The Yard by Alex Grecian

The Yard (Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, #1) (Scotland Yard Murder Squad)

by Alex Grecian

If you were fascinated by The Five, you'll love this gripping and atmospheric historical thriller set in Victorian London in the wake of Jack the Ripper.

A killer is haunting London's streets . . .

A year after Jack the Ripper claimed his last victim, London is in the grip of a wave of terror. The newly formed Murder Squad of Scotland Yard battles in vain against the tide of horror.

When the body of a detective is found in a suitcase, his lips sewn together and his eyes sewn shut, it becomes clear that no one is safe from attack.

Has the Ripper returned - or is a new killer at large?

And for Walter Day, the young policeman assigned the case, is time running out?

Praise for The Yard:

'If Charles Dickens isn't somewhere clapping his hands for this one, Wilkie Collins surely is.' New York Times

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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“Your duty is to society, and the dead have always been a part of society. How we treat the dead says much about us.”

Victorian London is not a good place after the Ripper murders. The police/detectives are not well liked and in fact are some of the most hated people in the country at the moment. Add on a new detectives unit that is struggling and ill-equipped to handle murders because of the amount and how few resources they have to use. They are all overworked and barely solving anything. Now a detective has been murdered and with no idea who his killer is the new detective has to figure it all out, before another detective dies.

“London is locked in a sort of dance of propriety, and it seems to me that it has led to desperation among certain elements of our society.”

Overall I found this story to be interesting, but a little confusing at times because of how many different perspectives it had. If we would have only had around 4 of them I would have liked it a little more. I know it would have taken certain parts of the story out, but some of it just felt like filler to be. Walter Day and his wife and one of the other detectives and the killer were the most important in my opinion. In fact the wife could have had a bigger part of this story and I would have enjoyed it even more.
The killers part of the story made me so uncomfortable at times because of how he did things and the fact that he kept messing with things it was just so frusting because of how things kept happening and how everyone kept missing eachother because of how they were having to run all over London.
All the side cases I found interesting, and I especially liked one because of how it went back to the ripper case, but it all felt a bit overdone to me at times with the secretiveness of it.


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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 14 January, 2018: Finished reading
  • 14 January, 2018: Reviewed