The Book Report #119
Episode #118
The Black Country By Alex Grecian
The Book
This book was first published on the 12th of September 2013 by Penguin Books in the UK and in all associated countries worldwide.
My copy is a paperback, 11th printed edition. This copy has 423 pages, with acknowledgements and an advertisement for the first book in the series and for the Penguin website.
I also used a digital copy when I was away from home on my phone.
What Did I Think?
This book is the sequel to the one I highly recommend, The Yard.
Inspector Day and Sergeant Hammersmith have been called away to a small mining town to deal with a missing family. One of the members is a few months old.
They have only a couple of days to solve the mystery before they have to be back at Scotland Yard. Dr Bernard Kingsley will be arriving the next day to help out where he can.
The mining town has more than just missing people to deal with. The town buildings are slowly sinking as most of the below-ground space has been dug out for coal. And then on top of that, everyone has come down with a mysterious sickness that even the local doctor cannot seem to work out what is causing it.
A Scotsman, who has travelled the world and has had many troubles, has brought a stranger along with him. He doesn’t know he is there, but he knows he is being followed.
The Same as Before?
The adventure and drama of this story does not have the same feel as the first book. It was a murder mystery, with some drama. But the main focus was to catch the killer. This book feels more like a race to try to save a slowly dying town.
The gang from Scotland Yard is together in this little town for a missing persons case, with all the little incidents happening. The case of the missing person is taking a back seat while they figure out all of the other little mysteries.
But they don’t have to wait too long as everything slowly drops into place.
It did seem that the inspector and his team already knew what was going on. But the added extra of the mischef in the town brought more excitement to the story. So it wouldn’t end so quickly, and the number of problems in such a short amount of time was ridiculous, but they worked well together. While everyone tried to fix whatever they could without dying in the process.
The story could have been extended another day or so. Mr Day wasn’t given enough time to settle in when he found that Mrs Day had arrived for a visit, as she missed her husband so much. Also, knowing he would need a fresh shirt. Which I thought was nice.
The action was non-stop. The intensity of the story as they ran out of time, speeding to its conclusion.
Would I Recommend?
Another adventure from the Scotland Yard Murder Squad series. And so far, I have nothing but praise. I would recommend this book and the previous one. If you enjoy a murder mystery with some adventure, then this could be something for you.
Please give this book a go.
Would you like to purchase your very own copy?
You could try these online stores: Amazon UK/USA. Waterstones. AbeBooks UK/USA, Barnes and Noble and eBay UK/USA.
Alternatively, you could try your local bookshop or even your local library.
