From Publishers Weekly
Mystery fans may recall Inspector Lestrade as a decidedly inferior policeman who appears in the Holmes canon. Trow's Lestrade is all too human but more competent than Conan Doyle's. This 11th entry in Trow's Lestrade series provides a good time and a vatful of fascinating Victorian lore. It's 1895, and the inspector (last seen in Lestrade and the Magpie) is desperate to stop a homicidal maniac who is killing women on the Underground. Since the murders appear to be random, Lestrade has difficulty constructing a trail, and his frustration mounts with each death. As if the case were not challenging enough, Lestrade must also contend with cranky bosses, green underlings (excepting the loyal Constable Walter Dew), and mysterious "relatives" of the victims who show up at the station house. Then there's the distraction of the highly appealing Trottie True, the sister of one of the victims. The possible suspects are nicely drawn, and the cameo appearances by many famous VictoriansAthe Marquess of Queensbury and Aubrey Beardsley among themAturn this book into a kind of parlor game. The ending yields a rather arbitrary but adequate villain. But the plot is incidental; the heart of this story lies in its clever, lively language. The brazen wordplay occasionally may elicit a groan, but much more often a smile. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
The year is 1895, and a dead body is found on the last Liverpool Street in the London Underground Railway. Another is gound at the Elephant in the morning, wedged between the seats like an old suitcase. And another had missed the late-night connection at Stockwell.
