The Last Days of Newgate: An addictive mystery thriller full of twists and turns (A Pyke Mystery) - Tapa dura

The main character is a Bow Street Runner who is investigating three brutal murders in St Giles, London. He crosses powerful people, ends up in Newgate prison heading for the gallows, has the help of a headstrong aristocratic beauty...a story of high intrigue and low politics, brutal murder and cunning conspiracies...Tangy and rambunctious stuff. (Peter Guttridge OBSERVER (18.6.06))

The novel drips with all the atmospheric detail of a pre-Victorian murder mystery - "pea-soupers", dingy lanterns and laudanum. (John Cooper TIMES (27.6.06))

This is an excellent, atmospheric mystery...it is the character of Pyke that is of greatest interest. I struggle to find anyone to compare him with, with the possible exception of Patricia Highsmith¿s Ripley. He is an anti-hero who intends to prove his innocence at whatever cost. But his acts can be heroic - and there is no lack of morality in the book. The final chapter hints at the impact of some of the compromises made. I can¿t wait for the sequel. (CRIMESQUAD.COM)

Gripping and atmospheric. (DAILY EXPRESS (21.7.06))

[The Last Days of Newgate is] peppered with thrilling escapes, audacious crimes, snatched sexual encounters. Several murders (including that of a baby) are graphically described, as is the way that Pyke tortures his principal adversary before consigning him to a cage of hungry sewer rats. (Sarah Burton TIMES (15.7.06))

Pyke is violent, vengeful and conflicted in the best tradition of detectives. His story takes in grisly murder and torture, and uses 1800s London in the same way that hard-boiled fiction uses Los Angeles as a mirror of a corrupt society. (Jerome de Groot TIME OUT (2-9 August) ****)

...the period detail is well observed, with the issues of of the day effectively illustrated. (Robert Colbeck YORKSHIRE EVENING POST (29.7.06))

Well researched and enjoyably disturbing, THE LAST DAYS OF NEWGATE is on of the few novels in the new wave of historical fiction likely to leave the reader clamouring for more. (TLS (27.10.06))

This is a potent mix of sectarian politics and raw violence, a richly-researched novel...with a provocative hero...This gritty detective novel will apeal to those who loke plenty of gore and bodies galore. (Marina Oliver HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW (August 2007))