Bloody Winter: A Pyke Mystery - Softcover
A body is discovered in a ditch outside the town of Dundrum in County Tipperary. The local land agent tells Knox, a young Irish policeman with divided loyalties, that it is the body of a vagrant and that the landowner Lord Cornwallis wants the case dealt with swiftly and quietly. The potato crop has failed for a second time and the Irish people are dying in their thousands. However when Knox examines the corpse it is clear that this man died wearing a Saville Row suit. Keeping his investigations secret, it becomes clear to Knox that the stranger came from London.
Three months earlier Detective Inspector Pyke receives a letter from the daughter of a family friend. She has married a wealthy industrialist who owns ironworks in Merthyd Tydfil and her son has been kidnapped. Lured by the promise of a substantial fee and wanting to escape the tensions of Scotland Yard, Pyke agrees to go to Wales to investigate. There, he discovers a town riven with social discord following the brutal suppression of a workers strike and the importation of cheap Irish labour. The kidnapping is linked to a group of rebels but Pyke soon begins to suspect the case is not as clear cut as it seems.
What are the links between the rebellion in Wales and the unrest in Ireland, and has Pyke finally bitten off more than he can chew?
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"Pepper brilliantly interweaves Pyke's detective work with Knox's quest for justice, while contrasting the callous cruelty of the rich and powerful to the heartbreaking suffering of the poor and weak." --"Publishers Weekly"
"Pepper brilliantly interweaves Pyke s detective work with Knox s quest for justice, while contrasting the callous cruelty of the rich and powerful to the heartbreaking suffering of the poor and weak." "Publishers Weekly""
"Creatively told and very emotionally compelling." The Historical Novels Review.org"
Gripping and atmospheric DAILY EXPRESS"
A story of high intrigue and low politics, brutal murder and cunning conspiracies ... Tangy and rambunctious stuff--OBSERVER
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--TIME OUT
Pyke is an intriguingly unfathomable character, and this is an excellent continuation of his dark journey--FINANCIAL TIMES
Gripping and atmospheric--DAILY EXPRESS
The novel drips with all the atmospheric detail of a pre-Victorian murder mystery - "pea-soupers," dingy lanterns and laudanum--THE TIMES
Book Description:
"Pepper brilliantly interweaves Pyke s detective work with Knox s quest for justice, while contrasting the callous cruelty of the rich and powerful to the heartbreaking suffering of the poor and weak." "Publishers Weekly""
"Creatively told and very emotionally compelling." The Historical Novels Review.org"
Gripping and atmospheric DAILY EXPRESS"
A story of high intrigue and low politics, brutal murder and cunning conspiracies ... Tangy and rambunctious stuff--OBSERVER
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--TIME OUT
Pyke is an intriguingly unfathomable character, and this is an excellent continuation of his dark journey--FINANCIAL TIMES
Gripping and atmospheric--DAILY EXPRESS
The novel drips with all the atmospheric detail of a pre-Victorian murder mystery - "pea-soupers," dingy lanterns and laudanum--THE TIMES
The troubled head of the Detective Branch returns, in an intriguing case of kidnap, rebellion and murder
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherWeidenfeld & Nicolson
- Publication date2011
- ISBN 10 0297855301
- ISBN 13 9780297855309
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages336
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