Last time I looked, my four novels featuring investigating magistrate Porfiry Petrovich are on special offer on Amazon, with the ebooks selling at just 99p (or 99c in America). By the time you read this, that offer may have ended. Apologies, if so.
As some of you may be aware, I took my central character for the series from Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. What you may not have realised is that each of the books is inspired by a different Dostoevsky work.
For A Gentle Axe, the book that kicked the series off, the inspiration was Crime and Punishment itself. Next came A Vengeful Longing, which was inspired by Notes from the Underground. A Razor Wrapped in Silk was inspired by The Idiot and The Cleansing Flames by The Devils.
But I suppose I was inspired in general by 19th century Russian literature, which is why I loved the review of A Gentle Axe that appeared in The Wall Street Journal: “The tale hums along with controlled excitement, as if written by a Russian minimalist and rendered by a fine translator. The psychological and spiritual themes seem worthy of Dostoyevsky; there are traces of Gogol and Gorky, too. Such an accomplished book transcends pastiche.”
One thing I will say is, don’t worry if you’ve never read Dostoevsky, or any Russian literature at all. I believe you can still enjoy my books without that, though perhaps reading my stories will make you want to give Dostoevsky a try?
I never got round to writing my Brothers Karamazov-inspired novel. Maybe one day.