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The Yard (The Murder Squad #1)

by Alex Grecian (Goodreads Author)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 2,416 ratings · 574 reviews

Victorian London is a cesspool of crime, and Scotland Yard has only twelve detectives--known as "The Murder Squad"--to investigate countless murders every month. Created after the Metropolitan Police's spectacular failure to capture Jack the Ripper, The Murder Squad suffers rampant public contempt. They have failed their citizens. But no one can anticipate the brutal murde...more

ebook, 432 pages

Published May 29th 2012 by Penguin

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Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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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Jun 10, 2013 Gena rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Victorian mysteries. I love the setting and the characters are always interesting and they're fun to read. I didn't really feel that way with The Yard. I finished it but it was more as a goal I had set for myself than a pleasure to read it. Others have mentioned the inaccuracies and lack of research and those are kind of jarring. I couldn't imagine a Victorian Inspector with a gun, blasting away at people but Grecian tosses in a couple of street-walkers who also have gun. That was just cr...more

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Jun 07, 2013 Marlene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published at Reading Reality

Jack the Ripper changed the world. He wasn’t the first serial killer, but he was the first one to create the kind of worldwide media frenzy that we are only too familiar with today.

The Ripper created the type of spectacle that the media loves, in an era when the newspapers (think of that, newspapers) were only just discovering the power of the press to sensationalize.

When Jack wasn’t caught, that frenzy turned on the Metropolitan Police. The late 1880s were...more

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Jun 02, 2013 Mark white rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From the perspective of a team of detectives working in the Scotland Yard just after the Ripper murders, when morale in the force was low and London lost faith and many despised the detectives and police in general.

A fine detective novel, with a breakneck plot and more tension than a 2 million volt power line. the book breaks with convention in having several points of view and more than one murder. Moreover, nobody is safe. Everybody is at risk of a horrible death. One of the murderers is parti...more

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May 26, 2013 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. THIS SUMMARY/REVIEW WAS COPIED FROM OTHER SOURCES AND IS USED ONLY AS A REMINDER OF WHAT THE BOOK WAS ABOUT FOR MY PERSONAL INTEREST. ANY PERSONAL NOTATIONS ARE FOR MY RECOLLECTION ONLY

Review 1 The Yard is Alex Grecian's debut novel and it is a winner! It is a unique, 421-page novel that is hard to put down. I read the last 300 pages in one sitting.

Unlike many Victorian Scotland Yard crime stories, this one is neither a thriller nor a mystery; however, it has elements of suspense and the author...more

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May 21, 2013 Julian Schwarzenbach rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Yard is, unfortunately, about the lowest scoring book ever for the book group I am a member of. Although it is a relatively easy read, there are so many areas where this book fails to deliver:
* Factual accuracy - OK, so it is fiction, but there are many areas where a very corny and incorrect view of Victorian London is portrayed e.g. Euston Square station, where part of the book is set is on the Underground, so trains could not leave for the Midlands etc. however, part way through the story...more

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May 12, 2013 Colin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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 of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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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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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