Critique of Criminal Reason

Michael Gregorio's superb Critique of Criminal Reason ... a vivid evocation of the dirty, everyday life in an 18th-century mid-Europe threatened by an imminent invasion by Napoleon. The outcome is a tremendous shock, but all the more impressive because this sleuth seems to have been selected in the expectation that his inquiries will fail. -- Gerald Kaufman The Scotsman 20070624 A sweeping and brilliantly detailed read ... Gregorio threads philosophical underpinnings through his dark narrative with genuine assurance. -- Barry Forshaw Crime Time 20060401 The setting is brilliantly portrayed and the harsh, superstitious, masculine world springs to life, making one very glad not to be there and then ... a well-written and intellectually demanding novel. Literary Review 20060701 great fun, and what it might lack in serious thought and Holmesian deductive dazzle it makes up for in atmosphere, personality and vim ... this ambitious debut, the first in a proposed series of Stiffeniis novels by the pseudonymous Anglo-Italian crime-writing couple Michael Gregorio (now that's a mystery), will awaken your interest in 19th -century Prussian criminology, and may well turn you onto reading something of the real Kant. -- Melissa Katsoulis Sunday Telegraph 20060730 Crime novels set in Prussia havel always been difficult to obtain. Thank goodness, then, for the arrival of magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis. The Herald 20060722 Quite the best element in Michael Gregorio's novel is its setting: a luridly tinted version of Konigsberg, where everything is freezing, sinister or decaying ... [it] works splendidly as the location for a grimmer-than-Grimm historical fairy tale for grown-ups ... Gregorio gives us an unusual perspective on history and has a gift for melodrama. This novel is the first of a series, and it will be interesting to discover where Siffeniis goes from here. -- Andrew Taylor Independent 20060804 this novel is an absorbing read ... and if the sequel is as entertaining as this slow-burner, he has longevity ... Necromancers and graphic descriptions of poverty ensure this read isn't always comfortable yet the many twists guarantee you are guessing until the end ... Delicious use of the English language throughout ensures you are captivated, educated and entertained throughout. -- Ian Clarkson Birmingham Post 20060729 Michael Gregorio's Critique of Criminal Reason is a solid, atmospheric example of the burgeoning historical-figure-turned-detective genre ... Great fun. -- Daneet Steffens Time Out 20060823