It’s the middle of the 19th century. War is raging in Crimea. The British government has collapsed. Queen Victoria is trying to put it back together but finding it a delicate operation at best. Now, to make matters even worse, one Sunday, the first of many horrible murders occurs. And at St. James’s Church, of all places. English noblemen and women seem to be the targets, and the scenes are gruesome beyond imagination, the types of scenes one would rarely see among the upper classes at the time. Killings of this base sort usually happen only among the lowliest of the low. Panic sets in fast.

"Author David Morrell has cleverly excised pieces of England’s past wherein assassins made bold attempts on Queen Victoria’s life and has paired them with a tragic fiend possessing his own terrible past, then set them on a collision course that explodes into a bloody good thriller."

Fortunately, diminutive Thomas De Quincey and his daughter, Emily, are still in London, recovering from their encounters in a previous case, one chronicled in MURDER AS A FINE ART. De Quincey is famous for his brilliant writing and crime solving, although most notorious as the Opium Eater. Hopelessly addicted to the drug, he needs the constant supervision and loving companionship of Emily to keep him going. The pair causes quite a stir wherever they go. In fact, she is as big a curiosity in Victorian England as her father Thomas, for she wears bloomer skirts instead of the uncomfortable hoops ladies of breeding are burdened with, hangs around the police inspectors when they are discussing the most delicate matters of cases, offering up her opinion when she sees fit, and absolutely refuses to act the swooning young woman.

Scotland Yard detectives Ryan and Becker both appear to be smitten with Emily. She garnered their respect and adoration, not to mention their favor, in the earlier case. Neither is upset in the least that she is still in London and able to lend investigators the benefit of her wisdom. Now, though, the stakes are growing infinitely higher, for the bodies are mounting up and the ultimate target is fast coming into focus: the queen herself.

Notes left at each scene make the motive clearer with each set of murders. It’s almost as if the killer wants the police to know exactly who he is. Well, maybe he does, but catching him will be another matter altogether. While they may understand his motive --- all too well --- he is proving to be one very slippery character. How can he keep eluding them? Investigators have a name to pursue, but their suspect has a craving for revenge so strong that it makes him nearly invisible. Detectives Ryan and Becker and all of Scotland Yard realize they need De Quincey --- yes, even Emily --- in order to track this one down.

Author David Morrell has cleverly excised pieces of England’s past wherein assassins made bold attempts on Queen Victoria’s life and has paired them with a tragic fiend possessing his own terrible past, then set them on a collision course that explodes into a bloody good thriller. The history is real, seamlessly intertwined such that readers can’t help but come away with a thirst for more. And fans of Sherlock Holmes stories will delight in a fresh, new sleuth, and thoroughly enjoy the era, ingeniousness and period detail without feeling a heavy parallel to the detective from 221B Baker Street. Well done, Mr. Morrell. Well done, indeed.