The Gentle Axe

Summary (from the publisher): Just before Christmas, in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1866, police investigator Porfiry Petrovich faces his most challenging murder case since the events made famous by F. Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment - a case with disturbing parallels and even darker implications. 

Stumbling through Petvosky Park one cold morning in search of firewood, an elderly woman makes a horrifying discovery. A burly peasant twirls in the wind, hanging from a bowed tree by a rope about his neck, a bloody axe tucked into his belt. Nearby, packed neatly into a suitcase, is the body of a dwarf, a deep axe wound splitting his skull in two. 

It does not take long for the noted police investigator Porfiry Petrovich, still drained from his work on the case involving the deranged student Raskolnikov, to suspect that the truth of the matter is more complex than the crime scene might suggest. Why do so many roads lead to the same house of prostitution and the same ring of pornographers? Why do so many powerful interests seem intent on blocking his efforts? His investigation leads him from the squalid tenements, brothels, and drinking dens of the city's Haymarket district to an altogether more genteel stratum of society. As he gets deeper and deeper in, and the connections between the two spheres begin to multiply, both his anger and his terror mount. 

Atmospheric and tense from its dramatic opening to its shocking climax,The Gentle Axe is a spellbinding historical crime novel, a book that explores the darkest places of the human heart with tremendous energy, empathy, and wit. As lucky as St. Petersburg residents are to have Porfiry Petrovich in public service, we are equally fortunate to have R. N. Morris on hand to chronicle his most challenging case to date.

Review: This novel reminded me of a Russian, historical fiction version of a Law & Order episode. The central character is police investigator Porfiry Petrovich, who spends the novel trying to solve the mystery of who murdered two men and set them up to look like a dual murder/suicide. I have not read Crime and Punishment (yet) so I felt somewhat left out of Porfiry's back story and the references to a previous case involving Raskolnikov. However, I don't think it impeded my understanding of the novel in any way. 

I am interested, and have read, several books on the origins of crime investigation and I liked this novel in that respect. At every turn, Porfiry is thwarted by individuals who insist the murderer of the dwarf was the man found swinging by a rope beside him - but Porfiry knows that it is a set up based on crime scene analysis and the autopsy report. I enjoyed reading about a time period for when every hair and detail was not scrutinized, and it was a rare individual who noticed such things. 

I was disappointed at the relative lack of characterization in this novel. I learned next to nothing about Porfiry in this book, except for his severe addiction to cigarettes. My favorite character was the prostitute Lilya, and I was disappointed that she ended up being a relatively minor character and one the reader doesn't learn too much about. The relative lack of character development also reminded me of Law & Order; this book focused on the crime, everything else was insignificant. 

A decent read with a somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion. 

Stars: 3