132,564
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Detective and the Devil (Charles Horton 4) by Lloyd Shepherd (view source)
Revision as of 12:33, 7 May 2016
, 12:33, 7 May 2016no edit summary
1855: Only a few years after the notorious Highways Murderer left his mark on London's docks, Constable Charles Horton is called back to the area. The disturbing murder of a clerk and his family bears the trademark of the serial killer but Horton's sure he's already dead; Horton saw him die. At this point the hunt for a devil incarnate begins, taking Horton and his wife Abigail to the other side of the world and the darker side of an untouchable Victorian institution: The East India Company.
[[:CartegoryCategory:Lloyd Shepherd|Lloyd Shepherd]] brings the wonderful Horton out for a fourth time and things have certainly moved on since last we met in [[Savage Magic by Lloyd Shepherd|Savage Magic]] (Each story works as a stand-alone as well as a chronologically read series by the way.) It's been a while since his wife Abigail came home from the madhouse, having escaped its unorthodox methods. However she hasn't forgotten the living hell and now spends any spare time nursing in Bronte House, a similar but hopefully more humane establishment in Hackney.
Abigail isn't side-lined in this story at all though. Between the excitement and suspense of the case, it's through Abigail that Lloyd brings a mental health sub-plot filled with modern resonance. Abigail tries to suppress the desire to keep demonstrating that she's fully recovered as Charles tries to suppress his search for proof that she's not on the verge of relapse. This makes for some marital egg shell walking that's not precisely alien to those in a similar position today.
