This latest offering by our very own R.N. Morris (aka Roger Morris!) is an interesting and thoughtful historical crime tale set in St Petersburg in the 1860s. The description and sharply-delineated culture is an important part of the book, and helps to give essential gravitas to the drama. There are some wonderful set pieces and characters, including the scenes with Virginsky and the larger-than-life Dr Pervoyedov, and the narrative flow is very well-handled indeed. Being me (!), I also enjoyed the delicious glimpses into the steamy and sexual underbelly of the city, and of course the effect this has on the main character and his associates.

If you're a fan of the well-written historical crime tale, then you should definitely seek this one out!

Anne B

Ah, now I understand why I couldn't find the book on Amazon! Didn't realise there was all this 'RN' malarky going on, Rog.
Looking forward to reading it now I've tracked it down.
Caroline

Thank you Anne for such a generous review - and for getting it done so quickly!

Yes, Caroline, sorry about the confusion. It's confusing me too, if that's any consolation. But thanks very much for tracking it down. I really appreciate it.

Great review, Anne!

I've just finished reading and 'A Gentle Axe' is wonderful.

Many congratulations and wishing you every success, Roger.

Wouldn't it make a fabulous film?

Sarah

Thank you Sarah! Jeepers there are some fast readers around here!

Film? Really? I hadn't thought of that. So they make films out of books do they? : )

Roger, it has arrived - hurrah! But I'm confused again. It suggests this isn't the first book about this character on the back. Was TC not your first, then?

Hi Caroline! Yes, TC was my first novel. The protagonist from A Gentle Axe (Porfiry Petrovich) is taken from a book by someone else - Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. But don't worry, you don't need to have read that to understand it.

Oh bloody hell. How will I ever get over the shame? Why the &X%X%* didn't I just webmail that question?

Would everyone like to form an orderly line to run me from the website? I will go flagellate myself with a rolled up copy of the TLS straight away.

Hey, Caroline, don't be so hard on yourself! Why on earth should you know?

<Added>

I certainly didn't feel it was a silly question.

Well, I ought to have read C&P for a start! I think I started it once and it wasn't my cup of tea.

Have you been to St Petersburg? I went there with my (now)husband when we were young things and it was fab, apart from the fact that are vegetarians and almost starved to death. Someone said to my husband afterwards, Oh, you poor thing, have you been ill? because he lost half a stone in a week!

Yes, I have been, now. Though it was after I wrote the book. A weird and very intense experience for me. Like walking into a dream, considering I had thought about the place so much and imagined it ahead of seeing it.

No worries, Caroline - I've never read C&P either, and had no idea who these people were - it's all fresh to me!!



A
xxx

Roger, A Gentle Axe arrived today and it looks great. I like the cover a lot. I notice that there's no reference to C&P anywhere. Is that to avoid turning off people who might think they had to have read it before reading this one?
Just wondering, did you start this before or after you got published with MNW? And I thought you had a 2 book deal with MNW?

Also I think Porfiry is a fantastic name!
A.

Hi Ashlinn, thanks so much for buying it! What would I do without you guys? I don't think you need to have read Crime and Punishment. They were quite keen at Faber to make it not dependent on it. So it doesn't!

I wrote TC first. It was with one particular publisher for a long time. Meanwhile I got on with writing the axe. Then, finally, I got TC back from the publisher who'd been holding onto it. Then it was with my agent for another long time, without him really doing anything with it. He was waiting for the historical crime thing I was working on, which I think he believed would be more saleable. So then I finished the axe. He moved that up the queue. I submitted TC myself at the same time as he was submitting the axe. TC got accepted first but we didn't recall the axe. Waited to see what would happen. An offer was what happened. Then I had some explaining to do to MNW.

The deal with MNW was that they had first refusal on my next novel. It's a grey area as the axe was already out there. Anyhow, I have since offered them another book which they declined. So, we are where we are. A weary tale!

Hi Roger,

Congratulations on your second book!

How many do you have kicking around at home?

I notice you have an audio book version. You should look at getting it carried on Audible.com. They have a deal with Apple to supply audio books for ipods amongst other things. I checked. It is not there yet.

A question. How did you research this book and how long did it take to write? I noticed that you had not visited the city until after you wrote the book so I am curious how you went about doing your research, especially as it is set in the past.

Once again, congratulations, quite an achievement.

Brian.