1. First, I loved the first book in this series, The Yard. At least I think I did. After reading and hating The Black Country and The Devil's Workshop, I'm starting to question if I ever loved the first book as much as I thought I did. Maybe I only liked it because it reminded me of the far superior Inspector Ben Ross and Lizzie Martin series by Ann Granger (THAT'S A HELL OF A SERIES, BTW). Anyway, at this point I'm ready to give up on Alex Grecian altogether. As a writer he is clearly more interested in a gothic thriller style than a classic Victorian detective novel. It's just not my cup of tea.
2. Secondly, I should point out that the narration by John Curless is quite good. He doesn't overdo the voices or the accents, though sometimes it might be a wee bit hard to tell one character from another. Sure, it's excruciatingly melodramatic most of the time, but that's hardly Curless' fault. I'm convinced he read the book exactly as it was meant to be read. It's not his fault it was so poorly written.
I think that's the end of my good points. I found the book, as I said, excruciating. Here are just a few things that annoyed me:
1. Alex Grecian turned Jack the Ripper into some ridiculous caricature of a "devilish" baddy that is slightly less menacing than Sideshow Bob and twice as cartoonish. Plus all of his passages are italicized, which is a lot less fun to read than Alex Grecian seems to think it is.
2. Inspector Day's perpetually pregnant wife Claire is, as it turns out, a total idiot. She finally goes into labour (hasn't she been pregnant FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES?) and reacts by writing horrible poetry and simpering like a child. I mean I know childbirth is hard (TWENTY-EIGHT HOURS OF LABOUR, PEOPLE!) and lord knows I'm probably the least brave person on the planet when it comes to physical discomfort, but even I wanted to scream at her to buck up a bit. Honestly. I'm amazed this woman has the brain cells to operate anything as complicated as a button.
3. The entire premise of the book MAKES NO SENSE. A group of vigilantes have been busting prisoners out of jail so they can...what? Punish them MORE? But it's not like convicted murderers in Victorian England were sitting around on death row for decades before execution. These prisoners were definitely going to be executed, and quickly. So what then? Do they mean to torture them? I guess so, but again, Victorian English prisons WERE NO PICNIC. They were already being 'tortured' in a lot of ways, and the treatment they received at the hands of this secret group of vigilantes didn't seem any worse than descriptions I've read of actual prison conditions at the time. So are we supposed to believe that the torture was worse, but Alex Grecian just chose not to describe it? It's not like he's shy, because he certainly gets mighty descriptive about grotesque violence later in the book. My guess is he just didn't think it through all the way. So irritating.
In the end, I think my favourite thing about this book is that it reminded me of another series which I do love, the Inspector Ben Ross and Lizzie Martin series by Ann Granger (seriously, it's sooo good), and it prompted me to check to see if there's a new one coming out. And there is! Hooray! So I have that to look forward to at least.
BOOK DETAILS:
The Devil's Workshop
by Alex Grecian
Audiobook read by John Curless
Series: Scotland Yard's Murder Squad (Book 3)
Publisher: Putnam
Audiobook published by Penguin Audio
Publication Date: May 20, 2014
View on Amazon
Source: I borrowed both the book and the audiobook from my local library
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