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A review by topdragon
The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian
4.0
In 1890, a prison break releases several vicious murderers onto the streets of London and all available police are gathered to catch the escapees. The fledgling murder squad is no exception and so previous series regulars Detective Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith join the hunt. They soon discover a mysterious organization has been taking justice into their own hands and their inept actions have not only led to the prison break but also the escape of a mysterious prisoner of their own being held secretly in London’s undercity. None other than Jack the Ripper is loose once more.
I actually enjoyed this one a little more than the first two books in the series despite the Jack the Ripper theme, which I feel has been done to death (no pun intended). Whereas those first two books started out well as fairly straight-forward historical murder mysteries, they tended to go off the rails near the end. This one was engaging throughout and had a couple of sub plots that were also well done, including Walter’s very pregnant wife and her resulting ordeal. The writing was well done, as usual, and I always like the 1890s London setting. The general goriness in this volume is substantially heightened but I suppose that comes along with Jack the Ripper territory. Consequently, one can classify this novel as much "thriller" as "mystery", perhaps more so.
This is the first of several Saucy Jack related novels within the larger series so it should come as no surprise that there are plenty of plot strings left unresolved, leading us into the next novel in the series, [b:The Harvest Man|23281833|The Harvest Man (Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, #4)|Alex Grecian|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417984822s/23281833.jpg|42819758], clearly a reference to one of the escaped prisoners who remains at large at the end of this book. Up till now, this was one series I had considered abandoning but my interest level has risen once again so I’ll be looking for that next book soon.
I actually enjoyed this one a little more than the first two books in the series despite the Jack the Ripper theme, which I feel has been done to death (no pun intended). Whereas those first two books started out well as fairly straight-forward historical murder mysteries, they tended to go off the rails near the end. This one was engaging throughout and had a couple of sub plots that were also well done, including Walter’s very pregnant wife and her resulting ordeal. The writing was well done, as usual, and I always like the 1890s London setting. The general goriness in this volume is substantially heightened but I suppose that comes along with Jack the Ripper territory. Consequently, one can classify this novel as much "thriller" as "mystery", perhaps more so.
This is the first of several Saucy Jack related novels within the larger series so it should come as no surprise that there are plenty of plot strings left unresolved, leading us into the next novel in the series, [b:The Harvest Man|23281833|The Harvest Man (Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, #4)|Alex Grecian|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417984822s/23281833.jpg|42819758], clearly a reference to one of the escaped prisoners who remains at large at the end of this book. Up till now, this was one series I had considered abandoning but my interest level has risen once again so I’ll be looking for that next book soon.