Dead Image

It was a lovely early morning in October of 1874 when a narrow boat carrying gunpowder blew up under a bridge alongside Regent’s Park.  Sergeant Ernest Best of the Detective Branch begins his investigation by trying to get the bodies identified.  There were three men on the boat, so why was there a fourth body?  And why was a woman amongst the deceased?  PC George Smith is assisting him.

Later Chief Inspector Cheadle informs Best that the young woman had been stabbed, so he has a murder case on his hands.  Could the explosion have been set off by the Fenians?  Cheadle suggests a number of scenarios to Best.

Best and Smith can’t seem to get a break, that is until a young woman comes in distressed about her missing sister.  It seems as though Helen Franks sister went missing at the time of the explosion.  

The inquest into the explosion determined how it was caused, and also determined that the death of the boatmen was accidental, but determined nothing about the woman’s death.

Suspicions are aroused when one of the prime suspects goes missing.  Cheadle dispatched Best to follow up on the canal where the suspect worked.  Meanwhile, Smith is continuing with his part of the investigation.  It appears that a young man has mysteriously gone missing.

Two young people and a murder suspect  missing.  What was a sergeant of detectives to do?  Author Joan Lock has the solution in mind, but it will take the work of both Best and Smith to get to the conclusion.  A good quick read for the first in a series.