Victorian London is a cesspool of crime, and Scotland Yard has only twelve detectives known as The Murder Squad to investigate thousands of 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?Filled with fascinating period detail, and real historical figures, this spectacular debut in a new series showcases the depravity of late Victorian London, the advent of criminology, and introduces a stunning new cast of characters sure to appeal to fans of The Sherlockian and The Alienist.
1889, London. Jack the Ripper's reign of terror is finally over, but a new one is just beginning... In the late Victorian era, as many as 96 bodies a month are pulled from the Thames, the majority of them with their throats slit. The broken body of a Scotland Yard detective is found in a steamer trunk, his eyes and lips sewn shut. Inspector Walter Day's first assignment is to catch the killer...
Scotland Yard's Murder Squad-and Jack the Ripper-return, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard.
In The Devil's Workshop, London discovered that Jack the Ripper was back, sending the city-and Scotland Yard's Murder Squad-into chaos. But now it is even worse. Not only is the Ripper still at large, but so is another killer just as bad.
For Inspector Walter Day, it has been a difficult time. His wife has given birth to twins, his hostile in-laws have come to stay, and a leg injury has kept him at his desk. But when the Harvest Man begins killing, carving people's faces off their skulls, the Yard knows they need Day in the field.
Not so Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith. Rash actions have cost him his job, but that doesn't stop his obsessive hunt for the Ripper. When the mutilated bodies of prostitutes start turning up again, Hammersmith enlists the help of a criminal network to stop Saucy Jack, his methods carrying him further and further from the ideals of the Yard, so far in fact that he may never be able to find his way back.
Of course, the Ripper's been playing a game with him-with Walter Day, as well. He is pushing both of them to their limits, and what happens when they get there . . . no one can say.
Alongside Jack the Ripper there is another brutal serial killer roaming the streets of Victorian London...
Spring, 1890. The spectre of Jack the Ripper still haunts Inspector Walter Day; he alone is convinced that the Ripper remains at large. But now a new killer is terrorising the citizens of London. They call him the Harvest Man; he hides away in the attics of the unsuspecting, emerging at night to terrorise his victims. This macabre new threat requires Inspector Day to confront his demons, but he soon discovers the game has only just begun...
Scotland Yard's Murder Squad faces the most shocking case of its existence, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard.
London, 1890. Four vicious murderers have escaped from prison, part of a plan gone terribly wrong, and now it is up to Walter Day, Nevil Hammersmith, and the rest of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad to hunt down the convicts before the men can resume their bloody spree. But they might already be too late. The killers have retribution in mind, and one of them is heading straight toward a member of the Murder Squad, and his family.
And that isn't even the worst of it. During the escape, the killers have stumbled upon the location of another notorious murderer, one thought gone for good but now prepared to join forces with them.
Jack the Ripper is loose in London once more.
April, 1890. London wakes to the shocking news of a mass prison escape. The Scotland Yard Murder Squad now face a desperate race against time: if they don't re-capture the four convicted murderers before night settles, they'll vanish into the dark alleys of the London's criminal underworld for ever. And in the midst of this mayhem and fear, the city's worst nightmare is realised: Jack the Ripper haunts the streets of London once more...
Scotland Yards Murder Squad returns, in the stunning new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard.
The British Midlands. Its 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 birds nest - the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yards 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 theyre 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, the more they realize they may never be allowed to leave. . . .From the Hardcover edition.
Alex Grecian's The Black Country sees the Scotland Yard Murder Squad return in a gruesome historical thriller
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.
But Inspector Day and Sergeant Hammersmith have no idea what they're about to get into, and the more they investigate, the more they realise they may never be allowed to leave.
Many changes have happened to the Murder Squad. Rash actions have cost Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith his job, and in response he has set up his own private detective agency. Inspector Walter Day has been missing for a year, and no one knows where he is-though there is a strong suspicion that Saucy Jack has him. Hammersmith has made finding Day his primary case, and he has company-a pair of bounty hunters, a man and a woman. It is only gradually that he has come to realize that they are not what they seem . . .
