St. Petersburg, Winter, 1867 - Two frozen bodies are found in an isolated corner of Petrovsky Park. The first - that of a dwarf - has been packed neatly in a suitcase, a deep wound splitting his skull in two. The second body, of a burly peasant, is hanging from a nearby tree, a bloody axe tucked into his belt. The detective Porfiry Petrovich, in his first murder case since Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", suspects the truth may be more complex than others wish him to believe. His investigation leads him from the squalid tenements, brothels and drinking dens of the city's Haymarket district to an altogether more genteel stratum of society. Atmospheric and tense from its dramatic opening to its shocking climax.
- ISBN10 1594201129
- ISBN13 9781594201127
- Publish Date 1 April 2007 (first published 1 February 2007)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 3 April 2013
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Penguin Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 305
- Language English