The Bookbag

This book opens with a bang and is an exciting and riveting read. It's both a historical mystery and a thriller, teaching the reader a little bit about Victorian London while still making the book an immersive experience that can be hard to leave. The policemen really have very little idea who is behind the initial murder, much less the ones that follow, and I loved learning what happened along with them.

McCreet's depiction of Victorian London is fantastic. The city is almost alive in this book. We experience mainly the seedy underworld through the eyes of both criminals and policemen, with a few excursions into more fashionable areas to liven the book up a bit. We visit the rooms of a retired prostitute, a circus show, a variety of pubs, and many other places which bring the setting truly alive. Books can allow us to live in another time for a few hours and this one certainly fulfills that job.

The characters were great too. In particular, I loved the two criminals, Noah Dyson and the murderer. Their shared past makes them interesting and a little more well-developed than the rest of the considerably large cast of characters. I couldn't wait for their final confrontation.