Summer 1880 in Lipetsk, a spa town in Russia.
The elderly and cantankerous Princess Belskaya suffers a violent reaction while taking a mud bath at the famous Lipetsk Sanatorium. Soon after, she dies.
Dr Roldugin, the medical director of the sanatorium, is at a loss to explain the sudden and shocking death. He points the finger at Anna Zhdanova, a medical assistant who was supervising the princess’s treatment. When Anna disappears, it looks to some like an admission of guilt.
Suspicion also falls on the princess’s nephew Belsky, who appears far from grief-stricken at his aunt’s death. He now stands to inherit the entire family fortune, which will enable him to marry his fiancée Amélie Damour.
Meanwhile, investigating magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky arrives in Lipetsk from St Petersburg, seeking treatment after a nervous breakdown.
Virginsky is befriended by the Babkins, an elderly couple staying at the sanatorium. Learning that he is a detective, they urge him to investigate the suspicious circumstances of the princess’s death. But Virginsky is unwilling to be drawn in.
Then, while wandering the streets, Virginsky overhears a conversation that he is unable to ignore. Believing he now has information about the whereabouts of the missing woman, he tries to alert the local magistrate but is dismissed as a fantasist.
And so he reluctantly undertakes his own investigation, alone.
But is Virginsky getting closer to the truth or walking straight into a deadly trap?
Death Of A Princess by RN Morris, the third in his Empire of Shadows series, is published on 7 November, 2024. He’s writing us a feature for December.
Our list of over 190 books coming out this year may give you some more historical fiction reading ideas.
