[A Pyke Mystery 03] • Pyke 03 - Kill-Devil and Water

In London of 1840, the economy is sliding into recession; gangs of unemployed workers roam the streets; and a murderer prowls the capital's poor neighborhoods. Pyke, still grieving over the death of his wife and struggling to shoulder his responsibilities as a father, is in debtors' prison, having lost his home and reached the edge of bankruptcy. Fitzroy Tilling, now head of the new Metropolitan Police Force gives Pyke his freedom, but in return he must agree to investigate the brutal death of a young biracial woman, who was apparently working as a prostitute. It is not long before another woman turns up dead, and Pyke begins to suspect that he has stumbled on something more sinister, and more far-reaching than the murder of a couple of prostitutes. Pyke's investigation takes him from the London docks to the sugar plantations of Jamaica, from a fading colonial mansion to the backstreets of the East End in a struggle against ambitious and ruthless enemies, as well as demons of his own.

From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Set in 1840, Pepper's outstanding third hard-boiled historical finds the series' unusual antihero, known simply as Pyke, still recovering from the loss of his wife, who perished five years earlier, in 2008's The Revenge of Captain Paine. Self-destructive acts have landed the former Bow Street Runner in debtors' prison, leaving him even more of a stranger to his 10-year-old son, Felix. When one of Pyke's few friends in a position of power secures his early release on condition he look into the savage murder of an unidentified young woman found in a seedy London neighborhood, Pyke welcomes the chance to redeem himself in Felix's eyes. No one is particularly interested in giving the mixed-race victim a name or bringing her killer to justice, but Pyke throws himself into the inquiry and follows the evidence all the way to Jamaica. As in the previous two books, there's plenty of violence, but it's never gratuitous and indeed helps make the protagonist more complex. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From BooklistPepper continues his splendid Pyke series (The Revenge of Captain Paine, 2009 and The Last Day of Newgate, 2008) with another hard-edged chapter in the mid-nineteenth-century chronicles of former Bow Street Runner Nicholas Pyke. After falling on hard times and landing in debtor’s prison, Pepper’s brooding antihero grabs at a chance for an early release when the head of the new Metropolitan Police Force promises him his freedom in exchange for his investigative services. Charged with solving the seemingly throwaway murder of a mixed-race prostitute, he attacks his assignment with all the zeal of a man on a mission, traveling from London to Jamaica, seeking both professional and personal redemption. Pyke’s often-brutal exploits are not for the faint of heart, but readers who prefer their historicals mired in the gritty reality of the times can’t do any better. --Margaret Flanagan