Inspector of the Dead
Thomas and Emily De Quincey 2
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- £0.99
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- £0.99
Publisher Description
The year is 1855. The Crimean war is raging. The British government has fallen. The Empire itself hangs in the balance.
And then the murders start...
Someone is targeting members of London's elite - leaving with each corpse the names of men who failed to assassinate Queen Victoria. It's clear that Victoria will be the ultimate victim. As the notorious Opium-Eater Thomas De Quincey and his daughter Emily race to save her, they uncover the heart-breaking past of a man whose lust for revenge has destroyed his soul.
Based on actual attempts to assassinate the queen, Inspector of the Dead brilliantly merges fact with fiction, bringing a bloody chapter of Victorian England to vivid, pulse-pounding life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fans of sophisticated historicals will embrace Macavity Award winner Morrell's second suspense novel featuring Thomas De Quincey and his grown daughter, Emily (after 2013's Murder as a Fine Art). In 1855, just as the British are dealing with the collapse of the government following revelations of mismanagement during the Crimean War, London suffers a reign of terror. After murdering the servants of a Mayfair lord's household, a killer manages the seemingly impossible crime of slitting the throat of Lady Cosgrove in her private pew in St. James's Church. A note near her corpse contains only the words Young England, a reference to a group of conspirators assassin Edward Oxford claimed were behind his attempt on Queen Victoria's life in 1840. The murders continue, in settings apparently selected to show Londoners that they aren't safe anywhere, and with a savagery that suggests a personal motive for the bloody spree. Impressively, Morrell even manages to introduce some humor into his grim tale, as shown by a scene in which De Quincy shocks Lord Palmerston by admitting he once told George III a lie. Convincing period detail complements the fascinating story line.
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