabitants to life, while drawing parallels with our own world." The Guardian
"The streets of St Petersburg are vividly portrayed as the author shows the imperial Russian capital on the brink of upheaval... If you like historical crime novels, you will enjoy this." Historical Novels Review
"Morris's descriptions of the horrors of insanitary slum dwellings in St Petersburg are extraordinarily vivid, but the most striking feature of the novel is the way in which Porfiry's sophisticated understanding of human nature compensates for the limited investigatory tools at his disposal." The Times
"... a book that satisfies on more than one level -- as a story of investigation and also as a historical novel crammed with sharply individualised characters." Andrew Taylor, The Spectator
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