Spring. 1880. It was General Krolikov’s name day, the day he celebrated being Timofei son of Timofei. He chose to spend it in Tavrichesky Garden, St Petersburg, as he did every year, weather permitting. As usual, his daughter Vera had arranged a party. Most of those in the group were strangers to him. He assumed …
For those of you who were wondering when and if I was ever going to write or publish another book, I have some news. A new historical mystery featuring investigating Pavel Pavovich Virginsky, with a cameo appearance from Porfiry Petrovich. It’s the second book in my Empire of Shadows series, but can be read as …
A writer’s journey takes place largely in the imagination. When I first pitched the idea of writing a detective novel set in 19th century St Petersburg, I had never been to Russia. I’d read some Russian novels in translation. One of those was Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. I picked it up from my school library, …
First of all, an apology. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I blogged. And second of all, another apology. I’m sorry I’ve started blogging again. But I do have news, so I thought maybe I should resurrect the old bloody blog. What news? Basically, free books. And very cheap books. And more free books. …
I’ve long been fascinated by animation. The idea of someone’s drawings coming to life has always seemed very powerful to me – an incredibly direct form of creativity. When I was younger, I tried my hand at it the old fashioned way – creating minutely different images on paper or cells to photograph frame by …