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Porfiry Petrovich #4
The Cleansing Flames
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 Magazine
Easter, 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
"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 Magazine
Easter, 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
467 pages, Paperback
First published May 19, 2011
3 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
About the author
R.N. Morris
27 books46 followersR. N. Morris's most recent book is the historical novel, Fortune's Hand.
He is the author of the St Petersburg Mysteries Series featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Dostoevsky's masterpiece Crime and Punishment: A Gentle Axe, A Vengeful Longing, A Razor Wrapped in Silk and The Cleansing Flames.
He also wrote the Silas Quinn series, set in London in 1914: Summon Up The Blood, The Mannequin House, The Dark Palace, The Red Hand of Fury, The White Feather Killer and The Music Box Enigma.
He has written a standalone dystopian thriller, Psychotopia and, writing as Roger Morris, the contemporary thriller Taking Comfort.
He is the author of the St Petersburg Mysteries Series featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Dostoevsky's masterpiece Crime and Punishment: A Gentle Axe, A Vengeful Longing, A Razor Wrapped in Silk and The Cleansing Flames.
He also wrote the Silas Quinn series, set in London in 1914: Summon Up The Blood, The Mannequin House, The Dark Palace, The Red Hand of Fury, The White Feather Killer and The Music Box Enigma.
He has written a standalone dystopian thriller, Psychotopia and, writing as Roger Morris, the contemporary thriller Taking Comfort.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 16, 2019
Boring. Could not finish
May 25, 2011
The Cleansing Flames, the fourth book in author R.N. Morris’ series featuring Russian Magistrate Porfiry Petrovich, finds spring creeping upon St. Petersburg. But as the snow and ice recede, the fires begin to burn. Fresh on the heels of revolution in Paris, pockets of radicals in Russia’s capital are sowing the seeds of revolution. Part of their manifesto includes setting fires to notable properties in order to burn down, literally and figuratively, the symbols of the perceived failures of Tsar Alexander II’s reforms.
Amidst this chaos, Porfiry and his partner, junior magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky, are called upon to investigate a body found in the newly thawed Winter Canal. An anonymous tip to Porfiry alerts him to the possibility there are larger implications to the body than a simple murder, implications which lead Porfiry’s investigation in the direction of the radicals at the heart of the city’s unrest.
Virginsky, for his part, takes advantage of a random meeting with a man believed to be one of the revolutionaries by using the connection to infiltrate the group. The further he gets into the group, however, the more he finds himself sympathizing with their cause. As events continue to unfold Virginsky’s loyalties are put to the test, forcing him to choose between his head and his heart.
The relationship between Porfiry and Virginsky has always been at the core of the St. Petersburg series. It is only in The Cleansing Flames, however, that what developed over the course of the series as a relationship wherein Porfiry acted as a mentor to Virginsky has finally reached the point where Virginsky feels confident enough to assert himself as an equal. In that regard, author Roger Morris quite cleverly uses Virginsky’s “rebellion” against the “authority” of Porfiry to personalize the broader general rebellion of the populace against the authority of the Tsar. Rebellion, personal and societal, is a concept that is both timeless (it’s virtually a rite of passage for every teenager) and timely (the recent grassroots uprisings in Egypt and Libya), and in The Cleansing Flames Morris does a skillful job of looking at it from both the micro and macro perspectives.
I suppose I’m a bit slow on the uptake at times, but it wasn’t until The Cleansing Flames that it finally dawned on me that Morris was setting each book during a different season, in this case spring. Looking back, it makes for an interesting connecting thread that, while allowing each book its own feel, in the end further ties together the arc of the four books. It’s an arc which unfortunately has come to an end, as The Cleansing Flames is billed as the last book in the St. Petersburg series. And this is truly unfortunate, because Morris quite skillfully brought both the character of Porfiry Petrovich (and by extension Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment), as well as historical fiction in general alive for me in a way I had never truly appreciated before. Though I am sad to see Porfiry and Virginsky reach the end of the road, I take comfort in the knowledge Morris is busy at work on a new series.
Amidst this chaos, Porfiry and his partner, junior magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky, are called upon to investigate a body found in the newly thawed Winter Canal. An anonymous tip to Porfiry alerts him to the possibility there are larger implications to the body than a simple murder, implications which lead Porfiry’s investigation in the direction of the radicals at the heart of the city’s unrest.
Virginsky, for his part, takes advantage of a random meeting with a man believed to be one of the revolutionaries by using the connection to infiltrate the group. The further he gets into the group, however, the more he finds himself sympathizing with their cause. As events continue to unfold Virginsky’s loyalties are put to the test, forcing him to choose between his head and his heart.
The relationship between Porfiry and Virginsky has always been at the core of the St. Petersburg series. It is only in The Cleansing Flames, however, that what developed over the course of the series as a relationship wherein Porfiry acted as a mentor to Virginsky has finally reached the point where Virginsky feels confident enough to assert himself as an equal. In that regard, author Roger Morris quite cleverly uses Virginsky’s “rebellion” against the “authority” of Porfiry to personalize the broader general rebellion of the populace against the authority of the Tsar. Rebellion, personal and societal, is a concept that is both timeless (it’s virtually a rite of passage for every teenager) and timely (the recent grassroots uprisings in Egypt and Libya), and in The Cleansing Flames Morris does a skillful job of looking at it from both the micro and macro perspectives.
I suppose I’m a bit slow on the uptake at times, but it wasn’t until The Cleansing Flames that it finally dawned on me that Morris was setting each book during a different season, in this case spring. Looking back, it makes for an interesting connecting thread that, while allowing each book its own feel, in the end further ties together the arc of the four books. It’s an arc which unfortunately has come to an end, as The Cleansing Flames is billed as the last book in the St. Petersburg series. And this is truly unfortunate, because Morris quite skillfully brought both the character of Porfiry Petrovich (and by extension Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment), as well as historical fiction in general alive for me in a way I had never truly appreciated before. Though I am sad to see Porfiry and Virginsky reach the end of the road, I take comfort in the knowledge Morris is busy at work on a new series.
May 28, 2011
The Cleansing Flames is the fourth in the series of St Petersburg mysteries and begins on the night of a fire in 1872 at the auspicious time of Easter. A disgruntled junior magistrate, Pavel Virginsky, is drawn to it and, as he watches, a stranger hands him a poem against God before vanishing. On the same night, 5 sailors dive into the Winter Canal but 6 bodies come out. A passer-by, Damya Kozodavlev, recognises the corpse's face and hurries away into the night on the pretext of calling the police.
Morris uses the investigator from Crime & Punishment, Porfiry Petrovich, and he and Virginsky set out initially to discover the identity of the man from the Winter Canal before the trail begins to lead them into other directions. It involved banned newspapers, a dead journalist, angry radicals plotting revolution and a printer whose ownership of a printing press costs him his life. They also have Kozodavlev's death in a house fire which also killed 5 children to pursue as well. However, Virginsky's dissatisfaction with his life has led him to make dangerous friends. When, by chance, he meets the mysterious stranger again, he reveals his profession and offers to provide information. This leads him to a group of revolutionaries who demand theultimate sacrifice from him.
This is an ambitious novel which has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the end. It's set in a fascinating period of history as the storm clouds gather slowly over the Tsar's reign and religion is beginning to be seen as another tool of oppression. I liked some of the imagery; the angels on St Isaac's Cathedral taking flight from flames and a Ministry building being compared to a general and the architectural details being his decorations. However, I thought the ending was a little predictable but it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the novel and its convincing background and storyline.
Morris uses the investigator from Crime & Punishment, Porfiry Petrovich, and he and Virginsky set out initially to discover the identity of the man from the Winter Canal before the trail begins to lead them into other directions. It involved banned newspapers, a dead journalist, angry radicals plotting revolution and a printer whose ownership of a printing press costs him his life. They also have Kozodavlev's death in a house fire which also killed 5 children to pursue as well. However, Virginsky's dissatisfaction with his life has led him to make dangerous friends. When, by chance, he meets the mysterious stranger again, he reveals his profession and offers to provide information. This leads him to a group of revolutionaries who demand theultimate sacrifice from him.
This is an ambitious novel which has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the end. It's set in a fascinating period of history as the storm clouds gather slowly over the Tsar's reign and religion is beginning to be seen as another tool of oppression. I liked some of the imagery; the angels on St Isaac's Cathedral taking flight from flames and a Ministry building being compared to a general and the architectural details being his decorations. However, I thought the ending was a little predictable but it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the novel and its convincing background and storyline.
May 6, 2012
The Cleansing Flames is the fourth instalment of Morris' Inspector Porfiry Petrovich series and the first I've read. Whilst there is much to admire about Morris' writing, especially his wry observations, social and political historicisation and sense of place, for my tastes the story suffered from a weak plot, some non-credible characters, and being overly long. The plot holds much promise, centring on a political cell in Tsarist St Petersburg. However, the cell seemed so weakly organised and run, populated by a diverse range of extravert characters, that it would have been pried open within moments of its formation, let alone sustain an entire novel's attention. That might have been okay, but I just didn't believe in Virginski as a character and his actions in infiltrating the cell, nor in a number of the other minor characters. And the dreaded Section Three, which could have provided a useful foil for the investigators, disappears without a trace in the second half of the novel. The story is quite flabby in places, with extended descriptive passages, and in my view would have benefitted from losing at least fifty pages to make it tighter and tenser. What saves the book is the overall atmosphere, political intrigue, its detailing of social relations, and Morris' subtle black humour. Overall, an interesting enough read, but with a few tweaks to the plot and tightening of the narrative it could have been a really good yarn.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews