A Mysterious Review of …
The Black Country by Alex Grecian. A Scotland Yard Murder Squad Mystery.
Review summary: The credibly developed mystery of what happened to a family in a close-knit mining community in the British Midlands is marred by the inclusion of too many plot points, and at least one subplot, which could have been edited out with no loss of continuity. Too, the atmospheric suspense that was so carefully crafted early on gives way to overly dramatic, and somewhat incongruous, screenplay-style action at the end. (Click here for text of full review.)
Our rating:
The Black Country
Alex Grecian
A Scotland Yard Murder Squad Mystery
Putnam (May 2013)
Publisher synopsis: When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal-mining village — and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird’s nest — the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard’s new Murder Squad. Fresh off the grisly 1889 murders of The Yard, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith respond, but they have no idea what they’re about to get into. The villagers have intense, intertwined histories. Everybody bears a secret. Superstitions abound. And the village itself is slowly sinking into the mines beneath it.
Not even the arrival of forensics pioneer Dr. Bernard Kingsley seems to help. In fact, the more the three of them investigate, the more they realize they may never be allowed to leave …
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