A Gentle Axe

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A Gentle Axe A Gentle Axe is the début crime novel from R. N. Morris. The author is also known as Roger Morris, whose contemporary urban novel Taking Comfort was published in 2006.This is a story that concentrates on Porfiry Petrovich's life and his investigation into the complex web of lies, linkages and intrigue that makes A Gentle Axe. In a nutshell: it's 1866, it's Tsarist Russia, it's colder than you could imagine and a retired prostitute in desperate search of pickings comes across two dead bodies in Petrovsky park. One, a peasant, is hanging from a tree with a bloody axe tucked in his belt. The other is a dwarf with his skull fractured into two; his body is tightly packed into a suitcase. The plodding, contemplative, brooding detective Porfiry Petrovich takes on the case. But it's obvious to Porfiry Petrovich that the hanging man did not kill the dwarf and then commit suicide. In his analytical mind the evidence does not stack up…