[A Pyke Mystery 02] • Pyke 02 - the Revenge of Captain Paine

It is 1834 and with the birth of the Industrial Revolution, railway fever sweeps the country. Pyke is uneasy with the luxury his aristocratic marriage has brought him, and when he is asked to unofficially investigate a decapitation in Cambridgeshire, he can not resist the chance to resuscitate the old skills he learned on the streets. But with the industrial world comes a new and faceless enemy—men who have money and power, and who will stop at nothing in their pursuit of both. For Pyke, with his young wife and child and an elevated place in society to protect, the stakes have suddenly become alarmingly high. From the sweat shops of the east end to the palace of the Queen-in-waiting; from the elegant drawing rooms of the newly rich, to the bloodspattered backrooms of London's taverns; Pyke's investigation stirs up a hornets' nest of trouble. As the death toll rises, his wife becomes involved with the radicals' fight against the industrialists, and an alluring woman from his past returns to threaten the life he has made for them both, Pyke must adapt to the ever-changing world around him and draw on all of his resources if he is to protect his family and survive.

From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Set in 1835, the superb sequel to Pepper's The Last Days of Newgate (Reviews, May 18) finds Pyke, a former Bow Street Runner, turned semirespectable London banker. Tory leader Robert Peel asks Pyke to look into the murder of an unidentified, beheaded corpse at a time when a radical organizer calling himself Captain Paine is fomenting unrest among the working classes. Pyke's probe reveals a possible connection between the killing and the machinations of a railroad magnate, Edward James Morris, who seeks to derail a competitor. After Morris dies, evidence that Pyke made a substantial loan to Morris disappears, leaving Pyke under suspicion of fraud. Unusually for a historical, this mystery portrays brutal scenes of merciless violence, including some dished out by Pyke himself, more typical of hard-boiled PI yarns. Pepper's successful planting of diverse narrative threads—and making them all bear fruit—marks him as an author to watch. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review"* 'Tangy and rambunctious stuff' Observer * 'The novel drips with all the atmospheric detail of a pre-Victorian murder mystery - "pea-soupers", dingy lanterns and laudanum' The Times"