In The
Devil's Workshop, Detective Inspector Walter Day and his partner,
Nevil Hammersmith suffered at the hands of Jack-the-Ripper. Both are
now recovering from their wounds, but neither man is happy. Day has
been relegated to a desk job. Hammersmith has been fired for his own
good.
Day's wife has given
birth to twin girls and his in-laws have moved in to take care of
them putting the Days in a very uncomfortable position. Hammersmith
is still anxious to find the Ripper. Although he no longer wears a
badge, he continues to follow clues to find the deranged murderer.
In addition to the
Riper, another insane murderer is terrorizing London. The Harvest Man
is searching for his parents. He's convinced they're hiding behind
masks, so he follows couples to their homes and cuts up their faces
trying to find his parents faces.
In addition to these
murderers, there may be a third murderer taking off from the crimes
of the Ripper. He's killing women using the same techniques as the
Ripper.
I enjoyed this
mystery. The gory murders are interspersed with quiet domestic scenes
primarily form the Day's home. It makes a nice contrast to the
violence. The major problem with the book is that so much is
dependent on what happened in the previous novel. Sometimes it makes
it hard to follow the relationships between the characters.
If you enjoy
historical mysteries, this is a good one. It's set in the 1890s and
the background is well described and suitable to the era. The
characters come across as real people. I particularly enjoyed Claire
Day and Fiona Kingsley. They were representative of their time, but
struggling against society to be their own person.
I reviewed this book
for the Amazon Vine Program.
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