Lost and Gone Forever: A Novel of Scotland Yard’s Murder
Squad. Alex Grecian. Penguin Publishing
Group (USA). May 2016. 384 pp. ISBN#:
9780399176104.
Inspector
Walter Day was kidnapped and held for one year by a man named “Jack.” Whatever the latter inflicted upon Day, he no
longer has any memory of his previous life.
Now he manages to escape, although he does so with great trepidation as
he fears Jack is just around every corner waiting to grab Day and return him to
his imprisonment. Little by little, he
inches his way back into society, shaping and selling old cigarette and cigar
butts he has reformed into new products.
He even manages to enlist homeless urchins to assist him and pays them
for their efforts.
Day’s
old friend, Nevil Hammersmith, a former Sergeant who lost his job over a case
that also involved the disappearance of Day, has formed a private investigation
agency with two female assistants.
Although he takes on new cases, his obsession is finding Day. He even hires two bounty hunters to find and
eliminate Jack, believing if he is removed Day will reappear. However, the two chilling bounty hunters are
about much more than heeding Hammersmith.
The reader wonders if this “Saucy” Jack is really Jack the Ripper, the
killer who was feared by every decent British citizen.
Even
Hattie, Hammersmith’s assistant, gets involved in the missing persons
search. The owner of a brand new, gaudy
and innovative department store (new for that time period of the late 1800s) is
also involved accidentally and undergoes a dramatic transformation.
The
mystery will be solved but one must journey through several harrowing scenes and
a very handy, albeit somewhat contrived, resolution for all characters that should
greatly please lovers of the crime/thriller genre. This reviewer has not read the previous books
in the series, but that doesn’t matter as this is a fine stand-alone mystery
that will probably draw readers to read the other novels as well. Nicely crafted, Alex Grecian!
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