Inspector McLevy

4 total works

The Shadow of the Serpent

by David Ashton

Published 29 March 2006

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.

Fall from Grace

by David Ashton

Published 11 May 2007

The second in a new series of McLevy books, "The Fall from Grace", revolves around the terrible Tay Bridge Disaster. The story begins with a break-in and murder at the Edinburgh home of Sir Thomas Bouch. Bouch is at the height of his powers, the enigmatic, egotistical builder of the Tay Bridge. McLevy is brought in to investigate. With the help of brothel madam, Jean Brash, McLevy finds the murderer, the dangerous, self-destructive Hercules Baxter but there is much, much more to unfold: murder, arson, sexual obsession and suicide.

Trick of the Light

by David Ashton

Published 28 October 2009

The third in a new series of McLevy books, "Trick of the Light" sees McLevy team up with Arthur Conan Doyle to pursue a ruthless killer. It is 1860 and a Confederate officer, Jonathen Sinclair, arrives in Edinburgh with a sheaf of money to purchase a blockade-runner from Clydeside shipbuilders. He is betrayed to the Union forces and brutally shot dead by their secret agents. The money vanishes. This incident sets the scene for more foul play in another pacy McLevy thriller.

Nor Will He Sleep

by David Ashton

Published 1 January 2013

1887. The streets of Edinburgh seethe with youthful anarchy as two rival gangs of students, Scarlet Runners and White Devils, try to outdo each other in wild exploits. After a pitched battle between them, an old woman is found savagely battered to death in Leith Harbour. Enter Inspector James McLevy, a little more grizzled, but unchanging in his fierce desire to mete out justice. As the inspector delves further he meets up with one Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Jekyll and Hyde, in the city to bury his recently deceased father.