num_pages: 467
description: St Petersburg Mysteries Series - Book Four"A poignant finish to an exemplary series." The Independent“ The Cleansing Flames is the fourth in the series and arguably the best so far… Morris’s story succeeds admirably as a conventional work of crime fiction but is something more as well. In its twists and turns, and particularly in the divided character of Pavel Pavlovich, sympathetic to many of the aims of the revolutionaries but shocked by their methods ... a clever exploration of the perennial conflict in political action between idealism and realism.” BBC History MagazineEaster, 1872. St Petersburg in flames. The fires are a prelude to the revolutionary turmoil that will shake Russia a generation later.As the springtime thaw begins, a body rises to the surface of the Winter Canal. Following an anonymous tip-off, Magistrate Porfiry Petrovich is drawn into an investigation of the radical intellectuals who seek to fan the flames of revolution.Meanwhile junior magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky plays a dangerous game.Following a chance meeting with a man he suspects of being an arsonist, Virginsky volunteers to infiltrate a terrorist cell.But the young man’s loyalties appear divided, his motives conflicted.Will he track down the killers, or use his position as a magistrate to further a political cause with which he sympathises?Two generations come head to head in a shocking and violent confrontation.Shortlisted for the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, The Cleansing Flames is the fourth book in R. N. Morris’s acclaimed series featuring Porfiry Petrovich. It brings the first quartet of books to a poignant and dramatic finale.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 and The Music Box Enigma . His latest novel is Fortune’s Hand , a novel about Walter Raleigh.Praise for Roger "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 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 in the Spectator
language: English
title: The Cleansing Flames
publisher: Faber & Faber