Using some popular Victorian writing techniques to brilliant effect, David Morrell once again immerses us in Victorian London. As a result of his meticulous research, London comes alive-- sights, smells, sounds-- and readers will easily be able to put themselves right in the streets and buildings of the city.

However, the setting isn't the only marvelous thing about Inspector of the Dead. This is a fast-paced book that grabs hold of you and won't let go. The action scenes (especially one in which a policeman goes home for the night) can actually scare the stuffing out of a person, and as long as you can read while sitting in a corner so no one can sneak up on you, you have to admit that it's a wonderful way to be frightened!

The pace is so fast that readers can be forgiven for getting caught up in the narrative and forgetting to try to deduce the identity of the killer, but it's not just the pace and the pitch perfect setting that causes such forgetfulness. Morrell has created a living, breathing cast of characters, especially the brilliant but much maligned Thomas De Quincey. Few writers have such a special way with historical characters as David Morrell.

De Quincey was fifty years ahead of Freud, and it's fascinating to watch him use psychology to solve crimes. It's also fascinating to watch others watch him. In the first book in this series, Murder As a Fine Art, readers got to see those two Scotland Yard detectives (Ryan and Becker) ridicule De Quincey's methods. Now in Inspector of the Dead, they are believers and have to convince others to let the little man be so he can do his work. An added bonus is the fact that readers get to learn more about his strong-willed, unconventional daughter Emily, and Lord Palmerston also has his turn under the microscope.

I was sad to see this book end. My only consolation? The next book in the series, Ruler of the Night, will be available in November 2016. I can't wait!

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This is the second book in Morrell's trilogy featuring Thomas De Quincey, who wrote the notorious Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. I read the first book in the trilogy, Murder as a Fine Art, a few months ago and really enjoyed it. This novel was also engrossing and again used a lot of historical background in the tale of a man seeking revenge because his family had been wronged by the police and the judicial system when he was a boy. What happened to his family was very tragic and led the boy to try to get revenge throughout his life even to the extent of assassinating Queen Victoria who he blamed for not helping his family when he needed it the most. The novel takes place during the Crimean War in 1855 which led to the downfall of the English Empire. De Quincey and his daughter, Emily, are still in London after the events of the previous novel and become involved in the plot against the Queen and other high-level members of society. But who is the person seeking revenge? And can he be stopped?

I found this novel to be very compelling reading. The story kept me guessing and I was ultimately surprised to learn the identity of the man who sought out his revenge. Morrell really was able to spin a good yarn against the mostly true historical background of events which took place in the mid-1850s. I was really ignorant on what was behind the Crimean War which was fought between England and Russia with France as an ally to England. Russia was trying to move its empire southward when the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. If they had been successful, they would have been in control of the yet to be built Suez Canal. The novel also told of the hemophilia of Queen Victoria's youngest son, Leopold. I knew that this horrible disease was prevalent among the royal families of Europe because of interbreeding after reading Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie which discussed the malady afflicting the young son of the Russian Emperor who was related to Queen Victoria. I'll be looking forward to reading the final book in Morrell's trilogy, Ruler of the Night.

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