Death at Hungerford Stairs by J C Briggs (Charles Dickens mystery No 2)

London 1849 and surprisingly there seems to be two different cities in one. One is where the rich, the famous live. Bright, sparkly, with all mod cons and a very comfortable lifestyle and then you get the slums and the alleys of dirt, death, every vice possible and more. It is an eye opener and it is on this that Charles Dickens and Inspector Jones concentrate on. Young boys start to go missing - three of them so far and a tiny puncture near their heart shows that the murderer knows what he is doing. The boys are those working in the slums so the suspect could be anybody but when Dickens and Jones get on to the case they start connecting the dots with the toffs, with a milliner who works for the aristocracy and then another picture is shown but to get a conviction with solid evidence is proving to be more elusive. Written with meticulous attention to detail the detective series is one of its kind. Vintage detection procedure, set against a squalid background with very little resources available to the detectives this is a must read for lovers of history, for those that like the detective genre and for those who would like to know a bit more about Charles Dickens himself. Highly recommended. Download from Amazon. Thank you.