The Gentle Axe: A Novel

In a wonderfully atmospheric novel, Morris has created a world-weary protagonist in Porfiry, a man still exhausted from his last case, joined by a collection of absolutely believable characters to flesh out the novel. Mysteries abound and multiply in layers of characterization and narrative. Porfiry's investigation goes on, despite repeated attempts to take him off the case, and it leads him from the dregs of society to its most genteel heights. He follows clues, hunches, people, and stories to get to the bottom of the mystery--and when he does, it comes as a complete surprise, but one that makes perfect sense. This carefully written and entertaining novel will satisfy lovers of mystery, historical crime, and just plain good novels. --Valerie Ryan

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Pleasantly surprised, 2008-08-05
I have to say, I liked this book. I picked it up at a Costco knowing nothing about it or the author and I was surprised. Unlike others, I personally thought it was an easy read. I will definately read more from this author.


3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

"It is a kind of Siberia of the soul.", 2008-06-12
R. N. Morris's "The Gentle Axe" is set in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December 1866. Approximately a year and a half earlier, Porfiry Petrovich relentlessly interrogated a student named Raskolnikov until the suspect broke down and confessed. "The Gentle Axe" opens in Petrovsky Park, where an aging former prostitute named Zoya Nikolaevna Petrova braves the biting cold in order to collect a basket of firewood. She keeps trudging along in spite of her aches and pains because of her fierce devotion to a young prostitute named Lilya and Lilya's adorable daughter, Vera, who live with her. Suddenly, Zoya stumbles upon a horrific scene--the body of a "big brute" hangs from a birch trunk and the corpse of a dwarf lies folded in a suitcase. She searches the two victims for money and anything that she can sell, and then quickly darts away without alerting the police.

Next, we meet the chain-smoking and cerebral Porfiry Petrovich, a magistrate in the Department of the Investigation of Criminal Causes. After he receives an anonymous tip stating that there has been a murder in Petrovsky Park, he convinces the police to conduct a search. They soon discover the bodies that Zoya had encountered earlier. Porfiry's shortsighted and inept colleagues want to declare this an open and shut case of murder/suicide, but Porfiry's keen eye, sharp senses, and well-honed instincts tell him that there is nothing straightforward or obvious about the deaths of a dwarf named Stepan Sergeyevich Goryanchikov and a yardkeeper named Borya.

Morris ably describes the social and economic conditions in St. Petersburg during the late nineteenth century. A strict caste system buffered the upper classes from the indigent wretches who barely had enough food to sustain life or enough fuel to ward off the frigid winds. R. N. Morris has created a lively and colorful cast of characters whose connection to one another unfolds little by little: Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky, an emaciated student who is too proud to ask his estranged father for the financial support that he so desperately needs; Lilya Ivanovna Semenova, a young woman who must sell herself to feed her family; Anna Alexandrovna, a wealthy widow who was closely acquainted with both Borya and Goryanchikov; Osip Maximovich Simonov, an arrogant man who runs a publishing house and may be hiding vital information from Porfiry; Ilya Petrovich Salytov, a short-tempered police lieutenant who resents Porfiry and tries to thwart him at every turn; and two actors, Ratazyayev and Govorov, who both play pivotal roles in what turns out to be a thorny and multilayered mystery.

Morris imbues his strange and complex tale with a healthy dose of black humor, and he skillfully explores the hypocrisy of those who hide their malicious nature behind a veneer of respectability. In addition, the author demonstrates an appreciation for the unique mix of spirituality and materialism in the Russian psyche. Porfiry is a fascinating sleuth: a skilled psychologist, observant criminalist, tenacious pursuer, and ultimately, the voice of conscience and reason at a time when justice was elusive. His nemesis is a perverted individual who has concocted a senseless rationale for committing a series of monstrous deeds. Although the novel is marred by a tendency to talkiness and a somewhat contrived ending, "The Gentle Axe" is worth reading for its indelible portrayal of Porfiry Petrovich and the dismal landscape that he inhabits--a true "Siberia of the soul."




1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

The Gentle Axe, 2008-06-02
This seemed to promise something different as mysteries go. Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, is the sleuth in this whodunit, set in 1860s St. Petersburg. Numerous Russian themes and scenes are displayed: the starving university student radical, a rich aristocrat above the law, getting lost in a blizzard, a waif-like prostitute, a trip to a monastery to interview a dying holy man and ignorant high-level bureaucrats that require dressing down.

Unfortunately, I could not come to appreciate Porfiry. He is not Russian in any way- with his verbal subterfuge and cerebral gamesmanship, he acts more like an Oxford don. He is far too bland to be a Slav. And what's with his constant smoking? I had a chronic cough by the time the novel was done. Porfiry is pretty much a loser until the final pages. Then he confronts the killer and lays out his case chapter and verse. But, at that point in the narrative, he had already lost his authenticity. Read Dostoevsky.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

gentle axe, 2008-05-31
having spent time in saint petersberg taken russian lit courses at university as well as several years of russian history l really enjoyed the book as evoking an era and a time and the things that always seem darkly to lurk under the the thin veener of progress and reform...in russia. it was anotch under the work of boris akonen,yet still really good l look foreward to the next


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Enigma Wrapped in Mystery, 2008-05-13
They don't write Russian novels like the old masers any more. But this effort comes close. The year is 1866 in St. Petersburg ad we find investigating magistrate Porfiry Petrovich still weary from the case, the year before, of the deranged student Raskolnikov made known to us in Crime and Punishment.

While an historical mystery, the story progresses more like a modern-day police procedural. It begins one wintry day with a large peasant hanging from a tree in a park. Nearby, a suitcase lies with a dwarf in it, his head cut open by an axe which is found on the hanging man's belt. Is it a simple case of murder and suicide? From this beginning the story progresses to more murders, bringing Porfiry across the wide swath of the people and sites of the then Russian capital.

It would not be fair to compare this novel to one by Dostoyevsky, suffice it to say it is a real suspense filled mystery, intricately plotted and completely enjoyable. More important, it is recommended.

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