Mick Finlay
IN well-heeled London society, Sherlock Holmes is the only
detective worth hiring… but head south of the murky River Thames and the more
down-at-heel sleuth William Arrowood might be just the man you can afford!
Hold your noses and stiffen the sinews as Glasgow-born Mick
Finlay, the new master of gritty, gruesome and gripping historical crime
fiction, returns with the third book in his atmospheric Arrowood series which
brings Victorian London to life in all its glorious, gothic, grimy tumult.
These brilliant murder thrillers, which include Arrowood and
The Murder Pit, imagine a corner of Holmes’ capital city in the last decade of
the 19th century, a teeming, stinking place where the poor are
hungry and crime is rife, and the streets are very different to the ones
inhabited by Conan Doyle’s famous investigator. While London’s wealthy take their problems to Holmes,
everyone else goes to Arrowood, the clever but shambling detective and
self-taught psychologist who operates from rooms over a pudding shop in sleazy
Southwark, is led by his senses rather than his clues, and despises the
‘deductive’ Holmes, his wealthy clientele and his showy forensic approach to
crime.
ATMOSPHERIC SERIES: Mick Finlay |
In the midsummer heat of 1896, William Arrowood is on a
short fuse because not only has he a rash under his arm but his sister Ettie
has returned from a prolonged stay with a cousin in Birmingham and brought back
a baby whose provenance he would dearly like to know.
Click HERE for Lancashire Post review
Click HERE for Lancashire Post review
When he and his trusty helper Norman Barnett – a man who knows
what it is to have lived amidst despair and human degradation – are paid a
visit by Captain Moon, the owner of pleasure steamer the Gravesend Queen, moored
on the Thames, and his teenage daughter Suzie, it seems to be the start of a
run-of-the-mill new case.
The captain says that someone has been damaging his boat
when it is moored overnight, putting his business in jeopardy. He claims a man
called Polgreen, who is trying to take over his patch, is responsible and he wants
Arrowood to investigate. Professional jealousy is suspected and Arrowood decides that
it will only need Barnett to talk to Polgreen and ‘warn him off.’ But after
spending a night on the Gravesend Queen in the hope of catching the culprit,
Barnett makes a shocking discovery. The skulls of fourteen children, tied together on a rope
‘like a monstrous necklace’ and attached to the Gravesend Queen’s balustrade,
are pulled from the
river, along with the bodies of three adults. Despite the incompetent, arrogant Police Inspector Petleigh ordering them off the case, Arrowood and Barnett know it’s up to them to solve the mystery before any more corpses end up in the watery depths…
river, along with the bodies of three adults. Despite the incompetent, arrogant Police Inspector Petleigh ordering them off the case, Arrowood and Barnett know it’s up to them to solve the mystery before any more corpses end up in the watery depths…
These trips into the squalor and yet sheer vibrancy of the
world inhabited by Arrowood and our narrator, his doughty, dependable sidekick Barnett
– a former clerk who sprung from one of the city’s notorious courts – have
become must-reading for historical mystery fans and those who relish Finlay’s
amazing ability to so powerfully evoke the sights, sounds and smells of
Victorian London.
Here we are invited to share not just the disorderly chaos
of Arrowood’s domestic arrangements but a brutal murder plot that involves a
mounting body count, a truly visceral competition involving a dog and a cage
full of live rats, and the desperate condition of those on the edge of society.
Using his vast research into 19th century life,
crime, policing, and early theories of psychology, Finlay has created one of
modern historical fiction’s most memorable detectives – flawed, fallible,
fiercely intelligent and fearless – and through him, has rendered readers a
fascinating new perspective on literary giant Sherlock Holmes. Brimming with dark humour, fast-paced action, intriguing
twists and turns, and a cast of characters that could well have been conjured
up by the late, great Mr Dickens, this is a top-class series that grows in
stature with every new book.
(HQ, paperback, £8.99)
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