God, don’t you hate it when authors plug their back catalogues? Well, forgive me, but on this day in 1881, the Emperor of Russia, Alexander ll was assassinated in Petersburg by the People’s Will terrorist group. Why it happened and how is the story I tell in my novel To Kill A Tsar. Critics seemed to like it, and you may too. ‘Elegantly serpentine plotting and finely etched characters confirm his place in the front rank of the new English thriller writers’ (Daily Mail) ‘A very accomplished novel which can be enjoyed as a gripping and moving thriller. Yet it is more than that, for it invites us to reflect on questions of morality, and on that age-old question of when, if ever, violent means may be held to justify worthy ends; whether, indeed, such ends can ever be achieved if the means are inescapably criminal’ (Allan Massie, Scotsman)