1904: Powerscourt comes out of retirement for one last time, heading for Russia in one of the strangest cases of his career.
A British diplomat has been discovered, his throat cut, on one of the bridges spanning the Nevskii Prospekt in St Petersburg. It transpires the diplomat knew a secret – and that secret killed him. As Powerscourt strides through the halls of the Winter Palace and falls foul of the Okhrana – the Russian secret police – he has to attend other matters. Russia is on the verge of revolution and he must escape – before time runs out on him.
A British diplomat has been discovered, his throat cut, on one of the bridges spanning the Nevskii Prospekt in St Petersburg. It transpires the diplomat knew a secret – and that secret killed him. As Powerscourt strides through the halls of the Winter Palace and falls foul of the Okhrana – the Russian secret police – he has to attend other matters. Russia is on the verge of revolution and he must escape – before time runs out on him.
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Reviews
Dickinson textures his canvas with historical detail as thick as the oil paint on one of his favourite paintings by Turner.
This is detective fiction in the grand style; the characters and the plot soar upwards and carry us in their wake. Powerscourt's debut in this intoxicating book is the start of a gilded life in the archives of crime.
A cracking yarn, beguilingly real from start to finish... you have to pinch yourself to remind you that it is fiction - or is it?
