by Andrew Pepper (Author)
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 in Cambridgeshire, 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, his wife becomes involved with the radicals' fight against the industrialists, and an alluring woman from his past returns to threaten the life he has made for them both, Pyke must adapt to the ever-changing world around him and draw on all of his resources if he is to protect his family, and survive.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 432
Edition: First Edition, First Impression
Publisher: W&N
Published: 09 Aug 2007
ISBN 10: 0297852388
ISBN 13: 9780297852384
Book Overview: The second in this fantastic, atmospheric and page-turning historical crime series featuring Pyke: a sexy, pragmatic, and reluctantly heroic hero. His marriage to Emily has turned him from Bow Street Runner into a land-owning banker, and Pyke isn't finding the transformation easy. Set in pre-Victorian London, and refreshingly different to all those cod Victorian murder stories. 'Tangy and rambunctious stuff.' Observer 'The novel drips with all the atmospheric detail of a pre-Victorian murder mystery - pea-soupers , dingy lanterns and laudanum.'