The Black Country

Scotland Yard's Murder Squad

By: Alex Grecian

Narrated by: Toby Leonard Moore

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Scotland Yard's Murder Squad returns, in the stunning new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national best seller The Yard.

The British Midlands. It's called the "Black Country" for a reason. Bad things happen there.

When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal-mining village - and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird's nest - the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad. Fresh off the grisly 1889 murders of The Yard, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith respond, but they have no idea what they're about to get into. The villagers have intense, intertwined histories. Everybody bears a secret. Superstitions abound. And the village itself is slowly sinking into the mines beneath it.

Not even the arrival of forensics pioneer Dr. Bernard Kingsley seems to help. In fact, the more the three of them investigate, the more they realize they may never be allowed to leave....

©2013 Alex Grecian (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Great story

This series is very exciting. Narrator and characters are marvelous. Good read. Loved it. Buy it.

NOT QUITE

I enjoyed 'The Yard' and felt that it was good beginning to, for me, a new historical detective series. Part 2 as described here did not quite live up to my hopes. The story, displaced from London, seemed to lack the same focus as the 1st book. London was such good backdrop to The Yard and why the author felt that he should take the characters away to another part of England so soon in the series was confusing and unnecessary. I'll give another book a chance and see if it meets the expectations.

The Black Country

After reading the Yard, which was a very good book, I was anxious to read the next book and I was not disappointed in the least. Day and his trusty but stubborn Sergeant were very good and Dr. Kingsley was the Star on this one! I hope Book 3 keeps the streak going!

Nice Writing About Not Much… Pity!

I read "The Yard' the first in this series. Liked it, enjoyed the characters, plotting, atmosphere, sense of place… you know… So I got "The Black Country", same ensemble but little of the same character. Grecain suffers from description dysfunction. That was a tad tedious in "The Yard" but with everything else going on, well okay. Here… well, I'm thinking that Grecian's a one hit wonder. Plot was reasonably similar, characters stopped growing. Some did walk-ons, like the lead detective's wife and the doctor's daughter, for no reason other than to slow things down more. Did the publisher demand that Grecian fill a specified number of pages? And the plot was … one word… "TEDIOUS".

OK, he does write description nicely, but - as they say in the theatre - when the critics start reviewing the scenery… the play's in trouble. Take a pass on this, but get "The Yard" and enjoy Grecian's one hit, huh?

Oh, and Toby Leanard Moore couldn't save this thing even though he read it reeeeely reeeeely hard.

If you loved the first book, then you'll love this

What did you love best about The Black Country?

I love the interaction between Day and Highsmith.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Inpector Day. He is one cool cat.

Which scene was your favorite?

The flash backs to the American Clivil War and Andersonville

AWESOME!!!!

The story is fantastic, the characters are well written and Toby Leonard Moore is amazing! If you liked "The Yard" you'll like this one. Mr. Grecian is a brilliant writer. He paints an extremely vivid picture that grabs the reader and doesn't let go!

Great story, tho not quite as good as The Yard.

Unusual tale. It's a bit confusing at first with so many disparate storylines and no major crime(s) to solve! Yet. & even tho you THINK you know where each one is going--and you're mostly right--the way they all end up coming together is really surprising, unusual, & satisfying. I'm ready to start book 3!

Not your typical historical fiction

Attention to detail is outstanding. I'm really getting to know the characters- love the character development, even of non-series characters.

Some misogynist undertones

A solid book but unfortunately some misogynist undertones.

**spoiler**

I cannot get over the detective blaming the murdered woman for the actions of her sadistic stepdaughter and murderous husband. This wasn’t “she didn’t love her step kids enough”…this was, he was a literal murderer and so was his daughter.

Other than that, good story.

A great sequel to THE YARD!

The Black Country is an able sequel to The Yard. It picks up several months after the events in The Yard and follows London's own Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith as they travel to an isolated mining village in the English Midlands for a brief (and, they hope, routine) investigation of a missing family feared to be the victims of murder.

Alex Grecian's strengths are creating a tangible sense of place and atmosphere - what he accomplished for post-Ripper London in The Yard he manages equally well here for the village of Blackhampton - and attending to characterization in the midst of action. The recurring characters genuinely grow, and the new characters, both primary and secondary, are three-dimensional and compelling. The crime at the heart of the mystery itself is wrenching in the best possible sense, and as in The Yard, there's a dark undercurrent of bleakness and helplessness that strikes just the right chord. Unlike in its predecessor novel, not every loose end is tied in a bow by the story's end, and I found this more authentic ending worked quite well.

What I appreciate most about this novel is how Grecian portrays the clash between the methodical rationality of emerging forensic science and modern investigative technique and legal procedure, represented by Day, Hammersmith, and Dr. Bernard Kingsley, and the evolved blend of superstition, custom, and folkways represented by the villagers of Blankhampton. The reader feels especially for those such as the schoolteacher who are caught in the middle, both educated and reasonable and yet firmly entrenched in "how things have always been done here." Once again, Grecian captures a unique moment in time regarding law enforcement, scientific thought, and emerging modern practice/process quite well.

Unexpected references to the U.S. Civil War and outstanding characterizations of children (in the best Gothic mode, nothing is more shiver-inducing and creepy than a well-portrayed child) make this novel a particular delight.

The narration is masterful.