Shadow of the Serpent: An Inspector McLevy Mystery

by David Ashton (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $5.83

  The first in the McLevy series, this is wonderfully evocative detective fiction, based in dark, violent, Victorian Edinburgh. It's 1880 and the city is gripped by election fever. But while the rich and educated argue about politics, in the dank wynds of the city it's a struggle just to stay alive, especially when a murderous madman seems to have resurfaced after thirty years. A prostitute is brutally slain and Inspector McLevy makes it his mission to find the killer, having failed the first time round. But his questioning leads him somewhere far more dangerous than the labyrinth of Leith. It leads him into a world of politics, perversion, deception and mystery and into the shadow of the serpent.

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $26.35

  Election fever is gripping the city, yet Inspector James McLevy watches the electoral frenzy with a jaundiced eye. He believes in justice, and justice and politics rarely go hand in hand. A series of unsavoury events begins to unfold; a prostitute is murdered, her rib-cage split open with a single blow, bringing back unpleasant memories of a similar series of murders thirty years previously. Dangerously compelled to pursue the killer, McLevy becomes embroiled in the dark underbelly of Victorian Edinburgh. Why would a leading political figure become embroiled in sex scandal and murder? Where has McLevy's mysterious female informant come from? And who exactly is the dark figure of the Serpent...? A tale of politics, perversion, deception and mystery, Shadow of the Serpent leads the reader down a tangled Victorian labyrinth of Edinburgh wynds and will thrill contemporary nerve-ends.