Dead Image (An Inspector Best Mystery)

The first book in an exciting series is a dramatic Victorian murder case set against a historic London tragedy

The explosion was heard 20 miles away. It killed boatmen and wrecked the exotic villa of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, the fashionable St John's Wood artist. But what caused the 1874 Regents Park explosion? Fenian bombs? Sabotage by rival railways or other firms? Or was it something personal? And whose was the other body found in the canal? An artist's model? The missing King’s Cross barmaid? Or another victim of the so-called Thames murderer? As he struggles to find the answers, Scotland Yard's Sergeant Ernest Best straddles the conflicting worlds of art, wealth, and privilege and that of the poverty-stricken canal boatmen in an intriguing mystery that will change his life forever.

Joan Lock is an ex-policewoman and the author of eight non-fiction books. She has been a regular contributor to the police press and the journal of the Crime Writers' Association.