R. Morris

St Petersburg. 1870. A child factory worker is mysteriously abducted. A society beauty is sensationally murdered. Two very different crimes show up the deep fissures in Russian society of the late tsarist period. The first is barely noticed by the au thorities. The latter draws the full investigative might of St Petersburg's finest, led by magistrate Porfiry Petrovich. The dead woman had powerful friends - including at least one member of the Romanov family - so when the tsar's notorious secret p olice becomes involved, it seems that both crimes may have a political - not to say revolutionary - aspect. A trail of missing children leads to a shocking discovery that takes Porfiry inside the Winter Palace for a confrontation with the Tsar himsel f. The usually incisive magistrate grows increasingly unsure what to believe, who to trust and how to proceed. His very life appears to be in danger, though from whom he can't be sure...

Je prosinec roku 1866 a stará prostitutka v petrohradském parku narazí na dvě mrtvoly. Policejní vyšetřovatel Porfirij Petrovič se rok a půl po slavném případu vylíčeném v Dostojevského románu Zločin a trest pouští do nového pátrání. Brzy dospívá k názoru, že případ dvou těl nalezených v parku je daleko složitější, než jak se mu jevil na začátku. Místo zdánlivé vraždy a sebevraždy se potýká s dvojnásobnou vraždou. Slavný vyšetřovatel se nedá odradit tlakem, který na něho vyvíjejí jeho nadřízení, a houževnatě sleduje stopy.

St Petersburg. 1870. A child factory worker is mysteriously abducted. A society beauty is sensationally murdered. Two very different crimes show up the deep fissures in Russian society of the late tsarist period. The first is barely noticed by the au thorities. The latter draws the full investigative might of St Petersburg's finest, led by magistrate Porfiry Petrovich. The dead woman had powerful friends - including at least one member of the Romanov family - so when the tsar's notorious secret p olice becomes involved, it seems that both crimes may have a political - not to say revolutionary - aspect. A trail of missing children leads to a shocking discovery that takes Porfiry inside the Winter Palace for a confrontation with the Tsar himsel f. The usually incisive magistrate grows increasingly unsure what to believe, who to trust and how to proceed. His very life appears to be in danger, though from whom he can't be sure...