The Incendiary's Trail by James McCreet

The popularity of the Victorian detective story can be traced back to the great Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes. True, the way had been signposted by Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allan Poe but it was Doyle's genius to make the fogs and ill-lit side streets of the capital of the world's greatest Empire part of the story. Other writers have tried to emulate this wonderful trick, Raymond Chandler in Los Angeles or Caleb Carr in nineteenth century New York, but no other backdrop can create the atmosphere of menace that the mention of Whitechapel or the docklands of Bermondsey or Limehouse can bring to a story. Over the years many have trodden in Doyle's footsteps with varying degrees of success now Mr James McCreet steps up for this most challenging task and I am glad to say that he makes a fair fist of it. I have always tried to keep my little pieces from being "spoilers" and giving away too much of a story and so I will merely give a brief outline. The Metropolitan Police are being hounded by the Press for their inability to clamp down on crime and the murder of a young woman from a "freak show" gives their critics a sensation that they can exploit. The Commisioner is pursuaded to let Scotland Yard use a criminal to catch the murderer but all the officers concerned know that this is a desparate stratagem with their careers or even their liberty at stake. Mr McCreet builds this into an enthralling narrative which kept this reader glued to the page long past his bedtime. I look forward to his next excursion.