Death on the Nevskii Prospekt

December 4, 2006
Dickinson's solid sixth Lord Francis Powerscourt turn-of-the-20th-century mystery doesn't quite rise to the level of some of the better earlier entries in the series. In the wake of the upper-class investigator's brush with death in Death Called to the Bar
(2006), his wife, Lucy, has prevailed on him to seek less dangerous pursuits—like researching cathedrals—rather than "detections, investigations, murders, mysteries." Predictably, Powerscourt emerges from his short-lived retirement after members of the political elite exhort Lucy to release him from his vow so he can travel to Russia, where a British diplomat who met secretly with the czar has been reported murdered. Powerscourt's probe, coming during growing Russian unrest that presages the revolution to come, brings him into conflict both with his own foreign ministry and the sinister Russian secret police, the Okhrana. Relying more on action than on deduction, the plot also suffers from the diminished role of Lucy, who's usually more involved as a sleuthing partner.