The Mangle Street Murders: M.R.C. Kasasian

125 Gower Street, 1882.

Queen Victoria may sit on the throne and Robert Peel's bobbies walk the street, but London is still haunted by the spectre of Spring-heeled Jack.

The demons of vice and poverty rule the capital: ruffian gangs, pickpockets, prostitutes and vagrants clog the streets with their iniquity.

But in one particular Gower Street residence – home to the famous personal investigator Sidney Grice – order presides.

Until, that is, the arrival of his ward March Middleton and the vicious Whitechapel murder that follows hard on her heels...

Set between the refined buildings of Victorian Bloomsbury and the stinking streets of London's East End, The Mangle Street Murders is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, and very, very funny.