The Devil's Workshop

Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, Book 3

By: Alex Grecian

Narrated by: John Curless

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Scotland Yard's Murder Squad faces the most shocking case of its existence, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national best seller The Yard.

London, 1890: Four vicious murderers have escaped from prison, part of a plan gone terribly wrong, and now it is up to Walter Day, Nevil Hammersmith, and the rest of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad to hunt down the convicts before the men can resume their bloody spree. But they might already be too late. The killers have retribution in mind, and one of them is heading straight toward a member of the Murder Squad, and his family.

And that isn't even the worst of it. During the escape, the killers have stumbled upon the location of another notorious murderer, one thought gone for good but now prepared to join forces with them.

Jack the Ripper is loose in London once more.

©2014 Alex Grecian (P)2014 Penguin

Bloody

If you like bloody thrillers . . . This series is for you. Reader keeps you interested and listening.

Marvel comics already did this one

Jail Break. The most nefarious, evil, super-villains are released on an unsuspecting world. Sorry, no Superman, not even Lex Luthor ... although Jack the Ripper comes close ...
Plenty of shock-value and gratuitous violence ... I skipped forward to find out if inspector Day had a girl or a boy. Since the next book focuses on The Harvester, I will skip the facial mutilations and pick a different detective series.

Good page turner.

Any additional comments?

Too creepy to be called a "cozy" murder mystery - maybe that's why so many reviewers seemed rattled by this entry into the series? I thought it was just fine, in the tradition of many other macabre Victorian murder mysteries. Well done. Still a fan of Alex Grecian.

Excellent performance for this book

This third Scotland Yard Murder Squad Mystery is especially enjoyable. I am definitely not a fan of horror stories, but this book was very earnie, dark and compelling, drawing me into the plot almost immediately. Grecian has given Jack the Ripper a new start on his reign of murder and evil, giving him almost the persona of the antichrist. The literal underground of London added great historical interest to the plot also.

This book stands alone just fine, but I am personally glad that I read the previous two books in the series because knowing the background of the Murder Squad adds so much. Inspector Day and his wife are expecting their first child. Their friends and fellow workers get themselves in life threatening situation once again, and the expected child adds to their threatened lives. Life in 1890's Scotland Yard is very new for the times, and much different than today's investigative policeman.

I listened to this on Audible and the delivery was spectacular. The tone and breath of Jack's voice added an air of authenticity to the story that would be difficult to duplicate by just reading the story for yourself. Grecian's Murder Squad continue to please my sense of storytelling. He creates an atmosphere with his words that is marvelously mysterious, and well above the average story telling. Recommend beginning with THE YARD.

A bit more gruesome.

I really like this series, but this one is quite a bit more gruesome than the first. It's tactful and clever, but gruesome.

Violent and Lacks Coherence

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I liked the first book very much, and the second one was good. They had good plots and were interesting for what they showed of the day. I liked the Doctor who was pushing the edge of forensic science. But this one was violent for the sake of shock value. The violence was so far unrealistic, especially for the medical capabilities of the day, that they lost all connection with reality. I am so sorry.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It was as if he brought in new threads at the end just to leave them loose. Nothing was finished. This one isn't worth reading. Good guys are bad, bad guys are over the top, and the motivations of everyone are absurd.

What didn’t you like about John Curless’s performance?

The reader did the best he could with the book.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Almost none.

Any additional comments?

I am sorry that I discovered a new author I liked only to be disappointed so much with this book. I seldom write reviews, but I hope the author reads this and gets back to the great book he started with.

FOOL ME ONCE...

What would have made The Devil's Workshop better?

This book is awful. I listened to the first two with joy. Other reviews warned me about "The Devil's Workshop," but I forged on regardless and bought it. I bagged it after five painful hours of hoping, praying, willing it to get better. Like watching Donald Trump. It didn't work.It is almost as if Alex Grecian didn't write this, but was written instead by a formulaic ghost writer, and a bad one to boot. Character and timeline continuity from the first two novels is horrible; the characters are thin, trite, and shallow; most have somehow become inexplicably stupid; and I found it to be a game to predict what was going to happen next with disconcerting accuracy. One overwrought cliche after another.The narrator isn't great, but I don't blame John Curless as much as I blame bad writing.The one exception is Curless's characterization of Jack the Ripper: It's an overdone and silly Vincent Price with a breathy British accent reading really lousy dialogue, and it drove me nuts! But that's just the tip of this melting iceberg. I doubt if even the wonderful narrator of the first two books could have salvaged this mess. I suspect he refused to attach his name to it, thus the change in narrator.After the first book, I just assumed I'd read all five. I cannot imagine investing my time and money into books four and five. Fool me twice, shame on me.

What could Alex Grecian have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Written a readable story and shown more respect for the reader, especially anyone who invested time in the first two books and planned on spending MONEY on every subsequent one.

What three words best describe John Curless’s voice?

Bad Vincent Price.

What character would you cut from The Devil's Workshop?

All of them, but I'd rip Jack out first by the throat.

Any additional comments?

Bummer. Now I've got to find a new foggy and damp Victorian mystery/crime writer for my long, daily walks.

Listen to the reviews before buying

I like many others loved the first two books. The level of violence and gore in this book was beyond listening to. I gave up less than a quarter of the way through. Will return it. Not sure I'll even try the next one since it's named after one of the escaped criminals in this book!

Gruesome

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I could not get past the first few chapters - too gruesome - and had to skip to the last few chapters to see who survived...

Would you ever listen to anything by Alex Grecian again?

Probably

Any additional comments?

I thought the reader was AMAZING! Wonderful emphasis and cadence.

Really pathetic. Horrible plot bad performance.

A bad imitation of the Penny Dreadfuls of the time. It sounds false and makes a bad listen.