Alex grecian - yard (Penguin Books)

A gripping debut from Alex Grecian, "The Yard" evokes London in the wake of Jack the Ripper. Victorian London is in the grip of a wave of crime and murder, with its citizens no longer able to trust the police to protect them. The newly formed Murder Squad of Scotland Yard, made up of just twelve detectives, battles in vain against the tide of violence and cruelty. When the body of a Yard detective is found in a suitcase, his lips sewn together and his eyes sewn shut, it becomes clear that not even the police are safe from attack. Has the Ripper returned - or is a new killer at large? Walter Day, the squad's newest recruit, is assigned the case and finds a strange ally in the Yard's first forensic pathologist, Dr Bernard Kingsley. Can they find the murderer before it's too late? Or is London at the mercy of a serial killer even deadlier than Jack the Ripper? Fans of "Interpretation of Murder" and "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" will love Alex Grecian's first crime novel: "The Yard". "The Yard" will take you into the dark side of Victorian London and offers a fascinating insight into the birth of CSI.Praise for "The Yard": "If Charles Dickens isn't somewhere clapping his hands for this one, Wilkie Collins surely is". ("New York Times"). Alex Grecian has worked for an ad agency on accounts for Harley-Davidson, Cub Foods, and The Great American Smokeout, before returning to writing fiction full time and raising his son. Alex is the author of the long-running and critically acclaimed comic book series "Proof", and he lives in Topeka, Kansas, with his wife and son. "The Yard" is his first novel.