A new crime character to enjoy, although this is his second outing, time has moved on by six years for our ‘hero’, Pyke. With his criminal background he is not always the most moral of good guys but the setting of 1830’s London perhaps allows for a certain unscrupulousness, as well as an opportunity for the author to show his flair for evoking the seedy and smog ridden backdrop of London at this time. Plenty to get your teeth in to and enjoy.
It is 1835, and with the birth of the Industrial Revolution, railway fever sweeps the country. Pyke is uneasy with the luxury his aristocratic marriage has brought him, and when he is unofficially asked to investigate a decapitation, he can not resist the chance to resuscitate the old skills he learned on the streets.
But with the industrial world comes a new and faceless enemy: men who have money and power, and who will stop at nothing in their pursuit of both. For Pyke, with his young wife and child and an elevated place in society to protect, the stakes have suddenly become alarmingly high.
From the sweat shops of the east end to the palace of the Queen-in-waiting; from the elegant drawing rooms of the newly rich, to the blood-spattered backrooms of London's taverns, Pyke's investigation stirs up a hornets' nest of trouble. As the death toll rises, an alluring woman from his past returns, Pyke must draw on all of his resources if he is to protect his family, and survive.
