"A
Vengeful Longing" by R. N. Morris (The Penguin Press, 9781594201806, $24.95)
It is summer in St. Petersburg, 1868, and Investigating Magistrate Porfiry
Petrovich has no shortage of murders to solve. As with his earlier "The
Gentle Axe," British crime novelist R. N. Morris begins this superb new
historical thriller with a splendid set-piece: A doctor returns home on a
scorching Saturday afternoon, bringing his wife and son a box of
quickly-melting chocolates. The two eat their odd treats in the shade of the
porch, and within minutes, their poisoned bodies slump on the floor like
soiled towels discarded by bathers. And so a new mystery begins.
Morris displays three talents that make his books intensely enjoyable
mysteries as well as finely wrought novels. The most immediate and striking
is his flair for period setting and thick atmosphere. The stink and swelter
of St. Petersburg in summer fills these pages with a ripe noxiousness that
makes heinous murders seem as fresh as roses. It's delightfully unwholesome.
Second is Morris's deft hand with plotting. Of course it looks like the
doctor did it from the book's first pages, but Porfiry Petrovich's
investigation quickly turns up a crop of possible culprits from a field of
potential motives. The elegant chocolate shop may harbor a den of would-be
revolutionaries; an aging colonel may have debauched the wrong man's haughty
daughter; or there might be a plot incubated within the halls of government
and hidden in the cesspool of a backstreet asylum. Each potential path and
each ruddy herring is so good it could animate a whole novel of its own.
But Morris's talent for character is surely his strongest. Porfiry Petrovich
is a wonder of a protagonist: intuitive, evasive, ironic, and--oddly--often
kind. In this book he's joined by an idealistic apprentice to whom he
unveils both a portion of his investigative insight and some measure of his
acceptance of humanity's inevitable weaknesses. The back-and-forth between
the seasoned "critic of murder" and the awkward, youthful firebrand offers
sharp delight, and much enjoyment is found in sifting Porfiry Petrovich's
words for their grains of truth and the subtle hand of psychological
manipulation. While the magistrate is busy solving his murders, the reader
enjoys the added task of trying to solve the magistrate.
Don't deny yourself the joys of Morris's "The
Gentle Axe," and don't hesitate to continue on with "A Vengeful
Longing." Read both and clamor about them to your reading friends. If we're
very good, and if St. Petersburg's citizens remain very wicked, we can hope
to enjoy future novels from R. N. Morris and spend future seasons in
Petersburg with the incomparable Porfiry Petrovich.
Review by
Mark David Bradshaw, June 12, 2008
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