The Yard (Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, #1)

I read the whole thing, because I was hoping to find another copper story that I could sink my teeth into, but I'm probably not going to pick up the next book anyway. There's not enough suspense, the protagonists are certainly no Sherlock Holmes, and I did not care about the crimes they solved, of which there were too many.

3.5

Grecian is, I think, attempting to write a nineteenth-century serialized novel w the form of this one. By 2/3 of the way through, the plot twists and cliffhangers at the end of each chapter drove me mad.
It's not a bad book–but I don't feel compelled to read more.

Nice read but not really a mystery in the sense that we know pretty much right off the start who the killer is and why he's killing. This is more of an origin story of Scotland Yard in a post Jack The Ripper era, in fact that is exactly where the book starts: a year after the unsolved Ripper case has gone cold.
The thrust of the story is showing how the detectives & constables are essentially stumbling blind in this new era of serial killers or rather killers for which no pedestrian reason can found. So it is an origin story of how Detective Day & Sergeant Hammersmith come to be and that is quite fun however the rest of the story: the finding the killer is too expository & it seems that information is just given to us rather discovered and the character of Dr. Kingsley is just a font of info dumping.
However I can see how it's an introduction for a cast of characters (some more interesting than others) who will hopefully have more riveting adventures in future books.

Enjoyable romp that dragged a little in parts. Slightly Mary-Sue lead characters. Occasionally lapsed into horrendous Americanisms that threw me out of the world. (Note for the author and editor- London doesn't really have blocks and it certainly does not have sidewalks. eeeuuurgh.)