The Black Country

First Line: It was an unusual egg.


The little girl who discovers a human eyeball in a bird's nest sparks fear in a small mining village in the black country of the English Midlands due in no small part to the fact that three members of a prominent family have disappeared. The local constable knows that he's in over his head, so he sends for help to Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad. Inspector Walter Day, Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith, and Dr. Bernard Kingsley have two days to solve the case, but they have no earthly clue what they're getting themselves into. Everyone has a secret in this tiny community, and most of the villagers' lives seem to be subsumed by superstition.

Alex Grecian's The Yard was one of the few books I purchased during my show more recent trip to the UK, and when I'd read it and turned the last page, all I could say was "Wow!" I'm thrilled to say that The Black Country has now firmly placed this author on my Must Buy list.

Grecian has a very visual style of writing that makes me feel as though I'm right in the thick of things. His setting of a small mining village that's virtually cut off from the rest of the world adds the perfect Gothic atmosphere-- especially since the mine has tunneled underneath most of the buildings, and the town has been slowly sinking into the shafts for years.

Taking these three out of London gives them a chance to bond and form a relationship away from all the other characters-- in particular Day and Hammersmith-- and although I did miss some of the cast from The Yard, this element worked very well. The villagers add just the right touch of helpfulness and obstinacy and are brilliant at showing how people's histories intertwine in such a remote place. In fact their closely woven lives add all sorts of complications to the detectives' investigation.

My mother once told me that she believed I must have been a miner in a previous life (one that died in a cave-in) because I refuse to go underground. If you see me at someplace like Carlsbad Caverns, rest assured that I'll be camped out in the parking lot. With my fanatical passion for these Murder Squad books, and with a character like Nevil Hammersmith who literally grew up in a coal mine, I think I shall have to resign myself to having the heebie jeebies when I read parts of these books because they do go down into the earth from time to time. In this case, however, these sections heighten the suspense and sense of danger... a delicious way of scaring myself, I suppose you would say.

Creepy atmosphere, wonderful characters, a convoluted mystery, all wrapped up in the Victorian Era's conflict between science and superstition. What a marvelous reading experience Alex Grecian has created! Do I recommend his Murder Squad series? You bet I do! show less

I'm really enjoying these historical police procedurals -- partly in their realistic creepiness, partly in their fascinating characters, mostly because the atmospheric settings are awesome and there's a certain joy in seeing who will drug/ beat-up/ rescue Hammersmith this time. I also really love how easy it is to interpret the things that happen as magical or cursed, and yet there is always a scientific explanation that comes through. I like seeing the superstitions held up against early forensic techniques -- and I like how well the stories illustrate where the superstitions come from/ how bizarre the realities of 19th century were -- when you think about reality of living in a town that is literally falling into the mining tunnels, show more it becomes easier to see why the residents would also believe in omens and portents. show less

Wow. Having read the other reviews, I feel like such a contrarian! But I'm afraid I found little to like about The Black Country.

First, there's the plot, which the Huffington Post called "devilishly dark .. brilliant and unexpected," but which I found to be stagey, ill-constructed and obvious. Simply loading down your plot down with venerable gothic tropes - creepy folklore, superstitious natives, spooky children, a mysterious plague, a deformed killer, a town sinking (literally) into the bowels of the earth - doesn't automatically generate gothic suspense, as this novel proves. Specific issues: (1) The creepy folklore ("Rawhead & Bloody Bones") never goes deeper than window-dressing, a give-away that the reader isn't really supposed to show more take any of it seriously; (2) the secret that the spooky children are hiding is pretty obvious; (3) the mysterious plague sickening the town bears no relation to any important element of the plot; (4) the deformed killer is as stagey and unrealistic as a Batman villain; (5) anyone familiar with gothic as a genre - or who, for that matter, ever had to read Fall of the House of Usher in high school - can predict the baldly obvious denouement coming from a mile away.

My second issue with the book has to do with Grecian's narrative style. Awkward compound sentences ("The three lapsed into an uneasy silence, and Day watched the scenery roll by outside the carriage") alternate with page after page of stultifying dull dialogue in which characters either exchange pleasantries or repeat information that the reader already knows - surely a Writing 101 no-no? And then there's those achingly detailed descriptions of weather or every-day transactions, which accomplish nothing but to slow the pace of the narrative to a crawl. Honestly, there's maybe enough content in this for a short story - certainly not a 350+ page novel. (And there's simply *no* excuse for 22 exclamation marks on one page, unless you're a teenage girl writing about unicorns or puppies.)

Finally, I hate sloppy storytelling, and this novel is full of it. Why does the town's constable, such a major character in the opening chapters, suddenly cease to exist halfway through the novel? Are we seriously supposed to believe that our deformed killer stalks his victim for years, inexplicably waiting for the most inconvenient possible opportunity to kill him? What was the actual source of the plague - does anyone ever figure it out? Why does Hammersmith's illness sometimes leave him disabled yet other times conveniently abate so that he can chase suspects, as the plot requires? Why even bother manufacturing the one-sided flirtation between the schoolmistress and the sergeant, as it does nothing to advance either characterization or plot? And what's the deal with the blue eyeball, which appears to belong to no one?

Lord knows I love a good gothic novel! Alas, despite all the gothicky goodness promised by Black Country's breathless back-cover blurb, this is just bad. show less

I liked The Black Country, Alex Grecian’s second crime procedural set back at the beginnings of Scotland Yard’s murder squad, better than the premier story The Yard. With Inspector Day called to assist with an investigation in a gritty Midlands coal mining hamlet, the smaller setting seems to bring a little more focus to the story than the wide stage of Victorian London. The sub-plots are more suitably tied together and the cast of characters provides proper candidates to consider as suspects. The somewhat creepy little village, slowly subsiding into the mines that created it, is evocatively drawn. In the end, though, I wished the crime had been solved by Day’s ingenuity or sidekick Hammersmith’s dogged pursuit, rather than show more almost unsolicited confessions. show less

Alex Grecian's "The Black Country" is a terrific follow-up to "The Yard," even if the premise at the beginning of the novel seems a bit weak. Inspector Walter Day, Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith and Dr. Bernard Kingsley supposedly comprise the Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, yet they are sent to the Black Country in the English Midlands to find three people -- a husband, wife and son -- who have been missing for a few days. This does turn into a murder case, but at the time the investigators are dispatched there is no hint of a murder, just some missing people. Would Scotland Yard really send its most elite team of detectives to a rural area to conduct a search? Couldn't lesser men handle such a chore?

It soon develops that these are the right show more men, after all. There is much going on here in addition to the missing family. Campbell, a large and mysterious stranger in town, appears to have something to hide. A sinister American with a rifle stalks the woods, trying to kill someone. The superstitious innkeeper tries to keep Day and Hammersmith from their search. Most of the townspeople are seriously ill. And this is a coal-mining own located directly above the mines that provide its livelihood. As a consequence, the whole village is sinking into the ground a few inches at a time.

The trio of detectives complement one another nicely. Day, whose wife is expecting their first child, shows compassion, extreme bravery and a mind that never stops working. Hammersmith is a big lug who is ill throughout most of the story, yet keeps chugging along, insisting he is fine. Kingsley is a master of early forensic medicine, finding clues where most detectives in the 19th century would never think to look for them.

Grecian's story is complex enough to be interesting, without becoming convoluted. It moves at a fast pace and, with its brief chapters, seems much shorter than its 386 pages. Anyone who loves Victorian mysteries with lots of atmosphere will enjoy "The Black Country." show less

The British Midlands. It's called the "Black Country" for a reason. Bad things happen there.

When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal-mining village--and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird's nest--the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad. Fresh off the grisly 1889 murders of The Yard, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith respond, but they have no idea what they're about to get into. The villagers have intense, intertwined histories. Everybody bears a secret. Superstitions abound. And the village itself is slowly sinking into the mines beneath it.

Not even the arrival of forensics pioneer Dr. Bernard Kingsley seems to help. In fact, the more the three of them investigate, show more the more they realize they may never be allowed to leave....


I really like The Yard, yes it did have some cultural and period clangers but it was a good yarn.

Just really puzzled by the Black Country.... it was if the writer had set it in some weird Transylvania/Wild West mash up with rifles behind the bar and wolves in the forest.

Characters behaved irrationally, forget what they said a few hours earlier or just plain disappeared without anyone giving them a second thought.

Shame because I like the style and inside there was a good story trying to get out but was drawn out , repetitive and over complicated with more red herrings than you could shake a stick at and a totally implausible ending.

I didn't hate it or even dislike it, the flash backs were well done and it did rollick along but was a disappointment compared to The Yard. I do dislike my reading to be jarred by such avoidable howlers such as wolves running around a Victorian forest (no pun intended).

Saying all that I will probably read the next instalment.... show less

I love mysteries set in Britain and I was particularly pleased with this one. I did not read the first book in this series, "The Yard," however I had no problems at all following it. I have to say, I adored the two main characters, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith and I intend to get "The Yard" so that I can then follow the series. The duo are sent to a very isolated mining village in the English Midlands to investigate a missing family (father, mother and son). Grecian did a wonderful job with the setting--the village is slowly collapsing into the mines which have, over the years, sprouted tunnels that now run under most of the village.

The story is set in winter and amidst the physical challenges of investigating the show more missing--and perhaps murdered--family members, there is the challenge of finding a safe place to stand when even the building are collapsing without warning around them. There is also a mysterious stranger who claims to be a birdwatcher but who is a little too concerned about the missing child to be quite the stranger he claims to be. There is a subplot revolving around him and his identity that dovetails with the main mystery nicely at the end.

My next remark is not really a complaint so much as an odd observation. This is the second book I've read lately where one of the characters has unfortunately been imprisoned in the notorious Andersonville prison during the Civil War. I just find it odd that this is coming up more and more. I guess authors are figuring it is a good (and gruesome) way to provide a heart-wrenching backstory for a character. I won't say more on this, other than just my observation, and I won't give away anything more about that to avoid any spoilers.

All-in-all, I found this to be a wonderful book and the nice thing is, you don't need to read the first one (The Yard) in order to enjoy this one. show less