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The Yard (The Murder Squad #1)

by Alex Grecian (Goodreads Author)

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 2,026 ratings · 501 reviews

Victorian London is a cesspool of crime, and ScotlandYard has only twelve detectives—known as “The Murder Squad”—to investigate countless murders every month. Created after the Metropolitan Police’s spectacularfailure to capture Jack the Ripper, The Murder Squad suffersrampant public contempt. They have failed their citizens. Butno one can anticipate the brutal murder of o...more

Hardcover, 422 pages

Published May 29th 2012 by Putnam Books

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Victorian and Regency Mystery Novels

1st out of 114 books — 24 voters

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Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 1 of 5 stars

Pearl Ruled: THE YARD by Alex Grecian (p67)

This is its star:

I started getting annoyed when, at the beginning of chapter 2, Colonel Sir Edward Bradford, Commissioner of Scotland Yard, calls the sleuth into his mahogany-lined office and proceeds to make no sense at all for several pages. The sleuth is confused, too, and there appears to be no reason we-the-readers should give the ass of a rat about this little tete-a-tete.

Then came the who-cares italicized narration of the bald man, who killed the...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, historical-fiction, mystery-thriller

Find yourself transported to the Victorian streets of London post-Jack the Ripper days.
The author successfully places you in the atmosphere of that time, the streets of London paved with gaslights and Hansom cabs as modes of transport, in the dark bleak workhouses and the most importantly the Yard, great Scotland yard, located at Whitehall place and their morgue in the beginnings of forensic pathology during an era when C.S.I and DNA detection was virtually unheard of.

The Victorian London era ma...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Chris rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fiction, historical-fiction, mystery-thriller, united-kingdom

If some Hollywood producer decided to create a new television cop series set in 1870s London, all he or she needs is this book and the whole first season's worth of scripts are taken care of. There is one major story line: the savage killing of a Scotland Yard inspector whose eyes and lips have been sewn shut and whose body has been stuffed into a too-small trunk. All of the Yard's resources will go toward hunting down the killer. There are several minor storylines, including someone slitting th...more If some Hollywood producer decided to create a new television cop series set in 1870s London, all he or she needs is this book and the whole first season's worth of scripts are taken care of. There is one major story line: the savage killing of a Scotland Yard inspector whose eyes and lips have been sewn shut and whose body has been stuffed into a too-small trunk. All of the Yard's resources will go toward hunting down the killer. There are several minor storylines, including someone slitting the throats of men with beards--but only after shaving them first. And the characters are right out of every successful police series from Adam 12 to NYPD Blue, just with handlebar mustaches and more formality. There is the perceptive chief of police who truly cares about his men. There's the new detective trying to make a name for himself so he can be worthy of his pretty higher-class wife, whom we get to see struggling to manage a Victorian household on a policeman's pay. There's one constable who's married to the job, willing to do whatever it takes to get his man, even if it means bending the rules. There's another who's a bit of a dandy, more concerned about his shirtcuffs than his handcuffs. And there's the forward-thinking coroner who is trying to drag forensic science into the late 19th century. He even carries coal dust around with him trying to find fingerprints because he's convinced they can help solve crime. And there's a fine assortment of criminals and crazies.

Unfortunately, this is not the script to a television series, it is a novel. And as such, it is overblown and underdone. The author can't decide what he's writing about. Is this book supposed to be a thriller or a look at the criminal justice system and the streets of London in the 1870s? A good writer would have been able to combine these into a compelling whole. Crichton did it wonderfully in The Great Train Robbery. Alex Grecian is no Michael Crichton. Intead the book feels more like Grecian tried to shovel in every piece of his research. And then he blows it all up by throwing in modern lines like "Of course the family would need closure." After a while my head began to spin.

The main story does lead to some suspense as the police play cat-and-mouse with the cop killer, but even that finally falls flat. In fact, the author spends a good part of the story foreshadowing what seems like it will be the obvious final confrontation with the killer, and then he seems to have forgotten he wrote it. Other plots pop up, hang in the air like they might be going somewhere, and then fizzle out. Others are just plain stupid and have no place in the story at all. I'm still not sure what the point of the poisoning story line was. Another plot hit its peak at the end of a chapter somewhere about three-quarters of the way through the book and then wasn't mentioned again until the very end of the book. I was sure I must have skipped a chapter, but no.

There are many good books about life in Victorian London. This isn't one of them. I also think it's highly doubtful anyone will want to make a TV series out of this. After all, what would the theme song sound like? (less)

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Jun 18, 2012 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: england, mystery, victorians, crime-thriller, favorite-covers, favorites, historical-fiction, setting-as-a-character

This debut novel by Alex Grecian is exactly my cup of tea, Victorian England tea that is. "The Yard," of course, refers to Scotland Yard and takes place in the year 1889, with the Jack the Ripper murders still fresh in the minds of London inhabitants and those who failed to catch the monster, the monster who introduced a new sort of murder to the city, serial murder with unrelated victims subjected to a depravity beyond the normal murders of acquaintances and kin. As a result of the Ripper murde...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Marleen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Received from Book Geeks:

Walter Day has only recently been appointed as an Inspector with New Scotland Yard and is unsure why he deserved this promotion and if he is up to the job, when a gruesome discovery is made in a London train station. The repeatedly stabbed body of Inspector Christian Little is found inside a suitcase, his eyes and mouth sewn shut. Little was one of only twelve Scotland Yard Inspectors but nobody had noticed that he was missing and nobody had been looking for him when his...more Received from Book Geeks:

Walter Day has only recently been appointed as an Inspector with New Scotland Yard and is unsure why he deserved this promotion and if he is up to the job, when a gruesome discovery is made in a London train station. The repeatedly stabbed body of Inspector Christian Little is found inside a suitcase, his eyes and mouth sewn shut. Little was one of only twelve Scotland Yard Inspectors but nobody had noticed that he was missing and nobody had been looking for him when his remains were discovered.
The year is 1889 and Scotland Yard has only been operating for a year. Created after the London police failed to indentify and capture Jack the Ripper the new murder squad consists of only 12 investigators who between them have to deal with all the murders in London.
With the public’s trust in the metropolitan police at an all time low the last thing the newly formed Yard needs is another serial killer (even if both the term and the phenomenon are still unknown at the time), especially one targeting police officers.
Walter Day is the first investigator on the scene of the gruesome discovery and is soon joined by Dr. Bernard Kingsley, Scotland Yard’s first forensic pathologist. Together these two men will head the investigation into the murder of Little, working the few clues they have to the best of their abilities yet unable to prevent the murder of another policeman.
At the same time someone is targeting men with beards, slicing their throats and shaving them. While the victims in both cases have nothing in common, most in Scotland Yard are unable to believe that there are two individuals out and about killing people for their own, disturbed reasons. It seems that London and Scotland Yard will have to come to terms with a new sort of crime as well as new methods of investigations if they want to have a chance of staying ahead of the criminals.

The description above only covers part of the story featured in “The Yard” and only some of its host of interesting characters. With this book being the first in a new series, the reader is introduced to what I assume will be the returning characters and their lives. While I enjoyed finding out more about the various players and their motivation I did feel that all the background information, while enlightening, did at times take the pace out of the story. But, I see why the author would take the time to share those details and as far as “complaints” about this book go, this would be my only one.

This is not a mystery in the strictest sense of the word since the reader is aware of who is committing the murders and why long before those investigating them even come close to finding out. You can’t call this a police procedural either since Scotland Yard was so newly formed that there were as yet no procedures for the investigators to follow. Walter Day and Dr. Bernard Kingsley are making their procedures and investigative methods up as they go along with the investigation. Occasionally running into opposition, disbelieve and scepticism they represent the start of the modern age of crime investigation. They take and compare fingerprints although they are not recognised as unique yet and inadmissible in court, Kingsley sees the need to collect and keep evidence rather than disregard it and proceeds to do so, just as he modernizes and humanizes the conditions under with autopsies are performed.

The Victorian setting in this book is almost a character in its own right. The descriptions of London, the over-crowded conditions and the total disregard for little children and those falling between the cracks of life are shocking to the modern mind.

What I really liked is that it wasn’t just the investigators who lacked sophistication in this story. The murderer is, to the modern reader of thrillers, just as amateurish as the police. It seems, and makes complete sense, that as the police investigations got more advanced, so did the criminals, trying to stay ahead of those who would stop them. A fascinating but completely logical idea.

I really enjoyed this book. Reading about the start of the now so famous Scotland Yard was fascinating and the characters introduced in this story are all multifaceted and easy to be interested in. I’m looking forward to finding out where Alex Grecian will be taking these people next and to learn more about the evolution of crime investigation.
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May 10, 2013 John Williams rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I run a book club and we read a lot of books over the course of a year and we have been going for about five years, During this time I have only thrown one book across the room in disgust, this will be my second.

Having had the book suggested at the club with no background knowledge or being a previously author I had no expectations, just as well really because the story met these expectations within the first few pages!

To call the novel the banal meanderings of a unsophisticated mind might give...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Jo Anne B rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book seemed all over the place with several main characters. I feel no character was truly developed, therefore I was unable to form a connection or likeness to any of them. It felt like this was the first book of several to come in a series. So it was setting up each character so we could come across them in the next books. I liked the portrayl of the London circa 1889 after Jack the Ripper. We are introduced to the killer right away and here his internal monologue. He had potential but it...more

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May 12, 2013 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, historical-fiction

I am not a big murder mystery reader, but, just as my sister, Jeri, said, this was a really good book. Not good because of the writing necessarily since it started out with sharp well written prose, but lost its tightness in the last 75-100 pages, but good because it was just down right interesting! Some othere reviewers didn't like the fact that it introduced a lot of characters, but I did, and in short order, I think that you got to know the characters fairly quickly and were therefore disappo...more

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May 12, 2013 Colin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

Many of the crime books these days are full of DNA matches, mobile phone tracking, psychological profiling and the rest of the 21st century toolbox so it makes a change to read a book about policing which doesn’t have these staple ingredients. This story concerns the murder squad of the Metropolitan Police at the back end of the Ripper murders, still smarting at not being able to catch this killer. To make things worse, the team have to investigate the grisly murder of one of their own detective...more

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May 10, 2013 Taylor rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just finished reading this....it was an incredible journey. Very well told, exciting characters, great interweaving plot lines...I couldn't put it down! The story is set in such an interesting time period, right after the Ripper crimes. You really feel the shame and disgrace the Scotland Yard faced from London's people for their belief in the inability of the investigators. As the story progresses, you really root for the heroes to regain the people's confidence and support. I loved how Grecia...more I just finished reading this....it was an incredible journey. Very well told, exciting characters, great interweaving plot lines...I couldn't put it down! The story is set in such an interesting time period, right after the Ripper crimes. You really feel the shame and disgrace the Scotland Yard faced from London's people for their belief in the inability of the investigators. As the story progresses, you really root for the heroes to regain the people's confidence and support. I loved how Grecian took the time to include little tidbits of what life was like back then. The idea of unique fingerprints for each person was just being researched at the time and it was all new to the crime fighting world. I enjoyed putting myself in the investigators shoes as this forensics doctor tries to explain to them how someone's ridges on the end of their fingers can be used to point them to the criminal....how crazy does that sound! The book was a little bit graphic at times, I found myself skimming on some of the gruesome murder descriptions. At one point, you actually see through the eyes of a victim himself....a little disturbing. I really liked characters Hammersmith, Day, Blacker and Kingsley. The nobleness of Hammersmith and Day especially is very refreshing, men today could learn a thing or two about what it meant to be a gentleman. I appreciated the author's respect for women in the book. The only part that left me unsatisfied was when Hammmersmith takes the law into his own hands and allows someone to kill a cruel chimney-sweep for the neglect that led to the murder of a child chimney-sweep. I understand that he wanted justice to be done for the murder, but he didn't go through the law which means he almost stooped to the same level as the sweep. I also wish that the characters in the book realized that the reason for some of those "coincidences" that helped the murder investigations happened was because someone Upstairs was looking out for them. I didn't appreciate the way one of the characters brushed off praying as "idle." Prayer is the most powerful thing we've got. We don't fully understand how it works, but God uses it somehow to his purpose. Yet I'm wondering if at the end, when a character makes a reference about a angel statue, if the author was trying to convey that Someone was watching over them. Anyway, having said that,it was great. Really suspenseful and every time I picked it up to read, I was lost in the streets of London. (less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Ashen rated it 3 of 5 stars

So, having a penchant for Jack the Ripper and Victorian police dramas, I picked up this book on a recent trip, to read on the planes and in the hotel room, etc.

I've read a few of the other reviews, and sadly have to agree with many of their comments. While the tale is full of entertaining mystery, a full enjoyment of the book is scarred by the inaccuracies and lack of attention to little details - brownstones in London, England? - Kids in Welsh mines being paid in cents? - much of the terminolog...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Ed Williams rated it 1 of 5 stars

It appears the author limited his research to skimming Ken Follet to work up a sense of righteous indignation about conditions for children in late Victorian London before quickly checking the dates of the Ripper murders and starting writing. The descriptions are wrong (brownstones belong in New York), the language and attitudes are anachronistic ('No worries' and policemen worrying about street children), the central premise is fatally flawed (the Ripper could hardly have been the first serial...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Jenny rated it 1 of 5 stars

I have just finished reading a book called The Yard by Alex Grecian. It's set in London in 1889 and is a novel about the early days of the Murder Squad. Read it only for the hilarity of the wrongness of half his descriptions and his totally tin ear for period dialogue. People use such phrases as "no worries", "I'm right on it", "he's heading up the investigation" and "where was the beat cop?" and refer to a landlord in a pub as a 'barkeep'. In the first 125 pages alone we have a small boy in Wal...more I have just finished reading a book called The Yard by Alex Grecian. It's set in London in 1889 and is a novel about the early days of the Murder Squad. Read it only for the hilarity of the wrongness of half his descriptions and his totally tin ear for period dialogue. People use such phrases as "no worries", "I'm right on it", "he's heading up the investigation" and "where was the beat cop?" and refer to a landlord in a pub as a 'barkeep'. In the first 125 pages alone we have a small boy in Wales earning 'two cents' a day, brownstone houses, a park in Trafalgar Square (this misconception is repeated later), and a housekeeper called by her master and mistress Elizabeth who makes a cup of tea unasked for two policemen who called in the middle of the night. Moreover, we have a doctor's wife knowing the first name of the chimney sweep and referring to him by it. Moreover the housekeeper appears to their only servant, and part of their living area is in the basement although the doctor has a successful practice.

We have a tailor considering himself old-fashioned for not having electricity in his home in 1889. There is a walk-in closet on p 124, which took me totally aback. Moreover the walk-in closet is in a small house belonging to a policeman and his wife. The wife, Claire, is presented as an upper class girl who has made something of a misalliance with the policeman, Walter, but her parents have bought them this small house, in which they maintain separate bedrooms, so as not to shock the 'housekeeper', who is in fact a daily woman. Claire uses the word 'bloody'. Characters consistently invite others to call them by their first name, even when they have not met previously and are of totally different social status.

I was so distressed by all this wrongness that I actually wrote to the author to beg him to get any future novels read by somebody who knew about these things (because some of the characters aren't bad and I believe it might even be being made into a TV series!) and got a very friendly reply from him, acknowledging that they were indeed clangers but saying as an American from the mid-West he hadn't actually expected his book would be so widely read. What on earth are his editors coming to that they let this kind of thing slip by? It's Penguin for goodness' sake – they can't be short of expertise! And apparently the UK edition has left a lot of these clangers in. As I said – read it only for a spot-the-clanger game. Julian Fellowes' scripts for Downton Abbey are wonderful in comparison.

Add in the clunking and clumsy plot - I can't understand how this book ever got published, except that the writing (apart from the above-mentioned lousy research) is competent and the characters and setting and concept are promising, which is why I picked it up in the first place. I finished it in a teeth-gritted "I've paid for this so I'll read it" kind of way.(less)

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Feb 05, 2013 Anthony Pacifico rated it 4 of 5 stars

This mystery thriller is set in London in 1889. The reign of terror created by Jack the Ripper is over, but since he was never caught, the people of London are still in fear of him. And they blame the police for not catching Saucy Jack and therefore have no respect or trust for the London Metropolitan Police.

In this setting, Inspector Walter Day, one of 12 members of the Murder Squad, of Scotland Yard, is assigned a most disturbing case. A fellow inspector has been found murdered and horribly mu...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Christia rated it 4 of 5 stars

The promo on the cover claims "The Yard will keep you riveted from page one" and that was definitely true for me. It's been a while since I've read something I simply did not want to put down, but The Yard falls into that category. The book gives the reader an enlightening glimpse into the Victorian origins of the Murder Squad of Scotland Yard. London (along with the reputation of the police force) is still recovering from the crimes of "Saucy Jack" (the Ripper). The book follows the professiona...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Ami rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries, historical

Have you ever stood beside the checkout counter and randomly perused the stacks of books waiting to be checked back in only to come across a title or cover that looks very interesting so you just have to pick it up to look at it? This book was one such case but I generally put them back down after a quick note to myself to remember to check it out later, which I rarely do. This one however just screamed at me to take it home so I had them check it in for me to add to my never ending TBR pile. Vi...more Have you ever stood beside the checkout counter and randomly perused the stacks of books waiting to be checked back in only to come across a title or cover that looks very interesting so you just have to pick it up to look at it? This book was one such case but I generally put them back down after a quick note to myself to remember to check it out later, which I rarely do. This one however just screamed at me to take it home so I had them check it in for me to add to my never ending TBR pile. Victorian England, Scotland Yard, the beginnings of modern forensics, murder; how could I refuse?

When I first started it, I actually had a hard time getting into it and didn't get very far before I was setting it aside and turning out my lamp. However, that may have something to do with me being half asleep at the time because when I tried again the next day I didn't want to put it down.

I found the description of the time period very apt, including the credulity of people when they discover that fingerprints might actually be used to identify people. It's hard to understand now since it's so commonplace but that hasn't always been the case. At the time, the police were reviled instead of respected, there were no forensics period, no one cared for the lowers castes (actually illustrated quite well in this book with the poor chimney boy), etc. This time was really brought to life and it's put me in the mood for more from this time frame.

I enjoyed meeting all of the characters although I was surprised that the main murderer was unmasked to the reader so quickly but perhaps that was so we could better understand his further descent into madness. There were a lot of main characters introduced which made it a bit of a mishmash but since this is supposed to be the first in a series, I'm really hoping it was just setting it all up for later books. I was especially interested to note however that some of the characters were based on historical figures which has whetted my appetite to learn more about the forensics of that time. I will quite happily snag any more books that come out in this series to see where Inspector Day and the Murder Squad go.(less)

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Aug 30, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can only hope that this is the first book in an ongoing series. It's 1889, the Jack the Ripper murders have not been solved, and crime is out of control in London. In a month's time, 96 bodies have been pulled out of the Thames and the majority of those poor souls have had their throats cut. In response to this dismal situation, Scotland Yard has created a group of men called "The Murder Squad". Unfortunately, there are only 12 detectives assigned to investigate and solve all outstanding homic...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Frances rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Yard is a debut historical thriller set in Victorian London. London is the largest city in the world, and the ever increasing population is, in many thousands of cases, struggling to survive in increasingly squalid conditions. Crime, both petty and monstrous, is increasing everywhere and policing as a profession is in its infancy. The recent and unsolved Jack the Ripper cases have left the populace distrustful of the police force in general, and now there has been a gruesome murder of a poli...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a great debut novel! I'm constantly amazed by authors and their craft - how they are able to describe characters, events, places, thoughts, feelings...

This is a true-to-life look at 1889 London, with its beggars, murderers, thieves, drunks, whores, chimney sweeps and those who would snatch a boy from his family and sell him for a penny. A city where 96 bodies had been pulled from the Thames the previous month, many with their throats slit. The annual number of arrests topped sixty thousand....more

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Aug 11, 2012 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars

While "The Yard" isn't typically a book that I would choose for myself to read, it was a good read. Grecian takes us back to London, the year after the Ripper murders have ended. The police force is second-guessing itself at every turn, and is further deflated when one of their detectives is found murdered in a most grievous manner. We follow a small number of policemen as they work to solve seemingly unrelated cases, and at times bumble their way through to a successful closure.

The characters c...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Ruth rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-historical

C2012. FWFTB: 1889, London, fear, detectives, beginning.This book had quite a presence around the various bookblogging sites and the synopsis sounded good. The UK version of the cover does not seem to be on GR yet - slightly different cover and font - the R has a little curlicule which is missing on this edition. One of my pet hates is the device of knowing who the murderer is and its pretty self evident from the very start. The bumbling around of the characters does give the impression of how t...more C2012. FWFTB: 1889, London, fear, detectives, beginning.This book had quite a presence around the various bookblogging sites and the synopsis sounded good. The UK version of the cover does not seem to be on GR yet - slightly different cover and font - the R has a little curlicule which is missing on this edition. One of my pet hates is the device of knowing who the murderer is and its pretty self evident from the very start. The bumbling around of the characters does give the impression of how the “detective” part of the police service may have evolved but some of the disparate facts thrown at the reader in a seemingly random fashioned had me more confused than intrigued. The dialogue was inconsistent with suddenly the more archaic wording making way for such words as "no worries". The style of writing is staccato and it could be the author’s background in graphic novels is to blame. The Guardian has reported that Mr Grecian has “"remarkably never visited London before or during the writing of The Yard", boasts his publisher.”...I don’t think very much of the comment at all. However, he hails from the American Mid-West and as I love the Mid-West – most is forgiven. “Lusciously rich with detail, atmosphere, and history, and yet as fast paced as a locomotive, The Yard will keep you riveted from page one. It’s truly a one- or two-sitting read.”—Jeffery Deaver, author of Carte Blanche and The Bone Collector. The publishers have chosen to use only 9 words from the full quote and I am honestly not sure about the locomotive analogy – I think of locomotives as clunky, slow and smelly – although a marvelous sight to see. Although I did not particularly like this book, I would recommend it to readers fond of historical crime. Its not awful – just not to my particular taste. FCN: Walter Day, (the country yokel who is the most recent recruit to the Murder Squad of Scotland Yard), Dr Bernard Kingsley (a pioneer of groundbreaking forensic science), Hammersmith, Pringle and Collier. “Day understood that London needed her police, but did not care about them. And he saw too, that this newfound discovery was something that every policeman on that platform already understood.”
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Aug 02, 2012 Nicola rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reason for Reading: I love Victorian mysteries, especially when they actually focus on early policing.

Superb! Splendid! I am thrilled to hear this is the first in a proposed new series. The Yard has everything I want in a Victorian crime: authenticity, atmosphere and a peek into the underbelly of Victorian life. Though none are used as characters in the book, the book is peopled with real-life personages from the era to lend authenticity and one can tell much research has been done on the author...more Reason for Reading: I love Victorian mysteries, especially when they actually focus on early policing.

Superb! Splendid! I am thrilled to hear this is the first in a proposed new series. The Yard has everything I want in a Victorian crime: authenticity, atmosphere and a peek into the underbelly of Victorian life. Though none are used as characters in the book, the book is peopled with real-life personages from the era to lend authenticity and one can tell much research has been done on the author's part as the book lives and breathes Victorian London, one can almost see the fog rising from the pages and smell the stench as a page is turned. Grecian has devised a wonderfully wicked murder mystery that involves not only one but two serial killers and not only two crimes but a handful of others which keep the characters busy and the reader on his toes trying to piece things together. This is one of those mysteries where we the reader are given access to the murderer from the beginning and the sport is in watching how the police solve the case. Mind you, there are also a handful of other crimes going on, some related, some not, but all somehow coming together one way or another. Incredibly genius really. I so enjoy a clever mystery and this is one by far.

A major aspect of the novel is the introduction of forensic sciences. This book focuses on fingerprints and how they were first discovered and put into practice in policework. The general disdain for the practice except for a few forward thinking people and the amazing results as the "coroner" for the Yard applies them to the job. We also are introduced to a great cast of characters, main and auxiliary, who hopefully will be following into the next book of the series. Both of the main sleuths are green, but very clever. Quite different from each other in circumstances and character, Detective Inspector Walter Day and Constable Nevil Hammersmith both share a sense a duty and justice. I did find the first hundred pages slow reading, but that is the type of book this is, they were slow, but not boring in the least. I was drawn in right from the captivating first sentence and while the first hundred pages slowly draws us into the era, the characters, the cases on hand, the rest of the book was a riveting, fast, hard-to-put-down mystery of London's underbelly, depravity and trauma. Book two's focus is said to be on the introduction of the use of photography into policing and I'm looking forward to it with glee!(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Bebe (Sarah) Brechner rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Victorian England police procedural set in the aftermath of Jack the Ripper, when London (and Scotland Yard) were still reeling from the inability to capture the Ripper. This is a first novel, but the author certainly portrays the city and its time in great and fascinating detail. This is a rather complex story, but very well told. Each chapter effortlessly propels you into the next.

There is a serial killer loose and killing policemen, and, with Scotland Yard having just been put under new ma...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Anni rated it 3 of 5 stars

Review in the Missoulian: One of the highlights of my day at the library is when a patron recommends a book to me, especially a debut novel such as The Yard by Alex Grecian. Although Alex Grecian is the author of the long-running and critically acclaimed graphic novel series Proof and Seven Sons (found in our Young Adult comic collection), The Yard is his first novel and the critics and reviewers are predicting a forthcoming series. I hope they are correct because Grecian has created a dynamic,...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Betty-Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC in e-book format from the publisher in exchange for reading and reviewing it.

In the aftermath of the horrors visited on London in 1888 by Jack the Ripper, the police of Scotland Yard have almost completely lost the confidence and respect of the city’s citizens – lower and higher class alike.

It is into this atmosphere that Alex Grecian takes readers in The Yard. He weaves several pertinent themes together to create his story – the creation of the Murder Squad, the science of fo...more I received an ARC in e-book format from the publisher in exchange for reading and reviewing it.

In the aftermath of the horrors visited on London in 1888 by Jack the Ripper, the police of Scotland Yard have almost completely lost the confidence and respect of the city’s citizens – lower and higher class alike.

It is into this atmosphere that Alex Grecian takes readers in The Yard. He weaves several pertinent themes together to create his story – the creation of the Murder Squad, the science of forensics and the brand new, still suspect science of ‘fingermarks’ as identifiers of criminals. Against that backdrop, Grecian also treats with the idea that London was about to see the prevalence of a new type of killer; one who, emboldened by the police’s ability to catch the Ripper, has now come out of the woodwork, as it were.

I think I can safely say I loved almost everything about this book. This review is being written almost three weeks since I finished it, and yet the characters, settings and storyline are as fresh in my mind as they were right after I’d closed the book on the last page. Grecian has created very compelling characters – whether in the typical citizens of the period or in the ones who don’t fit into neat little pigeonholes – like Inspector Day and Dr. Kingsley. Additionally, he has given us an exceedingly creepy villain who made me shudder quite satisfactorily.

The only thing I wasn’t completely happy with was the fairly obvious nature of who the killer was. It wasn’t that he was introduced to the reader early in the book, but more that it came over as somewhat incredible that the police didn’t catch on sooner. While I understand that Grecian may have meant that to underscore how woefully unprepared the police were for such a killer, I don’t think it worked as well as it could have.

Nevertheless, that was just a minor issue, which doesn’t impact in the least on my definite hope that Grecian plans a series – I wanted more the instant I had put the book down.
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Jun 16, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

London in 1889, full of prostitutes and thieves, child snatchers and murders, brilliantly comes to life in the pages of Alex Grecian’s debut novel, The Yard. Detective Inspector Walter Day and his new wife Claire have recently arrived in the city where Day, once a country constable, has secured a position in the newly formed Murder Squad of Scotland Yard. Despite the depravity and rampant crime the populous does not adore the police due to their failure to apprehend Jack the Ripper, yet it is st...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Michele Weiner rated it 4 of 5 stars

This police procedural is set in London just after Jack the Ripper made his name and disappeared. It is the story of the London murder police and the doctor who acts as medical examiner and forensic expert for free. The characters are engaging and real, and the plot is sufficiently complex to hold the reader's interest. I hope this becomes a series.

Walter Day has married above himself and moved to London to join Scotland Yard's newly-formed murder police. As the book opens, a fellow detective is...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

THE YARD. (2012). Alex Grecian. ***.
About one-quarter of the way through this debut thriller, I wondered why I was reading it. As I reached the half-way point, I was still wondering why. The answer was that the novel was plot propelled and serially imagined so that you always wanted to know what would happen next. It’s not great literature, but it’s a great thriller. It’s set in Victorian London, where the search for Jack the Ripper has essentially stopped by personnel at the yard and the level...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Luanne Ollivier rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Yard is Alex Grecian's debut novel. And this reader has put him firmly on her 'must read' list.

London, England 1889 -the year after Jack's infamous rampage. After the Metropolitan Police failed to solve that case, a 'Murder Squad' was formed within Scotland Yard. It consists of only twelve detectives who cannot begin to solve each and every one of the hundred murders being perpetrated each month. It is Inspector Walter Day's first week on the job when one of their own is found murdered in a...more The Yard is Alex Grecian's debut novel. And this reader has put him firmly on her 'must read' list.

London, England 1889 -the year after Jack's infamous rampage. After the Metropolitan Police failed to solve that case, a 'Murder Squad' was formed within Scotland Yard. It consists of only twelve detectives who cannot begin to solve each and every one of the hundred murders being perpetrated each month. It is Inspector Walter Day's first week on the job when one of their own is found murdered in a particularly grisly manner. Determined to prove himself and seek justice for his fallen comrade, Day dives into the case with both feet."

"The new inspector, Day, appeared to be up to the job, but Kett knew little about the man. There was an innocence about him that bothered Kett. He had seen idealistic men come and go, the city leeching hope from them too quickly."

I was hooked from the opening line...."Nobody noticed when Inspector Christian Little of Scotland Yard disappeared, and nobody was looking for him when he was found."

This is a time period I absolutely love and Grecian does a good job bringing the setting to life with lots of atmospheric detail. The plot is multi faceted with more than just the primary case being investigated. Although we know the identity of the perpetrator about halfway through, it didn't detract from the story at all.

But it was the characters that were a stand out for me. Grecian has fleshed them out nicely, providing 'interludes' where we learn some of their past. Day is a very likable character, struggling with being in the 'big city'. I quite enjoyed his wife Claire and see her playing a bigger part in the future. Constable Hammersmith is also a character I was drawn to. He's a little more down and dirty than Day, willing to bend the law a wee bit in the name of justice. But the most engrossing was Dr. Bernard Kingsley. He works an unpaid consultant to the Yard, firmly believing that the science he is pursuing will change the face of policing in the future. It was great fun to see the advent of forensics in fingerprinting and evidence collecting. Kingsley is a bit of an enigma as is his daughter Fiona.

Grecian has gathered an eclectic, fascinating group of characters, set them down in an intriguing time and place and tied it all together with an ingenious plot. I truly hope this is the beginning of a series - I quite enjoyed The Yard and will definitely pick up the next book by this author.(less)

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May 23, 2012 Éowyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, historical-mystery

The Yard is a detective novel set in Victorian London in the early days of the Metropolitan Police force. It is a bit gruesome to be honest; the first victim is discovered packed in a steamer trunk with eyes and lips sewn shut and there are a number of murders of bearded men, which may or may not be connected.

Our main protagonist is Inspector Day, who is new to London, previously having been a constable in Devon, but now living in the Big Smoke with his wife, Claire. He is ably assisted by other...more

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About Alex Grecian

Alex is the author of the national bestselling historical thriller THE YARD and its sequel THE BLACK COUNTRY. Both books are about the formation of the famous Scotland Yard Murder Squad. He has also written an original Murder Squad ebook, called THE BLUE GIRL. He is hard at work on the third book in the series, which is tentatively titled THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP.

He also created the long-running and c...more

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The Yard (The Murder Squad #1)

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