Oh man I am worried. This was more like a 2.5 star for me. I hated the Jack the Ripper story line and felt most of the plot ridiculous. I loved the first two books of the series but if this is the way the series is going I might be out. I still love Day and Hammersmith but that was about it. ( )

Started but never finished. I couldn't get over the action in Bridewell Prison which was torn down 35 years before this novel.

I thought this was going to be a gripping historical police procedure, but the only thing gripping about it were my hands on the cover to stop me throwing across the room unfinished. Yes, I was disappointed in this, and have read far better thriller/mysteries from Authors who are releasing their works to the reading public for the first time. This really isn’t one book as there is the main story that centres around the Scotland Yard Murder Squad shortly after the Ripper killings, and then there is the secondary, and in my mind much more enjoyable story, about the criminals the squad are pursuing.

The main character was not at all likeable, and in fact came across as a bit of a wimp at times. The Author apparently wanted him to appear as a stalwart of Scotland Yard but in the end he appeared to be nothing more than a self righteous man. He was very much in awe of his mentor, even though this man had left the force under a cloud, and deferred to him at every turn even when he had made it clear it was not the right thing to do. His indecisiveness was definitely at odds to the character I had expected when embarking on this book. On the flip side, I found his ‘sidekick’ to be a lot more interesting and likeable, and found myself wanting to read more about him than his Inspector. He was full of energy and stuck to a single course once his mind was made up, even if this meant going against the wishes of his superiors; the Author gifted this character will the kind of mind I had expected in the main protagonist and, rather than it being annoying to find in a secondary player, I found it one of two things that kept me reading to the end. As to the villains their story made the hair on the back of my neck stand up in places. Through a great deal of imagination and maybe some psychological research, the Author was able to bring these criminals to life in all their shocking and violent glory, while at the same time showing that you can never truly spot evil when it walks among us. It was the tale of the criminals that produced the second reason I kept reading.

From an historical point of view there was obviously a great deal of research done into the time period in which the novel is set, although at times the descriptiveness of locations did have a tendency to take over the page, and pull my attention away from what was actually happening. I’m not sure if it is just me, and there may be readers out there who enjoy this, but I do like sentences in a novel to be more than a few words long, and flow in a manner that does not make me feel as if I were on a tiny boat on a choppy see. Not all the sentences were written in this way, and it was a relief to come across those that had a nice flow and rhythm to them; only to have this taken away shortly after and be back in my storm tossed boat.

I now know this is the third book in the Murder Squad series, but to be quite honest that doesn’t really matter to me as I doubt that I will read anymore by this Author. I’m hesitant in recommending this book to anyone, but if you do like a police procedural mixed in with some history you might want to take a look at this book.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/07/11/review-the-devils-workshop-the-murder-squa...




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I think perhaps this is one of those series that isn't meant to be read all at once -- I've been enjoying up until this book, but this one? Meh. Very predictable/ heavy-handed foreshadowing, very unbelievable secret society that lends to a tortured plot, and I just got frustrated seeing the same villains come back again. It felt a little like a batman movie -- the joker has escaped and is up to his old tricks! But now he's targeting the hero! Duh-duh-duh!
*sigh*

I'm relieved at the survival rate of the main characters, but I'm not sure I find that believable, either, and the set up for the next book just makes me want to headdesk. ( )

For a little while there, I thought Grecian would just kill every single one of his characters and leave me sitting, stunned and awash in their blood, in the parlor of Day's house. Yeesh. This was definitely more of a gory thriller than the smart, historically nuanced mysteries I've come to expect from this series. ( )