The Yard (original 2012; edition 2012)

It’s difficult for me to imagine a time when police work didn’t involve fingerprinting and the forensics we have today, but we all know that time existed. The Yard takes us back to that time, with Jack the Ripper fresh in the memory of the public, and a lot of people calling into question the ability of the police.

This novel opens with the discovery of a body in a trunk at a train station. The body belongs to Inspector Little, and no one knows why he is dead, just that it likely has something to do with his work. Without the use of modern technology, even determining what weapon might have been used to kill someone is difficult, let alone tracing down the person who did the killing...

To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog. ( )

First Line: London, 1889. Nobody noticed when Inspector Christian Little of Scotland Yard disappeared and nobody was looking for him when he was found.

Just months after Scotland Yard spectacularly failed to catch Jack the Ripper, Colonel Sir Edward Bradford has created the Murder Squad-- twelve men put in sole charge of solving all the violent crimes committed in the largest city in the world. Morale has never been lower at the Yard, for their failure to catch the Ripper has turned the population of London against them-- and now someone is killing them, sewing the police officers' eyes and mouths shut and stuffing their bodies in steamer trunks. Detective Inspector Walter Day, the newest member of the Murder Squad, will need all the help he can get from Dr. Bernard Kingsley (the Yard's first forensic pathologist) and Detective Constable Nevil Hammersmith if these murders of their colleagues are to stop.

Even before I finished this book, I wanted to have copies of it magically appear in the hands of all historical mystery fans. When I did finish it, I had to restrain myself from dancing around the house in delight. What a marvelous book!

Alex Grecian's descriptive powers would have Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins clapping him on the back in approval. In The Yard, Victorian London comes to life in all its smelly, crowded and depraved glory. Some readers may glance at the book's almost 600-page bulk and walk away, but this story reads like a house afire. The murders of the policemen aren't the only crimes Day, Kingsley and Hammersmith wind up investigating either. When the story begins, Day has only been at the Yard a week. As he becomes more accustomed to the men with whom he's working and with workplace routine, he and the other two men begin to pick out similarities in other crimes... and sometimes things just fall into his lap.

Grecian does not leave his villains under cloaks of invisibility until it's time for the ending reveal. No, one by one they raise their masks, pull back their hoods, and show themselves to us. What's brilliant about this is that there's absolutely no reason to despair. This book is about so much more than identifying a few criminals. Knowing their identities and watching them follow the good guys around during their investigations really ratchets up the suspense-- especially when the chase leads Day and Hammersmith through narrow streets in the dead of night or in the creepiest asylum you'll ever have the "pleasure" of exploring.

But more than lush descriptions and an intricate plot, The Yard is about people. We learn the backgrounds of Day, Kingsley and Hammersmith. We come to know them, to like them, and to care about their safety. We see the way they interact with people from every level of society. We learn what they believe to be important. I know that one of the basic tenets of crime fiction is justice-- to right wrongs, to speak for the dead. The Yard does all this and much more, but it's been a long, long time since I've read a book that was filled with so much compassion and humanity. Not only do Day, Kingsley and Hammersmith see the absolute worst that we humans can do-- they still believe we're worth fighting for, and worth saving. This book spoke to me on so many levels. I can't recommend it highly enough. ( )

I enjoyed The Yard by Alex Grecian, an engaging debut mystery set in Victorian London. Scotland Yard is dealing with a distrusting public after its failure to capture Jack the Ripper, and now one of its own has been killed and crammed into a steamer trunk. Grecian successfully creates a grimy, atmospheric, and often odor-ific (see excerpt below) London. He also gives us some great characters to follow as this series unfolds. Inspector Walter Day, new to the city from Devon, is the pup who's asked to solve the case, having been mysteriously anointed by another revered and now-retired inspector. He's an open-faced, compassionate fellow who doesn't lack for wit or bravery, and has married well above himself to the devoted but previously pampered Claire. He's assisted by the clever Dr. Kingsley, who's keen on forensics in a world where most have no idea what he's talking about. Fingerprinting? Looking for a pattern among crimes? Analyzing threads and puncture wounds? For some, he might as well be from Mars. Part of the enjoyment is seeing many now-accepted practices at their outset.

There's also Constable Hammersmith, who is indefatigable and inspired by childhood memories of the mine-working he has now avoided. The Yard is run by Colonel Sir Edward Bradford, who is hampered by the loss of an arm, but is a stand-up guy concerned about his men, and nobody's fool.

Here's the non-spoilery excerpt, involving "Hobgate", the worst of the "workhouses" for the mentally ill ("just a step away from the asylum") and for vagrants "unable or unwilling to work and possibly violent":

"The ground floor of the workhouse was one huge room, partitioned off into smaller chambers. The walls on both sides of the makeshift hallway had been hastily thrown up and were rough, so close that splinters snagged at the sleeves of their overcoats. Day inhaled thought his mouth to avoid the odors of human waste and body odor. Every six feet there was a hole cut in each wall. A doorway without a door, so small that a grown man would have to crawl through it.

Day and Kingsley divided the hall, each of them taking a side, and stooped to peer into each room that they passed. The lantern light cast long moving shadows, but there was little else to see inside the chambers. They were all identical, two long platforms fastened to the walls and covered with straw, a walkway between them that ended at a second door-hole. Each platform was deep enough to sleep three men, and the snores echoing throughout the hall were evidence that Hobgate had few vacancies. At the far end of each room was a chamber pot. A single sniff was enough to confirm that the pots were rarely emptied."

Day and Kingsley hope to rescue someone from this rat warren, and the killer may be loose in it, too. There are other threads - child kidnapping and exploitation, revenge killings involving men with beards, witnesses who have their own background stories connected to the crimes - and those threads may be tied together too neatly for some in the end. But the detailed projection of life in London at that time, the many well-drawn characters, and the engaging story that keeps the pages turning, make this one a winner. ( )

Perfect review from Alison Flood
Slick">http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/24/the-yard-alex-grecian-review

Slick and sick is how fictional serial killers generally come these days, but not in debut novelist Alex Grecian's historical thriller The Yard, where the murderer stumbles from killing to killing, chases the child he has abducted down London's streets in a black hansom cab and attempts to snaffle damning evidence off an inspector's desk. Throw in two deranged prostitutes and a dead child abandoned up a chimney, poisonings and throat slittings galore, amidst lashings of London fog, and you get a story that is bonkers, exuberant – and hard to put down.

The scene is London, 1889, a year after Jack the Ripper's last victim died, and the city is struggling to come to terms with his crimes.

When the body of a Scotland Yard detective is found in a trunk, his lips and eyes sewn shut, and a series of bearded men are found brutally murdered, their faces neatly shaved, it looks like at least one more serial killer is on the loose. The new man on the Yard's murder squad, Walter Day, just up from Devon, is put on the grisly case, with the help of forensic science pioneer Dr Bernard Kingsley. But can they find the killer before more people die?

Grecian switches between the perspectives of his bald killer, nervously watching the police on his tail and offing anyone who stumbles upon his secret, and those of various policemen on the trail of a tangled array of criminals. He handles their disbelief, their horror, that another serial killer could be plaguing London in the wake of the Ripper, very well. "The Ripper was out there somewhere in the grey city. Or perhaps the Ripper was dead and gone, having destroyed the confidence of The Yard and of the citizens who no longer trusted The Yard to protect them," he writes. "Whether he was gone or not, it hardly mattered. Saucy Jack had gifted them all the idea of himself. Others like him circled like lions around the herd. The city was changed ... He opened a door to certain deranged possibilities and there will be more like him."

The American author, who previously created the graphic novel series Proof, "remarkably never visited London before or during the writing of The Yard", boasts his publisher. He has done well, then, to summon up such an atmospheric, disturbing vision of the city at the end of the 19th century, from the match girl killed by phosphorus poisoning to the horrors of the workhouse. And he's a dab hand at fearsomely gruesome murders and autopsies. It's a shame his research didn't extend to his dialogue, however, which is peppered with anachronisms ("no worries"; "He's gonna hurt me"). And did he really have to call his Welsh coalminers' village Collier, and one of his London detectives Hammersmith?

There are also terrible puns, his policemen have a nasty habit of falling asleep in tight spots, and a few too many subplots. But don't let that put you off. Grecian is making no pretensions to a highbrow literary version of Victorian London, so don't expect one. Instead this debut – the first in a series – is a pell-mell race to a frankly preposterous finale: gory, lurid and tons of guilty fun.

( )

Absolutely briiliantt. Looking forward to the sequel. ( )

In 1889 London, the morale of the Metropolitan Police is at a low ebb. They were never able to catch Jack the Ripper and are not much respected by the city's citizenry. They're underpaid, called "bluebottles" or worse, and their status in society is at a critical point. Colonel Sir Edward Bradford, police commissioner, is determined to turn the department around and build a professional Murder Squad that uses inventive methods to track down killers.

Just when the last thing Scotland Yard needs is more killings that could panic the city, a gruesome discovery is made at the Euston Square train station. The body of Inspector Little of the Murder Squad is found there, his corpse stuffed in a trunk with his legs broken to cram them in and, horrifically, his lips and eyes sewn shut. Sir Edward makes solving the murder his squad's first priority, appointing Inspector Walter Day, newly arrived in London from Devon, as the lead investigator.

Inspector Day will work with the young, eager and relentlessly hardworking Constable Hammersmith, and the first forensic pathologist in England, Dr. Bernard Kingsley. These three, together with other members of the Murder Squad, juggle the Little murder case with several other cases, including one involving a bizarre series of throat-cuttings.

When I began reading the book, I didn't much like it. The writing in the Prologue and the first part of the book is rough, with a lot of unclear descriptions, odd statements (like saying that there was no hierarchy at Scotland Yard), and non sequiturs. It soon became clear that the murder plots involve psychologically deranged killers, which is frequently a lazy and derivative choice. There is a subplot involving crimes against children; a topic I can't stand reading about and that is all too often cynically used for shock value, but at least I can say there are no graphic descriptions.

Despite my misgivings, I kept reading and got caught up in the story, which became increasingly tense and involving. So much so that I wanted to overlook the fact that the murder methods and, to some extent, the choices of victims, don't bear close examination. They just don't make any kind of sense, and there is far too much coincidence involved in the murders and in other circumstances in the book. (I can't say more without spoilers, but I would be happy to discuss the plot issues in comments if anyone would like.) There are quite a few distractingly anachronistic expressions along the way as well, and scenes that seem disjointed and inconsistent with other parts of the book.

With such serious criticisms, why do I give the book three stars? It's the characters. Author Alex Grecian develops Sir Edward, Inspector Day, Constable Hammersmith and Dr. Kingsley into lively, appealing personalities I became attached to and wanted to know more about. Even second-tier characters, like Day's wife, Kingsley's daughter, the "dancing man" Henry Mayhew, Blackleg, and the other members of the Murder Squad were well drawn and compelling. Grecian based many of them, including Sir Edward, Inspector Day and Dr. Kingsley, on real people. He also clearly did extensive research on the Murder Squad and the history of police investigative methods; for example, showing us Dr. Kingsley's first experiments with fingerprinting and Sir Edward's directive for detectives to begin working in pairs. I enjoyed these historical insights and the atmosphere of Victorian London.

With his talent for creating strong characters and atmosphere, I hope that Grecian can develop equally strong skills in plotting. He plans future books featuring the Murder Squad and, if he can overcome his considerable plotting problems, I will look forward to reading them. ( )

This was a very well written mystery. The author did a wonderful job of capturing the feel of London after Jack the Ripper and created interesting charcters that were easy to connect with. Can't wait for the next one ( )

My blog post about this book is at this link ( )

Great read. Really fast paced and great plot twist and turns. Also told from multiple points of view which I like !! Some of the story lines wrapped up a little quickly and neatly, but overall I would recommend and plan to buy the next book in the series. ( )

I read The Yard several months ago and though I had written a review at the time, but it appears I did not.

Looking back on the work half a year later, I recall it as being an adequate historical thriller / mystery. Although I like historical mysteries, this one wasn’t to my taste. I remember thinking how unfortunate that the publishers were comparing it to the work of Caleb Carr because, frankly, The Yard doesn’t even begin to approach the quality of The Alienist. I also recall being unhappy about the women in the novel; they were poorly realized, never fleshed out.

While The Yard certainly read as the first in a series, I’m not particularly motivated to watch for the next installment.

A historical novel can either have well developed characters, a completely immersive quality or a well plotted story. Pick two. At best. The Yard is a very immersive tale with smooth dialog and characters your mind's eye can easily follow around. It is not by any means a deep dissertation on how the inner workings of Scotland Yard developed right after the Ripper case. Although you get the feeling that the author is spot on describing the sentiment and chaos of the early detective force of London.

We have a detective who begins his career, a ghastly murder and many circumstantial individuals all mulling around the dark streets of Victorian London. The novel is low on facts, much on dialog and character interaction. Explanations are solid and logical but quite far fetched, which is the aspect of the novel which is the most grating. This is unfortunate because the train running through the text goes smoothly from plot point to plot point and teases you along.

Considering that this is the first novel by this author I am expecting a much better sequel, which I'm eager to read. If only to see how the author has processed all the reviews and feedback from the this one. ( )

Really enjoyed this murder mystery! ( )

As part of the newly created "Murder Squad" of Scotland Yard, shortly after the Ripper killings have finally stopped, Walter Day is not sure he even belongs in London with the other elite investigators. But when he lands an incredibly difficult case--the murder of another detective on the squad--he knows it's both a chance to prove himself to the department and to decide once and for all if this is the life that he wants. With a focus on early forensics, mental health and police procedures, this novel is not only a gripping cat-and-mouse chase but also a fascinating historical journey.

To be honest, some of the subject matter in this story was right on the border of my comfort zone (child abuse, violence, etc.) and I kept considering putting the book down and walking away from it. But the story was intriguing so I stuck with it and was rewarded with well-developed characters and a satisfying ending. I even ended up with a couple of crushes on some flawed but decent men. Overall, this is a very strong first novel that, I would guess, will likely begin a series. And, with the strength of the characters and the interesting historical setting, I'm sure it will be one I'll keep up with.

http://webereading.com/2012/10/rip-vii-read-1-yard.html ( )

Excellent police procedural set in Victorian London. New to Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, Detective Inspector Day must find the serial killer who has been murdering his fellow detectives. ( )

I really enjoyed this story about the beginnings of Scotland Yard and the London police force. I wish the author had others to read. ( )

Scotland Yard is confronted with the murder of one of their own on the heels of their failure to apprehend Jack the Ripper. The Yard's detectives are in need of a win yet Walter Day, the newest detective, is assigned the case. With the help of forensic pathologist Dr. Bernard Kingsley, Day sets out to solve the case and get justice for the Yard. Grecian's debut novel is a clever mystery with endearing characters. I am looking forward to the next installment in this new series. ( )

What better time to read a Victorian pastiche than while in the middle of a real Victorian novel binge? Despite conflicting opinions on this book, I decided to get it. Sadly, I won't be getting any more of them (of course it's to be a series). It just fell flat on so many fronts; plot, craft, organization, and characterization.

Plot-wise there were too many threads and while some were connected, some weren't and those detracted from the main one. The main one is no mystery to the reader and we're forced to watch our bumbling detectives go round and round the clues with hardly any headway. Unlike actual Victorian novelists, Grecian gives us plenty of time with the killer and we get to know him, but not in any concrete way. Sure, he's pretty twisted, but we never find out why he does what he does, how many other boys he's "adopted", what he does to them or what he wants them for (other than as a replacement "son") or what happened to his original family. Hints, sure, but such nebulous ones that they signal that the author doesn't think any of it is important. I found the scenes featuring Fen's plight (especially his thwarted escape attempt) and the general treatment of children in that era to be well-drawn, but strangely Fen's predicament doesn't come across as dire somehow. I'd have loved to have had more focus on Cinderhouse and his criminal past rather than constantly being diverged to the Beard Killer scenario. Oy that was annoying.

I found the book to be poorly organized with too many flashbacks trying to establish personality, background and motives for people. They weren't necessary and one of the most egregiously annoying was Hammersmith's story of his boyhood work in a mine. Somehow this was supposed to illustrate how lost, alone and terrified of dark underground places he was, but when he actually had to go into a dark underground place (alone!), he was fine. Moreso, he was the victor and won with hardly breaking a sweat either mentally or physically. Sloppy. The vignettes from the past about Day and his mentor (an irrelevant person completely absent from this story) and Day and his wife were completely unnecessary and distracting. Character can be established, and established well, without taking the reader into ratholes away from the main action. Oh and how many frigging people did we need in this story? Between the cops, the whores, the criminals, a landlady, the Shaws, Mrs. Dick, Mrs. Day, The Dancing Man, Dr. Kingsley and his kid, Fen, Mr. Cinderhouse, his coachman and other assorted victims and perpetrators, it's a madhouse of short chapters, backstory and choppy action scenes. Ugh.

The most interesting one out of the masses though, Dr. Kingsley, is left almost without explanation. Somehow he's become attached to the police with regard to dead bodies, but not officially which doesn't make sense. Neither does his daughter working at his side. In what steampunk universe? He seems to operate for free and despite not having any visible means of support, can maintain morgue and criminal forensics lab. The bit about his sickening search for his wife among the myriad dead is reason enough for his campaign, but it seems far-fetched. I guess the CSI Effect is too irresistible and Dr. Kinglsey will no doubt become a Mary Sue of forensic analysis in coming books.

The writing is tolerably good, but far too modern. Peppered with words and phrases like "okay", "closure" and "forensics" it just didn't have the feel of a Victorian novel at all. Yes, it focused on lurid details, as many sensation novels did, but it did it with vicious little sentences and too many specifics. Actual Victorian novels don't do that; they ease you into ideas and sentiments and leave a lot of the specifics up to your imagination. Also I think if he really wanted to mimic a Victorian novel he should have addressed the reader directly about the story, the characters and the events. It's a technique that's hardly used today, but was part-and-parcel of storytelling in the Victorian era.

The casual cruelty pervasive in Victorian London was nicely illustrated though and reminded me a bit of what Dickens did so well in his novels; showing things as they were, right down in all the ugliness and vice. Maybe that was why there were so many threads and characters vying for our attention in this book. I'm sure the burgeoning police force of the time was overwhelmed and ill-equipped to deal with the magnitude of urban crime. Child-snatching was common and, while I'm not 100% sure, seems to have been largely ignored back then. Several cops are completely blase about missing kids and poor Fen gets no help at all until the very end. The workhouse scene was pretty chilling; not for the action, but for the atmosphere. When Scrooge drops his line in A Christmas Carol about the treadmill and the poor law, workhouses and prisons, it is no wonder the two charity gentlemen are horrified. It's no wonder the lady and her husband, so baffling to Scrooge when he's with The Ghost of Christmas Present, absolutely refuse to go to one.

Like, In the Shadow of Gotham, The Yard is compared to The Alienist by Caleb Carr and once again comes off loser in that contest. Me? I'll stick to that one and the originals.

Read more: http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-yard-by-alex-grecian-2012.html#ixz... ( )

A thoroughly enjoyable and well-developed mystery. I assume this will be the first of a series: the characters and context lend themselves to more in the future. ( )

I really enjoyed The Yard, the first entry into a new mystery series, Murder Squad. The setting is Victorian England just after the Jack the Ripper murders. Unlike traditional mysteries the bad guys are laid out in the onset of the novel. The fun is in watching the cat and mouse game go down between the members of the Murder Squad and their prey.

What really set this novel apart for me was how likeable the Murder Squad was. Some of the standouts include Colonel Sir Edward Bradford who invents a pension to help the struggling wife of one of the murdered detectives. The way he handles a particularly cheeky detective who likes to tell jokes about the Colonel's missing left arm is absolutely priceless.

Nevil Hammersmith begins life as a poor boy working in a coal mine. He transcends his tragic beginnings to make a spot on the Murder Squad. When a small boy that no one cares about is found dead in a chimney he makes it his personal mission to bring the killer to justice.

Walter Day is another admirable member of the squad. He is intelligent and very disciplined. He fell in love and married Claire who was above his social class and he spends everyday trying to live up to the standards he thinks she aspires to. He needn't worry though because material things aren't as important to Claire as is her husbands exemplary treatment of her. Walter's detective skills will be put to the ultimate test when two members of the squad end up murdered and their bodies are found with their eyes and mouths sewn shut.

My favorite character of all was Dr. Bernard Kingsley the city coroner who is aided in his job by his daughter. His respect to the dead is truly touching. In addition to acting as coroner, Dr. Kingsley is also a pioneer in the field of forensics. In this novel he teaches the Murder Quad how fingerprints can be used to solve a crime.

The novel has a lot of well developed characters and many plot twists, turns, and surprises so it keeps the readers attention. Once I hit the last two hundred pages I could not put the book down. I look forward to following the further adventures of the Murder Squad. ( )

The Yard is one of the most engrossing thrillers I have read in years. It is set in London in 1889, one year after the Ripper murders. Inspector Walter Day, who has been in the Murder Squad for just one week, is given the case of the murder of a fellow police detective whose body was found in a steamer trunk. There are lots of directions to go in the search for the killer, but it isn't long until a second detective shows up dead, and there are several other murders to solve that may or may not be related. Grecian does an excellent job of twisting the threads of the stories of three very interesting characters into a unified whole. It was definitely a page-turner. What I especially liked was the way each of the detectives in the squad was developed. I didn't find the book cliched at all. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to other books (it definitely sets the reader up for sequels). ( )

Victorian London is a cesspool of crime, and Scotland Yard has only twelve detectives - known as 'The Murder Squad' - to investigate countless murders every month. Created after the Metropolitan Police's spectacular failure to capture Jack the Ripper, The Murder Squad suffers rampant public contempt. They have failed their citizens. But no one can anticipate the brutal murder of one of their own . . . one of the twelve . . .

When Walter Day, the squad's newest hire, is assigned the case of the murdered detective, he finds a strange ally in the Yard's first forensic pathologist, Dr. Bernard Kingsley. Together they track the killer, who clearly is not finished with The Murder Squad . . . but why?

My Thoughts:

I was disappointed with this book. To say it is set post Jack the Ripper, Victorian London and I could have been anywhere. The book had no atmosphere and I felt it was rather flat.

The idea behind the book seemed ok but it just had didn’t live up to it. I can see that the characters could develop more if there are more books with them in. As it stands now I didn’t connect with any of the characters and they didn’t seem real enough.

So it is with deep regret that after nearly half the book, trying to keep going I have given up. ( )

"The Yard" by Alex Grecian is a thoroughly engaging Victorian mystery. It compares admirably to "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr. While reading you get a feel for the time period. I love being transported back in time whilst reading. I loved the characters. I'm not spoiling the story to say I am quite happy that the ending leaves room for a sequel.

Many thanks librarything for a great read! ( )

The Yard is split up into three major sections, one for each day that it takes Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad to figure out who is killing its men and to hunt the killer down. What makes Grecian’s novel a bit different from other murder mysteries is the revealing of the murderer to readers very early on in the book. To readers the book then becomes more of a thriller in which we watch the Murder Squad struggle to figure out what we already know before any more of them are killed. My first thought when the killer was revealed was, ‘Oh, man! This sucks. Now I can’t try to figure it out on my own. This book isn’t going to work.’ But it did work, and it worked very well. Knowing the identity of the killer didn’t at all take away from the thrill of watching the Murder Squad try to figure it out in a very limited amount of time (three days wasn’t a lot of time when the police officers of Victorian London didn’t have all of the resources and technology that our police officers have today). Additionally, other crimes are taking place in the city throughout the course of the investigation and the clues left behind during those crimes are getting (unknowingly) confused with clues from the case the Murder Squad is working on. This also adds to the angst the reader feels while watching the Murder Squad do its thing. All of the different plot lines come together to make a very interesting mystery/thriller that is very enjoyable to read.

Read my full review on Between the Covers... ( )

In the aftermath of Jack the Ripper’s serial killings, Londoners trust Scotland Yard’s detectives less than ever. When a detective is found brutally killed, the murder squad scrambles to uncover his killer, both to mete out justice and to prove the Yard’s own worth at the dawn of a more vicious age. Alex Grecian’s Victorian London is viscerally mean, filled with filth and disease and unrest. But his characters are a delight, from the eccentric Doctor Kingsley, a pioneer in the field of medical forensics, to the good Inspector Day, an upstanding new recruit at the Yard whose reputation is on the line. This is a perfect summer thriller, a quick and dirty and delicious. ( )

Advanced Reading copy recieved as part of the Penguin Proof Reading group. Lovely Hardback copy.

There is the odd typographical error (mainly around pages 365/366) but as this is an ARC, then it's a small and almost expected event.

Right, onto the book

Set in Victorian London still recovering from Jack the Ripper, where children are still being sent up chimneys by the chimneysweeps, the Metropolitan police are trying to get public confidence, and someone is killing Policemen.

The book deals with a police service starting out in a world that doesnt trust them, there is no concept of profiling or Serial Killers. CSI this isnt. Fingerprints are only just being "discovered". There is no DNA, blood analysis, mobile phones and no cars in the car pool.

There was some wording (e.g. "gaining closure" over a death) which I'm not entirely sure was in use in late 19th Century London.

Once I settled down to read, it was paced well. Couple of threads that were started but which didnt tie up (e.g Day's wife looks like she's going to get involved more, but that peters out......do have to admit this book only goes over three days so if it had gone longer there might have worked out different).

On the whole easy and enjoyable book and this was an excellent debut novel ( )