After being shot in the chest during his last case, Lord Francis
Powerscourt has been asked by his wife to no longer be a detective. He
decides to write a book about the cathedrals in England.
The death of a British envoy in St. Petersburg brings the Foreign
Service knocking at the Powerscourt door. Powerscourt refuses to
participate in any investigation. Lady Lucy is finally persuaded to
allow Powerscourt to go. In St. Petersburg, Powerscourt learns all
about the intrigues in the Russian court and a bit about the
Russia-Japanese War currently underway. However, he is no further ahead
as to what the envoy's mission to Russia was.
Through his interpreter, Mikhail Shaporov, Powerscourt is told by the
police that the document he has indicating the death of the envoy is a
forgery. The body of the envoy isn't in the morgues either, and the
Russian Foreign Ministry denies that he had been in Russia in 1905. He
had been there previously, but not in 1905. Unfortunately Powerscourt
and Shaporov are witnesses to Bloody Sunday.
The following day Powerscourt was picked up by the Okhrana, the Russian
secret police and treated to a view of their torture chambers. He is
surprised to find that the Okhrana have known all about the visitors to
his home prior to his leaving for Russia. Powerscourt is called back
to London when the body of the wife of the dead envoy is discovered in
suspicious circumstances.
Shortly after returning to St. Petersburg, Powerscourt is granted a
meeting with the Tsar. Will this meeting bring about the answers he is
looking for?
Author David Dickinson spins an intriguing tale of murder, espionage and
conspiracy in this thriller. A very good pre-World War I thriller.
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