What if your family tree included professional killers… and you were next in line?
In his fifth novel, The Tailor of Riga, Jonathan Harries delivers a darkly comic tale of reluctant inheritance, historical absurdity, and a thousand years of extremely questionable family tradition.
The narrator never planned to enter the family business. In fact, upon learning what his ancestors had been doing for seventy generations, his response was simple: stabbing people for a living was not, strictly speaking, his cup of tea.
Unfortunately, when your relatives have spent a millennium quietly assassinating tyrants, spies, and assorted villains across history, opting out isn’t quite so easy.
From pre-war Europe to Cold War intrigue, he uncovers a lineage that somehow intersects with some of history’s most infamous figures. His great-grandfather was allegedly hired by British intelligence to eliminate Jack the Ripper. Other relatives were present for the attempted assassination of Lenin. And family anecdotes include spies, monarchs, and catastrophically bad life choices — often in the same afternoon.
What begins as disbelief slowly becomes reluctant participation. Armed with inherited skills he never asked for, the narrator is drawn into a world where morality is negotiable, coincidence is suspiciously frequent, and family expectations are deadly serious.
Blending satire, historical fiction, and sharp, self-deprecating humor, The Tailor of Riga is a story about legacy, identity, and the awkward reality of discovering you may be uniquely qualified for a career you never wanted.
Perfect for readers who enjoy:Dark comedy and dry witAlternative history with real historical figuresReluctant anti-heroesStories in the vein of Good Omens, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, and British comedic fictionAbsurd, irreverent, and unexpectedly thoughtful, this novel asks a simple question:
If your family had been quietly shaping history for centuries… would you really be able to walk away?
