I realise this is a novel and and not history as such, but a few things have raised questions in my mind. Was murder so prevalent in Victorian London that the police would ignore a corpse in the street? Did people really have wooden teeth? ( )

An enjoyable book, but not without its problems.

It took me ages to finish The Fiend In Human, not because it was boring, but because it was so rich and dense with characters and period detail. I had to take breaks in order to take it all in.

There were some problems with the pacing, and some characters seemed interchangeable, but overall it was an entertaining book.

Beware, though, Gray stays true to the attitudes of Victorian England, so there are some references that might trip a reader up. References to people being in the 'n***er line of work', where they paint their skin brown and play instruments with ivory carved to look like bones, or the many references to the subtle misogyny of the age may be too much for some readers. I give this as a warning. ( )

An enjoyable book, but not without its problems.

It took me ages to finish The Fiend In Human, not because it was boring, but because it was so rich and dense with characters and period detail. I had to take breaks in order to take it all in.

There were some problems with the pacing, and some characters seemed interchangeable, but overall it was an entertaining book.

Beware, though, Gray stays true to the attitudes of Victorian England, so there are some references that might trip a reader up. References to people being in the 'n***er line of work', where they paint their skin brown and play instruments with ivory carved to look like bones, or the many references to the subtle misogyny of the age may be too much for some readers. I give this as a warning. ( )

Not particularly enjoyable or interesting. A Victorian Thriller, set in the 1850's but written in 2003. I think the author managed the style and the sense of place well but the story was a muddle. It took forever to get going and then just meandered along to an end, without any real sense of drama. I just fininshed it to finish it and I didn't really care what happened at all. I think I've probably read enough BookCrossing books of late and I need to get back into my own collection for a little while, read some books that I picked!

This is one of those books where the whole thing doesn't make sense until you've finished it. Written in a definitely Victorian mode, it is both a tour of Victorian London and a mystery. If you're not used to writing done in this style, it can be a bit off-putting, to say the least.

The characters are well drawn and the story is a good one. The main character is a Mr. Edmund Whitty, a reporter for The Falcon, a newspaper that has no qualms with sensationalizing to try to outdo the rival papers. Sadly, Mr. Whitty is most times down on his luck, and in debt to some creepy character known as The Ratter, who has a very bizarre way of getting back at those who don't pay up. That scene made me cringe just thinking about it! Whitty also puts away a little too much alcohol, enjoys being a part-time opium eater, and is just an inventive ploy away from being tossed out of his rented room. In this story, the buzz on the streets is that a serial killer is roaming the streets of London, strangling his victims with a white gentleman's scarf. While the infamous "Chokee Bill" is put away in prison, however, the crimes continue, and Whitty, along with a very strange "patterer" named Mr. Owler, are trying to see that justice is done. Their quest: to get the wrong guy out of prison and put the right one in. I won't say more.

Quite well done, but it does have a tendency here and there to drag so that I found myself skimming a little to move things along. Overall, a pretty first in series. I would recommend it to those who enjoy a good novel set in Victorian London; people who pick this up expecting a cozy or easy read might be disappointed. ( )