The Devil's Workshop

by Alex Grecian
383 pgs  (Scotland Yard's Murder Squad #3)

Jack the Ripper is the quintessential serial killer. He brutally murdered at least five women on the streets of London in 1888 . . . and he was never caught. Alex Grecian's Scotland Yard Murder Squad books features Inspector Day, Sergeant Hammersmith and the rest of the men assembled by the Yard after the killings had suddenly stopped who were tasked with investigating the new type of killer Saucy Jack represented. The first two books in the series, The Yard and The Black Country featured Jack as part of the backstory--he represented the Yard's greatest failure to date. Now in The Devil's Workshop, he's back.

The reason he stopped killing was not because he died or left London for some far-off country as some have speculated. Nor is it because he had bee committed to an insane asylum bore his identity was discovered, as is the current theory du jour. The reason the killings stopped was because he was captured by the men who had bee investigating his crimes, and instead of being take to jail and tried for his crimes, he was secretly imprisoned in London's secret network of underground tunnels and caverns, where he could be dealt a more satisfying form of punishment.

A year later, having endured repeated torture at the hands of his captors, as they systematically inflicted wounds on him that mirrored those he had given the women he killed, Jack is able to escape. Once again he's able to walk the streets of London, but this time, it's not the women who work there that are his targets, it's the men who held him prisoner.

I've enjoyed reading Grecian's series a lot so far. I enjoy Inspector Day, Hammersmith, Dr. Kingsley and the others. The Devil's Workshop lacks the elements of mystery and criminology that I enjoyed so much in the first two books. But it's still a worthwhile story, and it leaves you excited for the next book in the series.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆