Over Christmas I read Lloyd Shepherd's recent historical novel which Simon and Schuster PR kindly sent me a review copy of. Initially I wasn't sure it would be for me - I thought at first it was a true crime book. Which it sort of is, but it's a lot more interesting and gripping than true crime usually is. Plus, it's not all true!
Shepherd's starting point is the apparently notorious Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811, a particularly brutal and unsavoury crime which, despite the arrest and subsequent suicide of the supposed perpetrator, many feel was never satisfactorily solved. The English Monster weaves together a mostly fictional explanation for these murders which takes in slavery, skulduggery and even a little bit of sorcery.
I felt the best aspect of the novel was the ease with which Shepherd mixes his historical fact with a fantastical element. The novel blends crime, history and fantasy with ease - a bit like my absolute favourite novel of the last ten years, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. The evocation of eighteenth and nineteenth century Wapping, where the.murders take place, is grimly realistic, whilst the pictures of tropical Jamaica scarred by its association with slavery are lushly evocative. The dual storyline follows events in both these locations before coming together in the final.chapters as the murders are "solved" by the proto-detective Horton. The reader, of course, has got there before him.
I can recommend this to any crime fans as well as historical fiction and fantasy readers. Even better, it's currently in the Kindle 12 days of Xmas promotion - and it's definitely worth a read.
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