In the third Victorian mystery from prizewinning author David Morrell, the notorious Opium-Eater Thomas De Quincey investigates a truly unprecedented murder - the first to ever take place on the railways.
The sensational climax to David Morrell's acclaimed Victorian mystery trilogy.
In 1855, the first murder on an English train causes a wave of fear and panic. There is no escape from a killer in a closed train carriage... and yet the killer can vanish into any station and be lost in the crowd.
Notorious Opium-Eater Thomas De Quincy and his irrepressible daughter, Emily, are travelling on the train where the murder takes place. As they follow the clues through the fogbound London streets, they find themselves confronting their most ruthless enemy.
Inspired by real events, Ruler of the Night transports readers to the darkest shadows of Victorian England, with a thrilling tale of murder, Empire and revenge.
Praise for MURDER AS A FINE ART - .
A gaslit gallop through Victorian London - Financial Times
A terrific read. As one would expect of Morrell, it is compulsive and thrilling, but its use of de Quincey also allows for discursions that are both funny and touching - de Quincey and his daughter are great additions to the detective stage, and I hope we will have a lot more of them to come.
[An] exceptional historical mystery...page-flipping action, taut atmosphere, and multifaceted characters - Booklist
Shockingly real...Morrell's thorough and erudite research of the people and culture of the British Empire's heyday informs every page. A literary thriller that pushes the envelope of fear - Associated Press
Masterful...brilliantly plotted....evokes 1854 London with such finesse that you'll hear the hooves clattering on cobblestones - Entertainment Weekly
Brilliant. Everything works - the horrifying depiction of the murders, the asides explaining the impact of train travel on English society, nail-biting action sequences - making this book an epitome of the intelligent page-turner. - Publishers Weekly
David Morrell fans - and they are Legion - can look forward to celebrating Murder As a Fine Art as one of their favorite author's strongest and boldest books in years.
David Morrell is one of America's most popular and acclaimed storytellers, with over eighteen million copies of his books in print. His thrillers have been translated into twenty-six languages and turned into record-breaking films as well as top-rated TV miniseries. A former professor of American literature at the University of Iowa, David Morrell now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.