A Negotiable Instrument

WHEN FRIENDS ARE FALSE AND MONEY IS FAKE, MURDER MAKES NO CONCESSIONS.

St Petersburg, The Russian Empire - December 1909

A man’s butchered body is found at a meat market, hands hacked off and nailed to the wall, tongue sliced out, a wad of fake roubles stuffed in the gap.

Troubled by echoes of his past, Inspector of Investigation Tursunov understands the message, but his efforts to unmask the killer are blocked at every turn by the security apparatus of a state on the brink of revolution.

Caught in a lethal web of political ambition, rival gangs and the ruthless games of a childhood friend, disturbed by the attractions of his cadet’s young sister, Tursunov must choose between family, career and a truth that will lead to a deadly reckoning.